Strategic Human Resources Planning in American Industrial and Service Companies

This study investigated the current practices of strategic human resources planning (SHRP) at large industrial and service companies in the United States and compared these practices with Walker's Four Stages of Human Resources planning model. The data for this study were collected from 130 industrial companies and 117 service companies listed in Fortune directories of the largest 500 industrial and largest 500 service companies in the United States. The study investigated also the impact of internal and external environmental factors on these companies' practices of SHRP. MANOVA, Factor Analysis, and Percentile Analysis were used as prime statistical methods in this study.\ud Environmental factors studied were found to explain 78 per cent of the variances among large American companies. No significant difference was found between industrial and service companies in their SHRP practices. Significant improvements have taken place in large United States business corporations' practices of SHRP since the introduction of Walker's model (1974). These improvements took place in human resources information systems, forecasting human resource needs, human resource planning and development, and evaluation of SHRP projects, but the improvements were unbalanced. The improvements in corporate-centered SHRP activities were greater than the improvements in employee-centered SHRP activities. The reasons for unbalanced developments were explained and future directions were predicted.\ud The findings of this study were compared to the findings of many recent studies in SHRP fields and future directions of the developments of SHRP were discussed. The conclusions of this study suggested that United States corporations are in need of balanced development in both employee-centered and corporate-centered SHRP. American companies are in need of advanced models to shape their practice in SHRP fields. Walker's model has been evaluated as the best available model. The study showed that mediumsized companies in the United States will benefit from SHRP and that they are able to pay the cost of SHRP projects. Several implications and recommendations for future studies and for business and educational institutions are listed