Human resource management and the politics of knowledge : linking the essential knowledge base of the organization to strategic decision making

Explores the question of how specialist expertise is related to the organizational decision‐making process. This relationship is seen as an important issue in the integration of HRM with corporate strategy, and as having implications for HRM concerns with organizational and career structure, employee development, flexibility and culture. The relationship is seen as political in that it affects the extent to which technical experts are enabled to influence strategic decisions. It is also therefore of strategic significance in facilitating (or otherwise) the development and use of the knowledge base. Suggests that the HRM function needs to confront the challenges posed by expertise in the organization′s social process. The importance of identifying and developing the knowledge base across the technical as well as the social system is advocated as having an impact on competitive position. The discussion is illustrated with examples drawn from seven companies in which the relationship of scientific knowledge to the decision‐making process was being studied.