architecture of HR function is a new area and not explored fully. architecture as a science is heavily influenced by design besides structural engineering, mechanics of components, environment, besides ones values and culture as mentioned earlier. coming to hr function in an organisational context, what then could be the starting point perhaps is the business strategy that becomes the seed or genesis for architecture design for holding together its vital resource ie HR. Once we take up design as an area for examination next, there are two aspects to it to look into. one the physical aspects and two the process part. both together completes the background for designing.
1. Physical aspects:
The physical aspects are important in the sense that it holds together the HR processes between people. To a certain extent that is dependent of strategy as i mentioned above. eg: for Knowledge intensive strategies or operations, the communication technology that binds the employees daily is a critical factor. For an operation with low knowledge intensity, one can relax the concern for committment and can go for long term low cost employment contracts. you also get the flexibility to contract out in such cases. however where you need knowledge intensive employees for short durations and also for a specfic buisness phase, a collaborative framework of employment will become necessary . eg during mergers or acquisitions. such collaborations and utilisation of people from the partner can be an option. In short the matrix lies between talent source on one axis and knowledge intensity of other axis and the four quadrants can vary from high to low in term of knowledge intensity against the source of talen - internal to external .
So you have
Top right : High Knowledge intensity; own employees ; core functions; critical.
Bottom right: Low knowledge intensive operations, long term low skill employees which can be outsourced to
Bottom Left: external contractors/outsourced talent/low criticality; unless such outsourcing or dependence is for short duration for specefic buiness purpose or life in which case you need to move to 4th quadrant ie
Collaborative strcuture : with partners.
The axes could be y axis ; high to low on knowledge intensity
x axis; source of talent ; from internal, adjacent to low knowledge intensity to external contractors towrads left.
and above bottom left ie top left quadrant : Collaborative HR.
I will touch the Process side for these later.
