ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how key HR subsystems namely the people flow, performance management, compensation and employment relations subsystems tend to vary across each of these four types of strategies. The people flow subsystem encompasses an array of interrelated staffing practices and processes designed to shape the characteristics of the organizational workforce by governing the flow of people into, through, and out of the organization. The strategic implications of the practices involved in the people flow subsystem may not be obvious at first glance. The potential strategic impact of the people flow subsystem has become increasingly recognized in recent years, as human capital has come to replace other forms of capital as a primary source of sustained competitive advantage and as globalization presents firms with an increasing array of staffing options. Miles and Snow suggested that human capital, like any other form of capital investment, can either be made or bought.
