Strategic Human Capital Management: Developing a Conceptual Framework

Human capital has become a key asset that ensures firms’ competitiveness and sustainability. The study focuses on developing strategic approaches to human capital management, integrating them with companies’ business strategies, and identifying factors influencing the choice of strategies. The study is a theoretical discussion and is presented as an opinion without empirical verification. The article highlights the distinctions between human resource management and human capital management that view employees as a strategic asset creating long-term value and benefits for the organization rather than as a cost driver. To that end, a comparative analysis of the existing approaches to human resource management and human capital management is conducted, highlighting their differences and commonalities. Special emphasis is placed on the typology of human capital management strategies and their scope of application. On this basis, various combinations of the accents of human capital management strategies are proposed. The article also presents an approach to structuring human capital management, which emphasizes the importance of establishing corporate horizontal and vertical links for the successful implementation of strategic management; clarifies the principles and stages of developing a human capital management strategy; and reveals the construct of management. The results of the study may be of use for researchers and practitioners investigating human capital management issues. The findings add to the theoretical understanding of strategic human capital management and allow devising more effective tools for personnel management in a changing business environment. Empirical testing of the expressed opinions and theoretical assumptions may be the subject of future research.