Supply chain as an activity has
been dominant from the past
two decades. Of course, as we are more and more influenced
and impacted by globalization and the service economy of the
21st century, supply chains have also
embraced activities involving e-commerce, retailing, etc. According to
Harland (1996), there are four sequential phases: 1) the internal flow of
materials and information, 2) the dyadic relationships with
immediate suppliers and customers, 3) the extended relationships with
the supplier's supplier and the customer's customer, and 4) the
network of inter-connected businesses involved in the delivery of
product and service packages.
Mentzer (2001) defines supply chain as: "A systems approach
to viewing the supply chain as a whole, and to managers the total flow
of goods from the supplier to the ultimate customer".
Another definition goes as follows: "Supply chain is a network
of facilities and distribution options that performs the functions of
procurement of materials, transformation of these materials into
intermediate and finished products, and the distribution of these
finished products to customers."
Taking into account, the essence of these definitions and also
keeping in mind, the requirements of this article (for using it to
interface with HRM concepts), it is necessary to derive certain HR and
SCM-related postulates. As we know, HRM deals with Human Resource
Planning and Acquisition of Talent (Human resource), otherwise known
as staffing, employee relations management, and finally
development and compensation, in HRM research also, four key areas of
human resource activity are consistently identified in the literature and
in texts; they are: staffing, training, evaluation, and compensation. |
