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PHR Exam Prep: Strategic HR Management

Feb 3, 2006

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Functioning effectively requires a number of areas of knowledge and expertise, all of which could be grouped into three critical categories: knowing our business (organization), knowing our profession (craft), and knowing our customers. This chapter addresses some of the specific areas of knowledge with which HR professionals need to become fluent.

This chapter is from the book 

PHR Exam Prep: Professional in Human Resources

Learn More Buy

Study Strategies

Although the PHR exam is multiple choice, try writing and answering your own "essay-based" questions. Write open-ended questions that require a response of at least a full paragraph–and write your answers without looking back at your study materials. The process of actually writing down your answers will reinforce what you already know, and will highlight what you need to study more. It will also likely help you as you work to recall this same information when you answer related multiple choice questions on the actual PHR exam.

Introduction

There is a familiar quotation that goes something like this: "Some people make things happen, some people watch things happen, and some people wonder what happened." In our profession, we are fortunate to have the opportunity to choose which of those paths we will follow. While this choice holds true for every chapter of this book (and therefore for every functional area within HR), it is particularly true of this one.

In each of the following sections, we will look a bit more closely at some of the key, underlying concepts and how they can support our efforts to function more strategically in our roles as HR professionals. Some of the areas will provide a step-by-step approach to the concepts being presented. Others will identify, define, and/or offer a brief explanation about other items that it’s important for HR professionals to know, but that aren’t fully explored in this chapter.

Exam Alert

Perhaps more than for any of the six functional areas, PHR candidates are strongly urged to supplement the material presented in this chapter with other sources. Although the wisdom of seeking ancillary materials holds true for all of the functional areas, doing so is particularly important for strategic management, for a number of reasons. First, the concepts covered in this area are prone to a variety of interpretations, which may differ slightly from each other.

Additionally, though the functional area of strategic management represents a relatively small percentage of the PHR exam (12%), it covers a significant volume of information and spans a wide array of theories, disciplines, and practices. The SPHR exam, in fact, devotes 26% of its questions to this functional area—more than twice the percentage found on the PHR exam.

With such a large amount of territory to cover, it’s impossible to predict what will be on the exam—so don’t try. Give yourself plenty of time, curl up with a good periodical or two, and prepare to learn a lot. This approach will increase the likelihood that you will perform better on the PHR exam. Perhaps even more importantly, it will help you function more effectively in your role as an HR professional, as well.

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