The strategic managing of human resources. - John Leopold

In order to be successful an organisation must be able to mange the relationship between the overall business strategy and the strategies in different resource areas such as HR, finance, information or technology. Managing these resource areas in line with the overall business strategy is key to making those strategies deliverable.

Human resources (the knowledge, competencies and behaviours that people bring with them to work) are central to successful implementation of strategy and as both HR managers and Line managers are essential to leading and motivating individuals, both must be involved in the formulation and implementation of HR strategy.