HR Challenge Dynamics of Value Creation and Competitiveness Through People, edited by Sudatta Ranasinghe and Ajantha Dharmasiri, June 2013. 345 pages. Hard cover. Institute of Personnel Management (IPM), Sri Lanka. Reviewed by: Apu Akbar, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada Human resource (HR) is the most valuable, but vulnerable asset that organizations, public or private, maneuver for achieving goals. There are numerous areas and perspectives of HRM (human resources management) as it deals with human being. The Book titled, “HR Challenge: Dynamics of Value Creation and Competitiveness Through People” is all about the problems and prospects of HRM (human resource management) focusing on Sri Lankan as well as South Asian perspectives. HR professionals, if ever, search for a mind-provoking, prudent, and practice oriented resource for gaining insights on the riddles of various types in HR practices, the book tiltled, “HR Challenge: Dynamics of Value Creation and Competitiveness Through People” should be the right choice to quench HR professionals. This book is a compilation of 12 articles edited by Sudatta Ranasinghe and Ajantha Dharmasiri. Each article of this edited book is unique not only with its quality, but also in the sense that each article covers different area of HR functions required for building organizational competitiveness. A brief over view of each article is discussed below. The book starts with chapter one having article titled, “HR Challenges in a Developing Economy: Towards Multiple roles of HR Professionals in a Competitive Business Environment,” by Sudatta Ranashinghe. The author describes HR problems focusing on hiring and retaining employees in different industries in Sri Lank covering a ve... ... middle of paper ... ...hat HR practices are always context based depending on socio-cultural, political and economic background. No new theory is proposed in this book. It is a collection of easily understandable literatures which without any confusion will be a supportive resource for HR professionals. However, over narration of the background and literature review in most cases may blur readers’ focus. Though this is not a serious drawback, but it could be overcome easily. In addition, by avoiding over narration, the size of the articles as well as the book could be reduced that would definitely help keep the price of the book lower and make it more available to people. Since ambiguity, paradox, and multifaceted problems are the regular challenges of HR practice, a less serious drawback of this nature, hopefully, will not stand against the acceptability of this book.
Noe, Raymond A., et al. Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2010. Print.
The importance of Human Resource management is associated with the beginning of mankind. As the knowledge of survival had begun including safety, health, hunting and gathering, tribal leaders passed on the knowledge to their youth. However more advanced HRM functions were developed as early as 1000 B.C and 2000 B.C. Since the modern management theory took over, the working environment was transformed into a more friendly and safe work place. The workers were termed as most valuable resources. While some companies took the human side of employment seriously, there were others who did not find it mandatory. Hence they faced huge labor unions and factory shut downs (Henning, 2001).
Whether an organization consists of five or 25,000 employees, human resources management is vital to the success of the organization. HR is important to all managers because it provides managers with the resources – the employees – necessary to produce the work for the managers and the organization. Beyond this role, HR is capable of becoming a strong strategic partner when it comes to “establishing the overall direction and objectives of key areas of human resource management in order to ensure that they not only are consistent with but also support the achievement of business goals.” (Massey, 1994, p. 27)
Noe, Raymond A., John R. Hollenbeck, Barry Gerhart, and Patrick M. Wright. Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage. 7th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2010. Print.
Lengnick-Hall M.L.; Lengnick-Hall, C.A.; Andrade, L.S.; Drake, B. 2009. “Strategic human resource management: The evolution of the field.” Human Resource Management Review, 19, pp. 64-85.
Mohammed, J., Bhatti, M., Jariko, G., & Zehri, A. (2013). Importance of Human Resource Investment for Organizations and Economy: A Critical Analysis. Journal Of Managerial Sciences, 7(1), 127-133.
Source: Tamkin, P, Reilly, P. & Strebler, M. (2006) The Changing HR Function: The Key Questions. Change Agenda, Issued: October 2006, Reference: 3836, London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
Human resource is the most valuable and unique asset of an organization. The successful management of an organization’s human resource is an exciting, dynamic and challenging task , especially at a time when the world has become a global village and economies are in a state of flux. The lack of talented resource and the growing expectation of the modern day employee has further increased the difficulty of the human resource function.
This paper will attempt to give a broad overview from the available literature within three areas. First, the paper will explore the historical relationships of HR and organizational strategy. Second, the paper will give an overview of current practices and trends. Lastly,...
Human resource management is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization's most valued assets - the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. The terms "human resource management" and "human resources" (HR) have largely replaced the term "personnel management" as a description of the processes involved in managing people in organizations. Human Resource management is evolving rapidly. Human resource management is both an academic theory and a business practice that addresses the theoretical and practical techniques of managing a workforce. (1)
" This global London-based mining and mineral company was severely impacted by the global recession in 2008. Such an impact forced unprecedented workforce reductions worldwide and decentralized HR management had to be brought in under a single umbrella to ensure an orderly and efficient system that would support the organization’s future productivity."( Case Study OneRedesigning HR HRMG 5000 - Student Simple). Human resources have a strategic significance if managed efficiently and productively. The company revamped and managed its HR functions in a manner so as to achieve the strategic goals of the
Human Resource Management (HRM) is fundamentally another name for personnel management. It is the process of making sure the employees are as creative as they can be. HRM is a way of grouping the range of activities associated with managing people that are variously categorised under employee relations, industrial/labour relations, personnel management and organisational behaviour. Many academic departments where research and teaching in all these areas take place have adopted the title department of human resources management. HRM is a coordinated approach to managing people that seeks to integrate the various personnel activates so that they are compatible with each other. Therefore the key areas of employee resourcing, employee development, employee reward and employee involvement are considered to be interrelated. Policy-making and procedures in one of these areas will have an impact on other areas, therefore human resources management is an approach that takes a holistic view and considers how various areas can be integrated.
In the 1980’s, the birth of a new concept called ‘Human Resource Management’ was born. This trend comes after an intense period of Taylorisation, Fordism and now, McDonaldisation. HRM came to counter balance these trends and to consider the concept of the Man as a Man and not as a machine. For the last several decades, the interests of companies in "strategic management" have increased in a noteworthy way. This interest in strategic management has resulted in various organizational functions becoming more concerned with their role in the strategic management process. The Human Resource Management (HRM) field has sought to become integrated into the strategic management process through the development of a new discipline referred to as Strategic Resource Management (SHRM). In current literature, the difference between SHRM and HRM is often unclear because of the interconnections linking SHRM to HRM. However, the concepts are slightly different. Thus, we can ask, what is strategic human resource management? What are the main theories and how do they work? What do they take into account and how are they integrated? What are the links between SHRM and organization strategy? In order to answer to these questions, we will precisely define strategic human resource management, followed by a look at the different approaches built by theorists, and finally, we will see the limits between the models and their applications depending on the company’s environment. Discussion Strategic Human Resource Management: definition Strategic human resource management involves the military word ‘strategy’ which is defined by Child in 1972 as "a set of fundamental or critical choices about the ends and means of a business". To be simpler, a strategy is "a statement of what the organization wants to become, where it wants to go and, broadly, how it means to get there." Strategy involves three major key factors: competitive advantages (Porter, 1985; Barney, 1991), distinctive capabilities (Kay, 1999) and the strategic fit (Hofer & Schendel 1986). Strategies must be developed with a relevant purpose to sustain the organizational goals and aims. SHRM is one of the components of the organizational strategies used to sustain the business long-term. SHRM defined as: “all those activities affecting the behaviour of individuals in their efforts to formulate and implement the strategic needs of the business. (Schuler, 1992)” or as “the pattern of planned human resource deployments and activities intended to enable the firm to achieve its goals.
The work of HR specialist is not only affected by the internal factors, there are also external environmental factors that influence how HR specialist operates. In this section, I am going to discuss factors that influence the Practice of HR in organizations, from outside the scope of the organization. The factors include Political, Legislation and Regulations, Actions of Competitors and Economy of the country
The human resource management stands for the management of an entity’s workforce and all that relates to the workforce. The significance of human resource management includes recruitment, orientation, and the ability to retain employees. The human resource management with other managers utilizes these practices in order to produce a solution that relates to challenges. A competitive advantage refers to the business ability to gain the advantages of its economic activities that, it recognizes the organization’s ability to survive and overcome competition in the marketplace. This paper will discuss the concept of competitive advantage in human resource.