Strategic human resource management

The first 200 words of this essay...

Introduction

At present, human resources in a large number of organisations are viewed as a source of competitive advantage. There is greater acceptance that distinctive competencies are obtained through highly developed employee skills, distinctive organisational cultures, management processes and systems. Increasingly it is being recognized that competitive advantage can be obtained with a high quality workforce that enables organisations to compete on the basis of market responsiveness, product and service quality, differentiated products and technological innovation.

Strategic human resource management has been defined as ' the linking of human resources with strategic goals and objectives in order to improve business performance and develop organisational culture that foster innovation and flexibility' (Siddharth Chaturvedi). Strategic HR means accepting the HR function as a strategic partner in the formulation of the company's strategies as well as in the implementation of those strategies through HR activities such as recruiting, selecting, training and rewarding personnel. Whereas strategic HR recognizes HR's partnership role in the strategizing process, the term HR Strategies refers to specific HR courses of action the company plans to pursue to achieve it's aims.

Appendix 1 presents a model of Strategic HRM that accounts for both the fit