Strategic Human Resource

Human Resource Management is defined as the management of activities undertaken to attract, develop, motivate, and maintain a high performing work force in an organization. There are a lot of myths about the HR department, for example people just view HR as a “hiring department” and believe it has no major role in growth of an organization. Traditionally, HR function has been viewed as primarily administrative which was focused on the level of the individual employee, the individual job, and the individual practice (Becker, Huselid, and Ulrich 2001), with the assumption that improvements in individual employee performance would undoubtedly enhance performance of the organization. But in the 1990s, an emphasis on strategy and the importance of HR systems emerged with HR emerging today as a strategic paradigm in which individual HR functions, such as recruitment, selection, training, compensation, and performance appraisal, are aligned with each other and also with the overall strategy of the organization (Khatri et al, 2006).For making a successful transformation the HR department has to shed its traditional administrative, compliance, and service role and adopt a new strategic role concerned with developing the organization and the capabilities of its managers (Beer, 1997). Competition, globalization, and continuously changing market and technology are the principal reasons for the transformation of human resource management today (Beer, 1997). According to Beer (1997) following areas are needed to be improved in higher levels for a strategic approach towards Human Resource Management.

1. Coordination among functions and business units of the organization.

2. Commitment of employees towards continuous improvement of the organizati...

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