Competitive Edge in Strategic Human Resource Management Report

Introduction

Competition has gone global and the market and industry dynamics have necessitated the need for companies to make concerted efforts streamlined towards ensuring that human resource management, practices, and policies are geared towards achieving the goals and objectives of an organization and aligned towards organizational culture.

This has resulted in the adoption and implementation of several tools and strategies geared towards achieving competitive edge in Human resource management. This is because the times are tough and the realization that people form the most prized asset of any organizations, there is need to attach the greatest value to their wellbeing for the best overall organizational performance.

People management thus forms a very critical part that defines whether an organization will not only become a preferred employer but also achieve its aims and objectives. However, despite the fact that researchers have studied HRM with a wider scope, much of the studies have centred on a limited range of issues that failed to explore various aspects of Strategic human resource management.

The purpose of this report is to dissect how firms can achieve competitive edge in human management practice as a pointer to the improvement of quality of their products and services.

Competitive Edge in Human Resource Management

Efficient work coordination amongst various departments and employees is an effective tool for success. However, to achieve competitive edge in human resource management, Jing & Huang (2005) assert organizational practices must take keen cognizance of the contributions of all stakeholders.

First, the establishment of open door policy for managers and supervisors will definitely promote the relationship between the human resource managers and other stakeholders. This will definitely lay down the opportunity in discovering the concerns of managers through shared and open sessions.

Lam and Schaubroeck (2003) illustrate that continuous enrichment of open and free rooms for discussions provide feedbacks from front line managers that remains a key tool for assessment and enables HR specialists to assist frontline managers accomplish their goals.

These surveys and questionnaires should be done in a manner that protects the identity of the support managers and supervisors so that they do not become apprehensive that seeking support could be construed as weakness and failure on their part.

Strategic human resource management plays a critical role in enhancing the capacity of the top corporate leaders to support and engage frontline managers. (Huselid, 1995).

This ensures that the best talents are recruited to perform in areas and departments where their knowledge and skills are best suited for the success of the business. Such a process is critical to enhancing the abilities of the support managers and supervisors to accomplish their goals in while making the best use of available tools.

Furthermore, an inclusive strategic human resource management has in ensuring that support managers and supervisors accomplish their goals by establishing tracking procedures to monitor the success, failures and growth of support managers and supervisors to provide top leadership with the tools it needs to evaluate its frontline managers (Briggs and Keogh, 2004).

Such statistics are necessary for the measurement of the performances of the support managers and supervisors to enable HR provide them with the needed support aimed at promoting their skills and knowledge.

In the recognition that people form the greatest asset of an organization, human resource must seek to recruit the best and appropriate personnel. This is because effective management of a firm’s HR is a critical determinant to a firm’s capacity to remain competitive and improve on the bottom-line (Green, 2002).

Transformational and consultative orientation as critical components to the success in the HR management as opposed to transactional and enforcement orientation ensure limited amounts of conflicts.

Achieving Competitive Edge in Human Resource Management

Competitive edge in human resource management underlines key parameters in achieving improved organizational performance through strategic human resource management practices. One key understanding is that work is one of the most fundamentals of tasks of life (Csikszentmihalyi, 1992).

Research focusing on the bio-psychosocial impacts of work satisfaction and dissatisfaction on the modern worker suggests that one’s level of satisfaction with one’s work impacts upon one’s mental and physical health and overall satisfaction with life (Csikszentmihalyi, 1992).

The case for providing employees services from an organizations point of view lies with the ‘abstract grounds of social responsibility of organizations for those who work for them (Armstrong, 2007). The philosophy behind achieving competitive edge in human resource management is that in exchange for offering their services, employees are entitled to more than their pay, benefits and healthy and safe systems of work.

Employees should also be entitled to consideration as human beings, especially when one considers that majority of their problems arise in the context of the work and are hence best dealt with there. According to Guest (1997), the goals of SHRM are synergistic and are aimed at improving operational efficiency through people management.

Empowerment

Generally, empowerment is a concept that involves a number of dimensions that can be applied to communities, organizations and individuals (Rappaport, 1987). An early description of empowerment refers to the construct as a possibility for individuals to be capable of taking control over their lives (Rappaport, 1981).

Similarly, Perkins and Zimmerman described empowerment as the processes and effects with regard to control and participation. Furthermore, empowerment has been referred to as a reasonable process as it primarily aims to equally distribute power and increase interpersonal power to deal with the concerns of powerlessness (Gutierrez, DeLois, and GlenMaye, 1995).

Though there have been differences in specific definitions of empowerment, the concept is generally associated with individuals being able to have a sense of control over their activities and decisions.

Empowerment has been described as a motivational process that allows an individual to feel enabled (Corsun and Enz, 1999). To be more specific, Thomas and Velthouse (1990) described empowerment to be an increase in motivation levels when accomplishing tasks and can be observed in four cognitions- meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact.

Using the definition of Spreitzer (1995), empowered individuals can find meaning in their work because they value their work goals. They also feel competent enough to carry out activities because of the knowledge and skills that they possess (Janssen, 2004).

Moreover, empowered people have a sense of self-determination with which they feel responsible for their actions and have choices when it comes to initiating actions (Deci, Connell, and Ryan, 1989). Finally, individuals who have a strong sense of empowerment believes that they have can make an impact on outcomes and make a difference.

Thomas and Velthouse (1990) claim that the four cognitions of empowerment do not completely function when they are independent of each other; rather, a combination of these components will establish an overall strong sense of empowerment.

Each of these dimensions contributes a unique aspect in the person’s experience of empowerment as the four cognitions together embrace the essence of empowerment (Janssen, 2004). For instance, empowered employees were shown to feel an increase in their work motivation and have a positive attitude towards their work roles (Kirkman and Rosen, 1999).

Employee empowerment has been considered a management technique which organizations can choose to apply to their workforce and achieve competitive edge in their human resource management.

This strategy has also become an effective means of addressing the needs of global business across various sectors and has been incorporated in a number of approaches such as total quality management and self-managed work teams (Bowen and Lawler, 1992). A workforce that has a strong sense of empowerment has been claimed to function and perform better (Bowen and Lawler, 1992).

Being empowered clearly reflects a proactive work orientation in which individuals feel capable and competent enough to carry out their work roles (Speitzer, 1995). Such feelings of empowerment have been suggested to effectively facilitate employee commitment towards an organization (Locke and Schweiger, 1979).

Leadership

At present, one of the most common starting points of numerous studies is that leadership in organizations is one of the strongest components that influence people to carry out their duties using motivational approaches instead of being centred on power or authority (Dvir, 1998).

This description focuses on the subordinate’s decision to carry out a task due to his own free will and significantly rejects the use of force, power or actions that are driven by threats or intimidation by managers.

This definition also makes it clear that leadership is different from coercive actions although it associates leadership with informal influence and power along with a lesser degree of formal authority, which is normally present in working environments.

When people obey an individual of authority, it is mostly difficult to determine whether they are taking such actions out of their own free will or because fear any form of punishment from their superior. Therefore, Wang et al (2005) suggest that modern theories on leadership that translate to improved organizational performance have become centred on transformational leadership than in other types of leadership.

The current theories on leadership, nonetheless, are mostly focused on transformational and transactional leadership which have been first introduced by Burns (1978) and were further expanded by Avolio and Bass (1991). According to the full range model of leadership, two levels of influence exist between a leader and those who are being led.

One influence is generated by the understanding that is created by the leader with which subordinates believe that they will act in accordance with their leader’s goals because of their belief that they will receive benefits when taking such actions. This is called transactional leadership.

On the other hand, the other influence of the leader is referred to as transformational leadership because it brings about emotional excitement and inspiration among the subordinates brought about by the relationship that their leader establishes with them (Bass and Avolio, 1993).

Using transformational leadership, employees become aware of their need to grow and are further motivated to perform better and at higher levels (MacKenzie, Podssakoff, and Rich, 2001). A transformational creates change in the subordinates’ beliefs and values, influences their expectations and provides them with their needs based on the hierarchy of needs.

Burns (1978) asserts that transformational leadership results to the subordinates eventually becoming leaders and the leaders becoming moral agents. Therefore, transformational leadership is the outcome of a leader’s character, the intensity of his beliefs and values, and his ability to express and communicate an influential vision (Dvir, 1998).

Training, People’s Improvement and Improvement of Products

The dynamics of changing business demographics and consumer purchasing patterns coupled with ever-stronger competition for better employee management has increased pressure on business enterprises to undertake performance appraisals geared towards gaining insights on critical areas of employee training that demand improvement.

This is because, in the realization that people form the most prized asset of any organizations, there is need to attach the greatest value to their well being in relation to their skills and knowledge and the continuous improvement of the same. Rain, Lane & Steiner (1991) posit that training process is process that employees sharpen their skills on how to handle their new working environment and culture.

In addition to the above, the impact of employee training on job satisfaction cannot be undermined because the level and quality of employee skills and knowledge is directly correlated to the levels of job satisfaction because of their ability to deliver and enhance the quality of products.

Abrams (2004) on the other hand summarizes the role of partnering with teaching and training institutions in achieving employee retention by stating that partnerships with training institutions offer the best opportunity for cost effective training sessions.

Green (2002) asserts the importance of employee training for the enhancement of employee productivity and product quality. He posits that training forms one of the most critical parts in organizations’ list of priorities. This is because poorly trained and unskilled staff can be very costly to an organization.

According to Green (2002), poorly trained and unskilled managers can lead to reduced performance and increase in retaliation claims. In addition to the above, necessary skills and knowledge are pointers to profitability and business success.

Mishory (2004) points out that while there are various strategies at the disposal of human resource personnel to attract the best pool of employees and ensure their satisfaction and retention; training has been documented to form one of the critical roles in their retention and performance improvement. In addition to the above, training is effective in business in a number of ways.

They form the foundation through which employee loyalty to an organization can be enhanced through knowledge enhancement and job satisfaction. The author proceeds to stress this point by succinctly stating that training is a continuous process and its objectives are best attained through sustainable approaches.

The process of quality engagement of the employees must involve a deep analysis of the challenges that employees face in the course of their activities. Such critical information can only be obtained through continuous process of performance appraisals and internal quality enhancement.

Second, training program provide the rare chance for supervisors and subordinates to have quality discussions on issues that surround organizational weaknesses. Furthermore, training needs assessment is an effective tool for motivation and satisfaction, training and development, recruitment and induction and employee evaluation that remain key constructs to product improvement.

Conclusion

Changes in practices and policies are geared towards achieving the goals and objectives of an organization and aligned towards organizational culture. The above discussions indicate that SHRM remains a critical impetus in the achievement of organizational goals and objectives.

However, the achievement of competitive edge not only demands a cocktail of initiatives but also remains translates to improved profitability and operational efficiency. Increasing motivational levels through empowerment, delivering quality leadership in HRM and training are proposed as initiatives that enhance firms’ capabilities to achieve competitive edge in SHRM.

References

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