Human Resource Management and the importance of top and HR managers working together to achieve organizational efficiency

Introduction

In this era of high business competitiveness, organizations operate in a dynamic and changing environment and consequently have to be adaptive to stay ahead of the aggressive competition.

Organizations today recognize that human resource (HR) is their key asset to gaining an edge over competition and achieving organizational success and effectiveness. Thus, human resource management (HRM) has now become an emerging field in the business world and a key ingredient for staying abreast of competition.

This essay will focus on what HRM has to offer and how those at the top and HR managers should work together to achieve organizational efficacy. Current HRM theory and concepts will also be discussed and translated into practice and from there, its advantages and disadvantages will be highlighted.

Findings and Analysis

HRM is the systematic planning and control of a network of fundamental organizational processes affecting and involving all organization members (French, 1994, p.17).

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201305145-OHRM-RBN-8054

Firstly, a distinction should be made between HRM and personnel management. Personnel management refers to a set of functions, for example, recruitment and selection, often performed effectively but with little relationship between the various activities, or with overall organizational objectives. HRM, in contrast, assumes that all personnel activities are integrated with each other and strategically with organizational objectives (Nankervis, Compton and McCarthy, 1999, pp.4-5).

Thus, applications of HRM theory differ from personnel management in their dismissal of prescriptive "one best way" models of practice as diverse national and industrial relations environments demand different HRM applications (Nankervis et al., 1999, p.16).

HRM activities play a major role in ensuring that an organization will survive and prosper. Around the world, managers recognize that HR deserves attention because they are a significant factor in top-management strategic decisions that guide the organization's future operations (Ivancevich, 2001, p.9). Thus, HRM has a responsibility to...