A Managerial Perspective of the Objectives of HRM Practices in Singapore: An Exploratory Study

Essay by aainaUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, October 2009

download word file, 22 pages 0.0

IntroductionFor Singapore firms to survive past this economic crisis to succeed into the 21st century, they need to have highly skilled human capital to provide them with a competitive edge. The management of human resources (HR) is therefore a key driver in today's successful firms. It is the quality of the firm's HR that allows the firm to stand up against its competitors, and to make a difference in providing better customer service, or in developing better products and services.

Hence, it is extremely important that firms design their human resource management (HRM) practices to enhance their employees' levels of organisational commitment and job satisfaction in order to retain high performing employees in an increasingly global labour market for skilled employees. This is because the knowledge capital of a firm that enables it to be different and innovative, resides within their employees. Thus, firms have to take steps to ensure that their HRM practices add positive value to their firms.

This requires HR professionals to design and develop HRM practices that contribute to the objectives of their organisations.

To this end, Buck Consultants administered a Human Resource Management Audit (Short Version)TM to a sample of managers in Singapore. The HRM audit was used to measure the HRM practices within a firm. Thus, the purpose of this exploratory study was to evaluate managerial perceptions of the extent to which HRM practices contributed to their firms' objectives.

Literature Review What is an HRM Audit?To help HR departments understand the contributions of the HRM practices in their firms, HR professionals need to conduct a self-diagnosis of what it is that their HRM activities can achieve for their organisations.

This activity involves understanding and evaluating how the responsibilities for each HR function...