Critical Discussion: HRM in the 21st Century for Competitive Advantage

This report delves into the vital role of Human Resource Management (HRM) in the 21st century, emphasizing its evolution from personnel management to a strategic function. The report examines how HRM contributes to organizational competitive advantage, focusing on talent acquisition, employee engagement, training and development, and the alignment of HR practices with business objectives. It highlights the importance of HRM in navigating the complexities of a dynamic global environment, including technological advancements, changing workforce demographics, and increasing competition. The report analyzes the shift from traditional administrative tasks to a strategic partnership role, emphasizing the need for HR professionals to be strategic thinkers and contributors to business outcomes. The report also discusses the challenges faced by HRM in the modern era, such as globalization, technological innovation, and the need to adapt to changing employee expectations, and the strategies that can be used to overcome these challenges. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and underscores the enduring significance of HRM in fostering organizational success and achieving sustainable competitive advantage.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT 2

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3
Importance of today's HRM in context of management while discussing its evolution in recent
years............................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSIONS..............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management in 21st century play vital role as they help to manage
workers come from different culture and had different background. It is considered as strategic
approach to effective management of individual in organizations such that HRM help businesses
to gain competitive benefits. The function of this administration are wider term that impact on
management and performance of firms positively. The current report is based on human resource
management and its importance in context of management. This study highlight the significance
of today's HRM in business while discussing its evolution in current years.
TASK
Importance of today's HRM in context of management while discussing its evolution in recent
years
Significance of Human resource management in modern era-
In 21st century, the competition to gain competitive benefits, increase profit margin, build
high reputation and desired to become a global leader is high. All the firms work hard and do
their best to achieve its businesses objectives and aims. Without skilled and talented applicants
organizations within retail sector would not be able to achieve set goals and organizational
objectives. It is quite difficult to manage and keep workers with business for longer, changing
demands of staff will create barriers to effective operations' management. To increase the
productivity, retain workers and enhance operations efficiency, HRM is required. In 21st century
human resource management is needed for developing the skills, mind sets and capabilities of
staff that are essential for gaining competitive advantages on international level. In recent time, it
is considered as procedure that utilizes knowledge and skills of labour in order to gain
organizational goals. The accountability of HR department within firms is to more focused
towards workers benefits and concerns because they play most essential role in success of any
firm.
Importance of HRM while discussing its evolution in 21st century-
Human resource management is relatively a very current term consideration for retaining
and managing workers in a company. It is still evolving to become an amalgam of personal
management, organizational behaviour, labour legislation and industrial relations. In their latest
connotation, HRM came to be used mostly from 1980s onwards. During older period and for a
long time in medieval era, production of products or services was done usually by talented

workers. They themselves owned instruments, tools, produced things and sold these in market.
The employees and employer relationships issues arise in ancient ear, they managed their affairs
themselves and take help of other people (Enis, 2017). Effluent worker employed apprentices
and few categories of hired employees. There existed a close connection between ruler and
apprentices, and they took care of issues facing beginner and its other team members. The reason
behind this good relationship is that apprentices at that time does not focus on its career growth,
they only want to earn money to fulfil the needs of family and themselves which is limited. But
now in 21st century the needs of workers is more than getting good salary package, they want to
obtain health and security benefits and seeking for incentives. At that movement HRM play vital
role, having the good and effective human resource department within company, management is
able to fulfil the needs of staff and satisfy them by offering facilities accordant to their desire. In
70s HRM department was called personnel, as time move on and it comes period between 1979
it changed into personnel management, which directly influenced on workers' legislation as well
as management.
The concept of HRM further started to develop in 1990 and finally it shifted to human
resource management. It taken as a significance function amongst all since last two years. It is
one of the most essential function in 21st century used by many firms to gain competitive benefits
(Goswami, 2018). In recent time, it includes number of actions such as having concern with
personnel wants, conducting job analysis, offering training programs & developing plans related
to this in order to improve workers current performance, selection and recruitment of
knowledgeable applicants for particular job, create plan to cater benefits and incentives to staff,
identifying salaries and wages and solving conflicts between management & their workers. In
commercial world, competition is getting worsened to the worst day by day and thus, human
resources management is the only factors that cater a company such as TESCO and other firms
with competitive advantages. It is a set of activities that influence nature, behaviour, performance
and attitude of staff at work. In early period, HRM was not recognized as essential part of
companies but now without this department firms cannot be able to manage and operate
businesses successfully within specific sector. All the actions related to workers benefits is the
parcel and part of this section, these activities comprise individual relationship management,
offering health & safety benefits, compensation, training and development of staff. Best

practices, contingency and bundles are the three main practices that play vital and acknowledged
role in managing every business activity.
Human resource management has evolved in recent year from being mostly
administrative to recent role as strategic business partners, talent leaders, players in companies.
The objective of 21st century HRM is to assure that HR adds value to strategic planning &
business outcomes of companies. In recent period, they play significance in increasing
productivity, profitability, developing strong workforce and maximize quality of work life rather
than before (Nathan, 2018).
In ancient time, within business sector the competition to gain better position does not
take high place, the work was done with available resources and workers. But in 21st century the
competition level is higher, which directly impact on the profitability and productivity of firms
as they had to work and perform much better than each other in order to sustain for longer within
retail sector with skilled workers. All these things happen when companies have professionals
and experienced applicants. HRM is sole and key factor that help to fulfil the needs of companies
regarding workers, they are able to hire and recruit candidates effectively who are capable to
contribute in achieving businesses goals and also help to gain competitive benefits. High
competitive environment directly impact on workers and business performance, it put pressure
on management to deal with many issues and give its 100 percent to beat competitors. Human
resource management give their effective contribution and support to companies in this situation,
they motivate current staff members to perform much better than before by applying different
techniques or strategies such as compensation. It is one of the best way to motivate people and
enhance their motivational level, with the help of making compensation plan HRM inspire
workers to do their best as possible as they can in order to gain competitive advantages.
Throughout medieval time, skilled person formed guilds primarily with a view to protect
interest of respective trades, these guilds identified price of goods, wages of hired labourers and
regulated conditions and terms of their employment. Skilled crafts men in ancient period manage
different types of labourers such as serfs, slaves and indentured workers which is easy because
the demand of workers and business is stable. But the advent of industrial revolution proved a
boon to the businesses sector, it resulted in rapid growth of industries, factories, improvement in
technologies, large scale production and reduction in time included in manufacturing products.
All these development outcomes in an unexpected demand for different categories of workers

within abroad and nation. In order to fulfil the demand of employees, Human resource
management in 21st century play vital role as they make plan to recruit skilled labour specialist in
varied field and had a knowledge of different areas. HRM is the main function within business
who are able to reach at target market and contribute in talent acquisition.
Before the evolution of HR to recent standards, working conditions were dangerous and
hash and stress between need for physical protection as well as high output was growing.
Modern working situation were never as terrible as ancient era, where people were out for
themselves and there was not HRM to quash bullies and make them put down swords. But now
the human resource management has been advanced and experienced, they can manage people,
retain current employees and solve their issues related to work environment around the place
where workers perform day to day task. In recent time, human resource leaders can be performed
as broader thinkers and tech savvy, they can deal with a progressively nimble workforce
(Kelliher, Richardson and Boiarintseva, 2019).
The greater challenging situation within commercial world is that retaining workers, high
pressure on workers by management due to competitive environment emerge the importance and
requirement of effective HRM. When employees feel pressure within a firm, they start switching
job which increase high employee turn over. It is not possible for organizations to handle this
situation effectively they need support and contribution of high experienced person. Human
resource management or professional is the only key factor of business success because they can
manage current number of workers and also hire the new one, according to the requirement
within workplace. Human resource management in recent time is effective and capable, they can
solve issues related to workers and identify their needs. The growth and development of
industrial sector, rise benefits for small and large firm as they can earn more profit by selling
their products and services, along with this problem related to labour were also arisen that impact
of operational efficiencies of firms. Due to lack of knowledge and understanding about work,
individual cannot be able to make their effective contribution in competitive environment, but
with the help of HRM and its team nothing is impossible. Human resource management in
today's period play vital role and very important for managing workplace issues. Training and
development is the key elements mostly used by HR manager and professionals to increase the
skills and develop more knowledge among employees which allow them to contribute effectively
and efficiently (Donohue and Tham, 2019). In recent era, human resource management used

training as tool to enhance performance level of staff and build an effective workforce. From
1900s to 2019 the role of HRM has been changed and its importance within commercial sector
were increased more than ancient time. They face different challenges and deal with different
issues, as compare to past few years. For example, today's companies are facing dynamic
environment which needs them to adopt changes and perform for optimize profit and competitive
advantages. Firms come across too many uncertainties or obstacles about HR of 21st century
including globalization, more innovations, advent of the latest technologies, political &
economic instability and ecological challenges (Zailani and et.al., 2017). In current time,
technology is progressive so quickly that it is forcing firms to change their existing strategies.
Therefore, in this manner companies organize workers in accordant with change in their goods
styles, which is quite difficult to do. But effective and good team of today's HRM play essential
role, they employed right and knowledgeable people with right abilities, knowledge and skills
that are needed for specific job to be done.
The human resource management of 21st century is able to determine the needs and
requirement of workers, they had better knowledge about labour market and changes within
employment legislation, which make allow them to manage wider number of people at
workplace and build effective team, that help in gaining competitive benefits (Ren and Jackson,
2019). In simple words, it can be said that HRM contribute in context of management of staff,
and they can enhance the productivity of people rather than before by providing facilities
according to their needs.
CONCLUSIONS
From above analysis, it has been summarized that from 1900s to today's time human
resource management and its practices were developed more and more. In 21st century, HRM
deal with major issues and solve it as soon as possible in order to gain the competitive
advantages that help firms to raise its positions within retail sector more than competitors.
Industrial revolution change the way firm perform and act, HRM play strategic role in managing
the workplace culture and environment as well as different types of employees.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Donohue, R. and Tham, T.L., 2019. Career Management in the 21st Century. Contemporary
HRM Issues in the 21st Century, Emerald Publishing Limited. pp.51-68.
Enis, F.I.T.A., 2017. Human Resource Management and Its Role in Today
Organizations. Human Resource Management. 9(11).
Goswami, A., 2018. Human resource management and its importance for today’s
organizations. Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in Allied
Education. 15(3). pp.128-135.
Kelliher, C., Richardson, J. and Boiarintseva, G., 2019. All of work? All of life?
Reconceptualising work‐life balance for the 21st century. Human Resource
Management Journal. 29(2). pp.97-112.
Nathan, M.L., 2018. 'Keeper of the fire': human resource management's role in the organisational
development of an employee sustainability mindset. International Journal of
Sustainable Strategic Management. 6(1). pp.38-55.
Ren, S. and Jackson, S.E., 2019. HRM institutional entrepreneurship for sustainable business
organizations. Human Resource Management Review. p.100691.
Zailani, S and et.al., 2017. Barriers to product return management in automotive manufacturing
firms in Malaysia. Journal of cleaner production. 141. pp.22-40.