Strategic HRM: HRD and Competitive Advantage in a Changing World

This report delves into the critical role of Human Resource Development (HRD) as a source of competitive advantage for organizations, particularly within a constantly evolving business environment. It emphasizes the significance of HRD in fostering employee motivation, creating a positive workplace environment, and facilitating training and development initiatives. The report highlights how strategic human resource management (SHRM) practices, including recruitment, selection, and compensation, contribute to organizational performance and the achievement of strategic goals. It explores the link between business strategy and human resource management, emphasizing the importance of aligning HR activities with organizational objectives. The report also discusses how HRD promotes creativity, innovation, and employee retention, ultimately enhancing an organization's ability to adapt and thrive in a competitive landscape. The conclusion reinforces the idea that employees are the most valuable asset, with HRD as the means of improving this asset, thereby creating a competitive edge.

Running Head: Strategic Human Resource Management
Strategic human resource management
HRD as a source of competitive advantage for achieving organizational goals

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Table of Contents
Introduction to human resource development.......................................................................................... 3
Role of HRD............................................................................................................................................................... 3
Employee motivation........................................................................................................................................ 3
Work place environment................................................................................................................................ 4
Training and development............................................................................................................................. 4
Creativity and innovation............................................................................................................................... 4
Strategic human resource management as a source of competitive advantage...........................5
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................................. 7
References................................................................................................................................................................. 9

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Introduction to human resource development
Human resource management is one of the most essential factors that support the growth
and development of organizations. Human resource management and development
encompasses a large number of responsibilities within any organization. This involves
recruiting employees, motivating them, setting goals and targets for them, managing
employee performance, training and development of employees, creating an optimal
workplace environment and ensuring long term employee retention within the business
(Albrecht, et. al., 2015).
Human resource development includes opportunities for employees such as their training,
development, coaching, mentoring and building. Organizations heavily invest in ensuring
high levels of human resource development as it is considered to be an effective tool for
employee motivation. The growth and development of human resources in any
organization is directly responsible for fostering growth and creativity within the
organization and ensuring accomplishment of strategic objectives of the organization. This
report highlights upon the importance of human resource development, the role played by
this function in the growth of the organization as well as its contribution in
accomplishment of organizational objectives (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).
Role of HRD
Human resource development initiatives within organizations are aimed at the growth and
development of organizational employees. HRD plays a significant role in ensuring
employee satisfaction, employee retention and in deriving performance from employees in
an effective manner. All of these roles combined ensure accomplishment of organizational
objectives and improved performance.
Employee motivation
Human resource development activities within any organization work as an effective tool
for employee motivation. HRD functions keep employees motivated which in turn ensures
optimal performance from employees. Development activities for employees instituted by
organization make employees feel that they are valued in the business. This is often

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organization’s way of investing in their employees. Since these activities also lead to
personal growth of employees, they feel motivated to work harder for the organization.
Motivated employees perform better and in a more efficient manner (Bakker & Demerouti,
2014).
Work place environment
An organization which is focussed on human resource development, has an optimistic and
productive workplace environment within the business. The environment within which
employees work has a significant impact upon employee productivity and efficiency.
Organizational efforts to ensure development of human resources creates an environment
of growth. It is a predominant responsibility of the human resource management team
within any organization to create an effective workplace that can foster creativity,
innovation, learning and growth. Such an environment is sure to increase employee
productivity, organizational performance and helps in accomplishment of organizational
goals and objectives (Bamberger, Meshoulam & Biron, 2014).
Training and development
Human resource development activities within any organization foster training and
development of employees. Employee learning is the key to keeping employees satisfied
within the business. Efforts to train and develop employees not only keep employees
motivated but also ensure an improvement in their performance. This improvement in
performance leads to improved organizational performance and effective accomplishment
of organizational goals. Training and development therefore has a significant role to play in
ensuring employee growth and organizational performance. Training of employees also
makes employees feel valued within the organization. This improves their dedication
towards the organization and instils a sense of ownership. This eventually leads to
improved performance and in turn successful accomplishment of organizational goals
(Bratton & Gold, 2017).
Creativity and innovation
Human resource development activities also work towards making the team more creative.
These efforts foster innovation among employees. The culture of the organization that

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focusses on human resource development tends to make the team creative, foster
innovation and ensure continued growth. Human resource development creates an
organizational culture that fosters creativity and innovation through open communication.
Leaders of the team encourage people to share their opinions and viewpoints without any
prejudice. This unperturbed flow of ideas makes the team creative and helps the
organization to be more innovative. This growth of creativity and innovation also helps the
organization in accomplishment of organizational goals (Brewster, Chung & Sparrow,
2016).
An organization that fosters creativity in its practices, also depicts a high risk appetite. This
allows employees to take risks and perform to the best of their abilities. This rise in
creativity improves employee’s performance and assists in accomplishment of strategic
goals of the business.
Strategic human resource management as a source of competitive advantage
Employees or human resources are the most important assets of any organization.
Therefore human resource development activities within any organization act as a way of
improving this asset. In the era of excessive competition, it is imperative that businesses
work towards creating a competitive advantage over others. This competitive advantage
can be in terms of the quality of the product or service, pricing strategy adopted by the
business, promotional strategies used to enhance awareness about brand or even the place
at which the product or service is sold. Human resource development activities by any
organization work towards enhancing performance delivered by employees of the business
(Kavanagh & Johnson, 2017).
The purpose of human resource development is to ensure the growth and development of
employees. This is done through training activities, coaching, mentoring, and conducting
workshops. Besides this, human resource management focusses on creating a workplace
environment that is optimistic, amicable and productive. Working environment plays a
significant role in ensuring effective performance from employees. This is why by
managing the workplace environment in an effective manner, strategic human resource

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management practices aim towards gaining a competitive advantage in accomplishment of
organizational goals (Lin & Wu, 2014).
Employee retention and employee satisfaction are important factors in managing the
human resources of any business. In accordance to this, Human Resource Development is
considered as one of the most useful and effective departments for an organization. This
department not just recruit and select candidates on the basis of organizational
requirements and their qualifications; they also evaluate their communication skills,
capabilities and compatibility with the organization. Thus, when a candidate is selected for
the desired position, he/she needs to go through several rounds of interviews in order to
showcase talent and skills they have and their significance for the organization
(Marchington, et. al., 2016).
Lot of roles and responsibilities are fulfilled by human resource department of an
organization and these ultimately help the organization to boost up its performance along
with the managing the employees and assigning them appropriate and relevant tasks as
per their skills and talent. Thus, role of Human Resource Department is said to be the most
crucial in the organizational functionalities. Human Resource Department also plays vital
role in attainment of strategic goals of the organization along with managing the business
needs as per changing business environment. Strategic human resource practices are
considered as essential for the behemoth multinational corporations but with the changing
business needs and environment, these practices have been adopted by small as well as
mediums scale companies also (Paillé, et. al., 2014). With the help of these practices,
organization could easily uplift its performance and it is considered that there is direct
relationship between strategic human resource practices and firm’s performance.
Recruitment and Selection, training and development, compensation systems, etc. are some
of the crucial business practices of strategic human resource department which helps in
improving organizational performance. It is also known as the connection between the
companies’ human resources and the company’s strategies, goals and objectives (Rothwell,
Hohne & King, 2018). The aim of the human resource management is:

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 To implement advance flexibility, competitive advantage and innovation at
workplace
 To develop and create appropriate fit for the organizational culture
 To enhance organizational performance
In relevance to the strategic human resource management to be effective, human resources
(HR) of the organization must play vital role as a partner aligned with the policies. HR
activities are hiring, training, motivating and aligning their efforts as per the organizational
goals as well as rewarding them. Strategic HR plays direct role in the company’s growth
and in relevance to this, it is necessary for the HR to adopt strategic approaches along with
developing and retaining them with the organization to meet with the organizational needs
and wants (Shields, et. al., 2015).
HR plays vital role in the accomplishment of organizational goals and in relation to this, it is
necessary for the organization to manage the operations of the human resources with the
objective to attain desired goals and objectives. The primary objective of human resource
management is to develop coordination between the teams along with making the direct
link between the employee’s efforts and organizational goals. With regards to this, HR
department carry out relevant analysis to determine employees’ capabilities and their
actions in order to estimate the gap between organizational demands and employees’
efforts (Taylor, Doherty & McGraw, 2015). Thus, strategic human resource management
seeks for the results of the analysis in terms of developing HR techniques to address
employees’ weaknesses along with converting those weaknesses into organizational
strengths. Following are some of the benefits of strategic human resource management:
 Enhanced job satisfaction
 Better workplace culture
 Enhanced rate of customer satisfaction
 Efficient and effective utilisation of resources
 Adaptation of proactive approach of managing employees
 Boosting productivity

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Thus, the role of human resource management is considered as the vital element for
organizational growth and development. This not just only helps in enhancing
organizational productivity but it also helps in terms of managing employees with the
objective to fulfil employees’ needs as well as to maintain a balance between organizational
demands and employees’ needs. HRM also coordinate between employees and the top level
management in order to match up with the dynamic environmental needs through which
strategic goals could be attained as well as in terms of attaining competitive advantage
(Tyson, 2014).
Conclusion
Thus, it could be concluded that employees or human resources are the most important
assets of any organization. Therefore human resource development activities within any
organization act as a way of improving this asset. In the era of excessive competition, it is
imperative that businesses work towards creating a competitive advantage over others.
HRD functions keep employees motivated which in turn ensure optimal performance from
employees. Development activities for employees instituted by organization make
employees feel that they are valued in the business. This is often organization’s way of
investing in their employees and by this manner; organization could easily create a bridge
between expectations and the actual performance.

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References
Albrecht, S.L., Bakker, A.B., Gruman, J.A., Macey, W.H. and Saks, A.M., 2015. Employee
engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An
integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 2(1),
pp.7-35.
Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Bakker, A.B. and Demerouti, E., 2014. Job demands–resources theory. Wellbeing: A complete
reference guide, pp.1-28.
Bamberger, P.A., Meshoulam, I. and Biron, M., 2014. Human resource strategy: Formulation,
implementation, and impact. Routledge.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Brewster, C., Chung, C. and Sparrow, P., 2016. Globalizing human resource management.
Routledge.
Kavanagh, M.J. and Johnson, R.D. eds., 2017. Human resource information systems: Basics,
applications, and future directions. Sage Publications.
Lin, Y. and Wu, L.Y., 2014. Exploring the role of dynamic capabilities in firm performance
under the resource-based view framework. Journal of business research, 67(3), pp.407-413.
Marchington, M., Wilkinson, A., Donnelly, R. and Kynighou, A., 2016. Human resource
management at work. Kogan Page Publishers.
Paillé, P., Chen, Y., Boiral, O. and Jin, J., 2014. The impact of human resource management on
environmental performance: An employee-level study. Journal of Business Ethics, 121(3),
pp.451-466.
Rothwell, W.J., Hohne, C.K. and King, S.B., 2018. Human performance improvement: Building
practitioner performance. Routledge.

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Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., Johns, R.,
O'Leary, P., Robinson, J. and Plimmer, G., 2015. Managing employee performance & reward:
Concepts, practices, strategies. Cambridge University Press.
Taylor, T., Doherty, A. and McGraw, P., 2015. Managing people in sport organizations: A
strategic human resource management perspective. Routledge.
Tyson, S., 2014. Essentials of human resource management. Routledge.