Introduction
In the present, many organizations have come to an increasing awareness of the significance of developing strategic human resource functions for performance of the firm and competitive strategies. This kind of aware in a firm is a critical dimension in increasing performance in an organization. Borrowing from real life experiences, there is a difference between becoming modern and sophisticated in a business and the ability to sustain the organization’s effectiveness and growth if the company has no other strategies that will increase its competitive advantage. The theme on business competitiveness has been recurring and therefore researchers have investigated the role of strategic human resource management in sustaining a firm’s competitive advantage especially in adoption of generic strategies. this paper will also look at the role of human resource management in developing a sustainable competitive advantage.
Borrowing from the research performed by Armstrong and Baron (1), individuals and their collective abilities, skills and experiences together with deploying their interests in the employing organizations have been recognized to make important contribution in the success of an organization while constitution a major resource in competitive advantage. This brings us to the main role of strategic human resource management which is bringing strategic value of individuals’ into the organization while at the same time making them contribute to the business competitive advantage. This role stems from relying on human resource as the fundamental employee by the organization.
Strategic human resource management in its effectiveness conducts a systematic organization of individuals in order to directly measure their influence on the organization, affect employee attitude in a positive way thus leading to a competitive strategy. Werbel and DeMarie (250), strategic human resource management has a role of creating procedures that directly affects the building of skills, abilities and knowledge of employees in the organization in order to develop a unique and valued organizational competency. Since strategic human resource management has become the new paradigm in modern human resource practices, it is critical to define high level responsibilities for coordination that will influence other production factors and spur business performance.
Similarly, a different role of strategic human resource in the enhancement of organizational performance from employees added value and increase in competitive advantage. For increased business performance, strategic human resource management plays a critical role in aligning the company’s external context to the internal context wand this function directly increased on the company’s economic value and the value of shareholders. Strategic human resource management has invested in development of generic strategies which Porter has defined as the overall cost leadership, a focused approach in business competition and differentiation. The generic strategies defined help a particular business to strategically position itself amidst high industrial competition and gain an utmost competitive advantage over the rest of the business. Strategic human resource management while using generic strategies must critically decide how the firm will be competitively positioned in the market (Porter 1). Quality enhancement, cost reduction and innovations are the generic strategies that human resource management uses strategically to create business competitive advantage. Strategic human resource management makes use of employee skill, knowledge and abilities to develop high level innovations have employees design products and services on quality while at the same time aiding in cost reduction.
Conclusion
The conditions of competition are on the increase and it is important for human resource management department to develop and sustain a competitive advantage in order to increase it’s exponentially. It is evident that an effective human resource strategy must know how to structure organizational resources and match the same resources with the ever rising industrial competition. It is basic for the human resource department to understand the complementary processes both internally and externally to support its pursuit for success in the chosen strategy.
