Competitive Advantage And Human Resource Strategy Essay

Competitive Advantage And Human Resource Strategy - Essay Example Human resource strategies are a set of practices and processes that are applied by the human resource management in coordination with other departmental managers in order to develop solutions to human resource related problems. Competitive advantage on the other hand refers to an organization’s potential to gain the benefits of its economic ventures in a competitive environment. It defines an organizations capacity to withstand and overcome competition in its market. This paper seeks to discuss the concept of environmental factors affecting human resource and performance, and concepts of competitive advantage and human resource strategy. The paper will explore the elements and develop a relationship between them. Human resource management competencies towards competitive advantage Competency refers to the ability to undertake a task satisfactorily. Its scope defines success and efficiency in processes and activities. Human resource management competency therefore relates to initiatives taken in the process of human resource management to ensure that the objectives of the management are efficiently achieved. Grobler and Warner defines competency as a set of â€Å"behaviour, knowledge, skill, or capability† that forecast an outcome of a process (Grobler and Warner, 2005, p. 482). Establishment of such elements of competency in an organization is a benchmark for desired success. Human resource competency can therefore be understood as a set of knowledge possessed by the human resource management personnel or personal traits of a manager and can be applied either at individual level or at organizational level (Grobler and Warner, 2005). The definition and scope of human resource competency has identified its essence towards improved performance through huma n resource management. Some of the benefits that relates to human resource competency includes good communication skills and effective training techniques towards higher performance as well as measurement, monitoring and evaluation of human resource performance for comparison with set targets. Human resource competency is therefore based on an ultimate target of an efficient performance of human resource and associated processes (Storey, 2008). Rogers defines competitive advantage as an organization’s potential to embrace and endure competition in its environment. Some of the elements that defines competitive advantage includes development of products that are â€Å"unique, superior to competition, sustainable, applicable to multiple businesses or situations and is hard to copy† (Rogers, 2009). These features establish an organization above others and maintains the organization’s distinction. Khosrowpour also defines competitive advantage as the state at which a n organization is able to â€Å"operate in a more efficient or higher quality manner† (Khosrowpour, 2007). The scope of human resource competency and competitive advantage therefore establishes a strong relationship between the two elements of an organization’s human resources management with enhanced performance as an underlying factor (Rogers, 2009). One of the competencies that human resource managers need in order to make a strategic contribution to competitive advantage is sufficient knowledge and ideas in business. Business knowledge refers to a comprehensive understanding of the business environment. A manager with sufficient business knowledge is for instance informed of the components of the organization’s environment, both internal and extern, the organization’s objectives, how the goals are to be attained as well as the