Target

In today~{!/~}s intensely competitive and global marketplace, maintaining a competitive advantage of an organization is not that easy. Strategists have found that having superior production facilities or a superior product is usually not enough to sustain an advantage over competitors. Physical facilities can be duplicated, cloned, or reverse- engineered and no longer provides a sustainable advantage. (Quinn, Doorley & Paquette 1990) So, how to maintain or develop a competitive advantage?

According to Professor Collins (1987), ~{!0!-~}a strategic approach to the management of people represents a unique opportunity for managers and [human resource] specialists to develop a competitive edge through their employees~{!/~} behaviour and contributions.~{!1~}

In my opinion, I agree with this statement.

Different individuals are having their own unique behaviour, and this will cause to different results. The employees~{!/~} behaviour and contributions will affect the performance of the organization. For an example, if the employees~{!/~} behaviour is desired to the organization, like performing tasks assignments rapidly and without error, generating new ideas about improving work progress and etc, which means their contributions to the organization are effective and efficiency, then the productivity of the organization will increase, the organization can earn more profit and it can be compete with the others. However, if the employees~{!/~} behaviour of an organization is negative, such as lateness, non-motivated to complete the tasks and etc, it will lead to a reversed result. Besides Professor Collins, according to management scholar Edward Lawler (1992, p.21), also has described as follow: ~{!0~}To be competitive, organizations in many industries must have highly skilled, knowledgeable workers~{!-~}.~{!1~} Because he felt that more and more industries nowadays, the requirement of skill needs to shift from manual to cerebral. Moreover, according to Jeffrey Pfeffer (1995, p.55-69), to retain the sustained advantage, the most successful firms rely not on technology, patents, or strategic position, but on how they manage their workforce. Thus, designing and implementing superior human resource management systems is now more important than ever. The organization has to view the human resource management as the core strategy.

Strategic Human Resource Management has been defined as ~{!.~}the linking of human resources with strategic goals and objectives in order to improve business performance and develop organizational culture that foster innovation and flexibility ~{!.~}. Strategic HR means accepting the HR function as a strategic partner in the formulation of the company~{!/~}s strategies as well as in the implementation of those strategies through HR activities such as recruiting, selecting, training and rewarding personnel. (Chaturvedi, 2003) To gain the competitive edge, the organizations need to determine the appropriate strategic approach on how the various HRM practices affect the employees~{!/~} behaviour and contributions.

Organizations serious about obtaining profits through people will expend the effort needed to ensure that they recruit the right person in the first place (Frost, Nord & Krefting 2002, p.21); this means that the recruitment strategies represent a major part of any successful HR strategy. Recruitment is the process of locating potential applicants and encouraging them to apply for existing or anticipated job opening. (Bohlander & Snell 2004, p.146). Then, the organizations will select the right person based on their own decision. The goal of the selection process is to identify and hire individuals who have the knowledge and skills to perform the jobs within the organization successfully. Typically, when it reached that more than one candidate who fulfils the particular requirement, then the decision maker will focus on how well the person fits into the organization. Moreover, there is a large and well- developed literature addressing the degree to which various selection procedures, e.g. selection interviews, cognitive ability tests, personality tests and etc prove useful in predicting the work behaviours of job candidates who have hired and given the chance to make a contribution to the hiring organization. (Dougherty 2001)

Another strategy-related recruiting issue is internal or external recruiting. The advantages associated with internal recruiting include having more reliable information on internal applicants, the motivational impact of employees~{!/~} knowing that promotions will be filled from within the company, less recruiting and selection expenses and etc. Further, external recruiting has advantages of providing fresh ideas, requires less internal employee development, and may facilitate affirmative action. (Greer 1995)

Besides, we have to know that recruiting the right people means more than just securing employees who possess the knowledge, skills and abilities required to perform a particular job; these people must also be able to acquire new knowledge and skills as jobs and environment change. We have to find people with the right attitudes, values, and cultural fits, all these are harder to train or change and these also can be viewed for predictive of turnover and performance. A great deal of research evidence shows that the degree of cultural fit and value congruence between job applicants and their organizations significantly predicts both subsequent turnover and job performance. (Frost, Nord & Krefting 2002, p.22)

~{!0~}There is no free lunch~{!1~}. People are working for money. Money is the critical incentive to work motivators. This stated the importance of the compensation system. A compensation specialist speaking to one of the authors noted: ~{!0~}The linkage of pay levels of labour market is a strategic policy issue because it serves to attract or retain valued employees while affecting the organization~{!/~}s relative payroll budget.~{!1~} (Bohlander & Snell 2004, p.387) Besides, Gerald Ledford and Elizabeth Hawk, two compensation specialists, also noted, ~{!0~}Companies throughout the economy have begun to rethink their compensation systems in search for competitive advantage.~{!1~} (2000, p.28-38)

The employees~{!/~} compensation includes all forms of pay and rewards received by employees for the performance of their job. Direct compensation means employee wages and salaries, incentives, bonuses, and commissions. Indirect compensation comprises the many benefits supplied by the employers. (Bohlander & Snell 2004, p.386) Since employees view pay as an exchange for their contributions and due to the limitation of the payroll budget, an organization has to set the strategic compensation planning wisely and carefully.