Innovation and human resources management

Innovation in HR

Defining the Role of Human Resource Management

From an Innovation Perspective

Given the accelerating pace of globalization combined with greater uncertainty in global economies, organizational structures have become falter and responsibilities of workers, broader and more strategic. These and other factors are transforming Human Resource Management (HRM) into a catalyst of innovation and growth within organizations globally. The intent of this analysis is to evaluate how HRM is changing from its traditional role to one of innovation and long-term growth.

The Transformation of HRM

The traditional view of HRM was one of sustainer and provider of necessary services to keep a company running smoothly, providing a foundation for managers to staff and operate their departments. Senior management relied on HRM systems and processes to ensure that the most important staffing requirements in key strategic areas were met (Chen, Huang, 2009). For a software company, these strategic roles include the software and design engineers, in addition to the user interface designers. The role of HRM departments and the systems and processes they ran were much more oriented towards stability and sustaining the four foundational areas of management.

Over the last two decades however the impact of globalization has completely re-ordered the role of HRM (Friedman, 2007). This transformation has also led to a completely different series of definitions of what a successful HRM strategy is in a company (Mirvis, 1997). The need for greater levels of alignment to the specific strategic goals and objectives of a business is now the highest priority of all in the design, education and support for HRM systems (Beugelsdijk, 2008). The highest priority from an innovation perspective is to create a hiring plan that supports the strategic direction of the enterprise (Jimenez-Jimenez, Sanz-Valle, 2005). This area of innovation is delivering very significant value, in that the limited resources many companies have are being directly applied to the most strategic unmet needs that are critical for their growth. Innovation in recruiting, screening, interviewing and retaining top talent, necessary for company growth, has become a high priority in industries that face perennial talent shortages (Chen, Huang, 2009).