Human Resources and Company Performance

nsbf k, ,Nwsnf,kS L Jsdb fcS kfjbesdf c,lV INI SIFkn ffckac akbfca,k knkca AF FEFDm Hollenbeck−Gerhart−Wright:

Fundamentals of Human

Resource Management,

Second Edition

Front Matter 1. Managing Human

Resources

© The McGraw−Hill

Companies, 2007

HUMAN RESOURCES

AND COMPANY PERFORMANCE

Managers and economists traditionally have seen human resource management as a

necessary expense, rather than as a source of value to their organizations. Economic

value is usually associated with capital--cash, equipment, technology, and facilities.

However, research has demonstrated that HRM practices can be valuable.3 Decisions

such as whom to hire, what to pay, what training to offer, and how to evaluate employee

performance directly affect employees' motivation and ability to provide goods

and services that customers value. Companies that attempt to increase their competitiveness

by investing in new technology and promoting quality throughout the organization

also invest in state-of-the-art staffing, training, and compensation practices.4

The concept of "human resource management" implies that employees are resources

of the employer. As a type of resource, human capital means the organization's

employees, described in terms of their training, experience, judgment, intelligence,

relationships, and insight--the employee characteristics that can add economic value

to the organization. In other words, whether it manufactures automobiles or forecasts

the weather, for an organization to succeed at what it does, it needs employees with

certain qualities, such as particular kinds of training and experience. This view means

employees in today's organizations are not interchangeable, easily replaced parts of a

system but the source of the company's success or failure. By influencing who works

for the organization and how those people work, human resource management therefore

contributes