An organisation’s success increasingly depends on the knowledge, skills and abilities of its employees, particularly as they help establish a set of core competencies (activities that the firm performs especially well when compared to its competitors and through which the firm adds value to its goods and services over a long period of time, e.g. ONGC 's oil exploration capabilities and Dell's ability to deliver low cost, high-quality computers at an amazing speed) that distinguish an organisation from its competitors.
When employees’ talents are valuable, rare, difficult to imitate and organised, a firm can achieve sustained competitive advantage through its people. The strategic role of HR management focuses attention on how to enable ordinary employees to turn out extraordinary performance, taking care of their ever-changing expectations.
The key areas of attention in this era of global competition include effective management of key Resources (employees, technology, work processes), while delivering cost effective, valueenhancing solution.
