Essay About Competitive Advantage And Human Resources

Competitive Advantage Through the Employees
Competitive Advantage Through the Employees
Competitive Advantage Through the Employees
Rahim K. Jassim (*)
Abstract
In todays fast-paced economy competition is an issue of services and products.
Much attention has been directed to a better service and the best product and how this
can be achieved through utilising the human resources. This research paper identifies
the competitive advantage concepts and models, competitive strategies and the main
human resource practices that have a significant impact on the employees performance.
Understanding sources of competitive advantage has become a major area of research in
the field of strategic management. Therefore this research paper also develops an
analytical framework for strategic management in order to initiate/formulate and
implements the strategic plans successfully. Three questions regarding identifying,
defending and achieving competitive advantage through the employees have been raised
and answered. Finally a summary of practical criteria of best practice for competitive
advantage is presented and a general discussion and recommendations have been drawn.
Keywords: Competitive advantage, HRM, Strategic Management, Selection,
Performance, Reward.
Introduction
The firm is regarded as a cohesive organism, which learns to adopt or find better
ways of doing things essentially in response to its environment (Child 1997: 67). The
question then is what really the firm should do to maintain or to optimise its situation in
its environment? Should it focus on its financial situation, its technology, or its human
resources?. To answer this question we should at first see what other researchers have
concluded. Barney 1991 suggests that, in order for a resource to qualify as a source of
sustained competitive advantage, the resource must add value to the firm, it must be
rare, it must be inimitable and it must be non-substitutable. Wright, et al 1994 have
shown that human resources meet Barneys criteria for being a source of sustainable
competitive advantage. Coff 1994 argues that human assets are a key source of
sustainable advantage because of causal ambiguity and systematic information making
them