Compete Strategize With Human Capital By Dr Ekta Sharma

  Impact of HR practices & policies on the knowledge sharing in a firm   Let us briefly examine some of the HR processes and practices that should be aligned to strengthen knowledge management. At the stage of induction of new executives into the organization, coaching and mentoring systems are meant to transfer knowledge, exposure during training to variety of functions, units and geographical locations helps knowledge awareness / transfer. Employees will benefit from "Mentorship," not only during the initial months but also for a long time after that. The role of the mentor in the later period would be to challenge the executive to look beyond the obvious, look for past learning and base decisions on a more informed platform. Job rotations : Well-planned job (role) rotations across geographical locations and businesses in a firm help not only people development, but also provide an important vehicle for transfer of knowledge and best practices, even though an o...

 Value of Human Capital Of course, human resource professionals have long understood the value of human capital and they have struggled to find a way to communicate this value. That is the very essence of human resource management today: to define the value of human capital, to find ways to accurately measure it, and to ensure the investment in and protection of this human capital. Anything less, and HR professionals have failed their organizations. And yet this process is replete with problems and obstacles. Calculating the value of our employees is difficult because they are not like any other asset; they are simultaneously the greatest potential asset and the greatest potential liability that an organization has at any given time. They are the only intangible asset that can be influenced but never completely controlled. A company can invest heavily in its human capital, or it can waste it without a care. Either way, the human capital still has its inherent value, but perhaps...

 THE STRATEGIC ROLE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT The Human resource function has to always prepare a promising case for any activity that they propose as it is perceived as expenditure by the financial heads. The HR budgets are pared the first in the times of financial crisis. The field of SHRM, facilitates the HR department  to demonstrate the value of HR function to the organization In 1984, Devanna,  Fombrun and Tichy could link the HR and corporate strategy and laid the foundation for new field in HR i.e. SHRM. SHRM focuses on aligning human capital with the corporate strategy to increase competitiveness of the organization. According to Aswathappa (2004), “the advent of SHRM has brought forward the issues of linkages between the employer-employee relationships and wider organizational strategies and corporate objectives”.  Since, the ‘employee’ is at centre of the business as the competitive advantage, the role of SHRM becomes critical.  The organizational ...

The world around us is dynamic. Some time ago we discussed being in VUCA world and strategizing the sustenance accordingly. VUCA is the acronym for  Volatile, Uncertain, complex, and ambiguous.  This was related to the concept ' Change is the only permanent aspect in the world' and we witness that the one who can unlearn and relearn quickly to adapt to the changing environment is the one who survives. Oh!! that looks like Charles Darwin's theory of the 'survival of the fittest'. Very true!!! why did dinosaurs extinct? We all know the answer- the dinosaurs could not adapt to the changing environment.....  That remains true for us today.  Adapt or perish!!! So, the VUCA world pointed towards these uncertainties, ambiguities, volatility and complexity. The term VUCA was popular in 1980's when the cold war stuck the world and it referred to the conditions of the planet in those times and later it was swiftly adopted by business philosophers in 2000s for the formulat...

 Human resource across globe is observing sharp trends. Furlough, hiring freeze, great resignation, moonlighting and now once again layoff.  Elon Musk decided for mass layoff at Twitter few days back. Now, Zuckerberg announced layoff of 11,000 employees of Meta. Those who could survive this lay off  are also grappled with fear of their future at work. Its the great example and time to observe 'Survivors syndrome', defined as the fear amongst the employees who survive after the company's decision to lay off the other colleagues.  The issue is grave but I am startled with the other issue- Workforce planning, strategic human resource management. The reason to raise these issues is the news about the employee who joined meta two days ago and for joining his job he relocated to the other country (Canada) where he was assigned work. Just two days into the new job and new location, he was informed that he was laid off (Times of India, 11th Nov 2022. Pg.13, column 2). Doesn'...

Moonlighting: Old trend coming to light now   Wipro sacked 300 employees on the ground of a ‘breach of integrity and employment contract’. The employees were found to be working for Wipro’s competitor, even when they were on Wipro’s payroll. That’s what is termed ‘moonlighting’. Moonlighting is the practice of an employee working for another employer even when he is full-time employed with one employer. Many IT companies raised concerns against moonlighting and warned the employees of the harsh repercussions if found to be involved in it. The Pandemic and Working from home are considered the factors which led to the prevalence of moonlighting practices. This is not limited to specific geography but is observed across the globe. Industry veterans like IBM, Wipro, and Infosys termed it ‘unethical’ and cautioned employees to read the employment contract before accepting the assignment outside the organization. This thought implies that the employee has no discretion to utilize his...

 Interestingly, I was explaining an electrovalent bond and covalent bonds and due to my natural bias for behavioural science, I found an explanation of the differences in the molecular bond types in the human behaviour.  Electrovalent bonds are between two atoms which form ions by giving away or borrowing the electrons from other atom, in order to achieve stability. E. G. Sodium(Na) has atomic number 11 and has configuration 2,8,1. So it has 1 extra electron which it donate to the atom in need like chlorine(Cl) which has configuration of 2,8,7. Chlorine is short of electron to achieve stability. So Na donates to Cl and make NaCl. These bonds are not strong and can be broken.  Other side covalent bonds are formed by mutual sharing  of the electrons between atoms e.g. Carbon. Carbon has 4 electrons in its outer shell and it form bonds with another  carbon atom and complete it's own shell as well as the shell of the other carbon atom making the outer shell of both ...