Introduction
Human resource management holds responsibility for the presence of the most relevant constituent of a successful and fast growing business. In financial circles, this component carries the name of the workforce. It is considered that without a properly arranged HR department a company is a priori configured to the lower throughput and the overall underperformance. As Armstrong and Taylor (2014) admit in their book, “HR professionals as strategic business partners work closely with management, influencing the business strategy and contributing to its implementation” (p. 546). However, for the business strategy to have the intended effect companies need to realign their assets continually. Meanwhile, it often occurs that human resource department plays one of the crucial parts in promoting organizational development through the mentioned change process.
The Relation of Human Resource Functions to Organizational Development
Scholars differentiate the two types of forces affecting the organizational development: external and internal. External forces are not subject to control by a particular organization and can influence the entire industries. Among those one can highlight the four key factors: technological achievements, demographic situation, market changes, and socio-political pressures (Kinicki & Fugate, 2016). In the meantime, the internal forces find their origin in the operation of an organization itself. Such factors as the low productivity, job dissatisfaction, unmet needs, and turnover are possible to avoid should the board of directors alter a chosen employee policy. This claim is directly applicable to the operation of a human resource department. One of its functions is building a required level of employee commitment and supporting an established organizational culture (Delery & Gupta, 2016). The way this function is fulfilled strictly determines how fast or slow the organizational development will be.
Regarding the strategic role the human resource management (HRM) plays in organizational development, Delery and Gupta (2016) point out that “competitive advantage is obtained when resources are valuable, rare, and inimitable” (p. 140). A motivated and skilled employee is the key to forming an appropriate working environment and achieving the desired outcomes. Stimulating employees’ higher performance is, in fact, the other function HR department exercises in its daily practice: HRM does the strategic planning and develops a system to foster the occurrence of a skilled workforce. Defining each component of the system and putting it into further practice is, of course, the prerogative of an organization itself. However, providing the initial resources and evaluating their working capabilities is utterly the task that HR departments are expected to complete. The changes that they bring to a company often carry the decisive meaning for how competitive an organization will be on the market.
Conclusion
Summarizing the outcomes, the critical function of HRM is to eliminate the disruptive forces coming from within an organization by paying maximum attention to the way employees are treated at work. This balance between the needs of an individual and those of a company forms the background for the purposeful organizational development. As derived from the research, fulfilling the objectives mentioned above is impossible without the introduction of changes that are suited for both organizations and employees. Planning and implementing these changes is, yet, another task to complete for an HR department.
References
Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice (13th ed.). London, UK: Kogan Page Publishers.
Delery, J., & Gupta, N. (2016). Human resource management practices and organizational effectiveness: Internal fit matters. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 3(2), 139-163.
Kinicki, A., & Fugate, M. (2016). Organizational behavior: A practical, problem-solving approach. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.