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A Knowledge economy encompasses capabilities of people than those of machines. It centers on Human capital. Accessing and sharing knowledge globally has become a reality thanks to networking and connectivity. In short, knowledge has become an integral component of all products and services. It has become an entity independent of time and space and has led to economic growth in terms of both volume and revenue. Adequate man power supply and information infrastructure will increase the information literacy of our citizens and will reflect positively on the e-readiness of our country.

‘Knowledge is the most democratic source of power.’
-Alvin Toffler

The different components of a Knowledge system are as follows.

1. Access to knowledge- This can be facilitated through open access literature, open software and by strengthening libraries and information infrastructure.

2.Knowledge concepts- This includes Professional skills and independent capabilities

3.Knowledge creation- This encompasses independent research capabilities and self sufficiency in knowledge

4.Knowledge application- This involves maximum benefits from intellectual assets to enhance productivity

5.Knowledge Services- This involves coherent knowledge dissemination that makes government functioning more accountable.

An important ingredient that integrates all the unconnected components is human resources.

The Role of Human Resources

A Knowledge Economy requires success at three levels- sensing, mobilizing and operationalising. The combination of competencies required is called organizational capabilities. Human Resource Management (HRM) is required to create organizational capabilities in a knowledge economy. In this new environment, a human resource management has to step out of the traditional mantle and assume new and dynamic role of managing capabilities that people create and relationships that people must develop. More flexibility is required to facilitate adaptations and adjustments.

The responsibilities in Human resource management in a knowledge economy will be the demanding role of

1.Human capital Steward, who accumulates and conserves collective knowledge

2.Facilitator, who encourages learning, sharing and rewards knowledge accumulation

3.Relationship Builder, who creates synergy through cross cultural team work

4.Rapid Deployment Specialist, who is versatile in evolving flexible HRM architecture

Power, prestige and money flows into indispensible intellectual property. Intellectual capitals are bought and sold in Human capital markets. Knowledge, rather than goods and services are the crucial components of the new world economies. As Don Tapscott (1996) rightly pointed out, added value is created by brains rather than brawns. Knowledge Economy has spawned a global knowledge based organisation transforming the world into a single homogenous market. Human Resource Management is the epicenter of such profound transformation. As it is drawn into greater prominence, it can create greater impact. Human Resource management should tap into the innovative pulse of the nation and build networks and communication to ensure competence.

CONCEPT OF STRATEGIC HRM

It covers the concepts and practices that guide and align Human Resource Management philosophy, tactical planning and practice with the strategic and long term goals of the organization, with a particular focus on human capital.

It deals with the macro-concerns of the organization regarding structure, quality, culture, values, commitment, matching resources to future needs and other longer term people issues. Strategic HRM gives direction on how to build the foundation for strategic advantage by creating an effective organizational structure and design, culture, employee value proposition, systems thinking, an appropriate communication strategy and preparing an organization for a changing landscape, which includes downturns and mergers & acquisitions.

Sustainability and corporate social responsibility come within the ambit of this discipline, especially with reference to organizational values and their expression in business decision making. Strategic HRM emphasizes organizational codes of ethics, managing the societal impact of business decisions, philanthropy and the role of the human resource professional in improving the quality of life of employees, their families and the community at large.

Strategic HRM :-It consists of the processes (and, by extension, the data) that make a difference where it matters, by increasing materially the revenues and/or profits of the organization (or, for public sector organizations, by increasing materially the degree to which the mission is accomplished).  Strategic HRM accomplishes this via the effective and efficient performance of individuals, of teams, and of other organizational units, where workforce performance can be enhanced by methods generally under the control of HR leadership.  Thus, strategic HRM focuses on specific levers of individual and organizational performance, including:  

• Better definition and organization of work roles;
• More accurate modeling of work role-specific KSAOCs, (i.e. knowledge, skills, abilities, behaviors, etc.);
• Improved generation, selection, deployment, motivation and retention of KSAOC-rich persons;
• More flexibility to deploy KSAOC-rich non-employee workers, e.g. consultants and contractors;
• Improved generation, collection, sharing and deployment of organizational knowledge;
• More effective deployment of electronic performance support systems, e.g. knowledge bases, analytics, and performance coaching applications;
• Greater motivation of the workforce toward desired behaviors, outcomes and KSAOC growth via targeted total compensation plans and work environment programs;
• Improved forecasting and development of needed KSAOCs;
• Improved design and execution of performance management and leadership development programs;
• Creation of a work environment that removes barriers to and encourages effective and innovative performance;
• More effective relations with labor organizations and with the workforce; and
• Better day-to-day coaching, mentoring, assignment, development and career planning, and performance management.

Give Me That KSAOC Religion!

Not surprisingly, KSAOCs are at the heart of strategic HRM – finding them, acquiring them, motivating them, developing them, removing barriers to unleashing them etc. – and KSAOCs must be at the heart of your HRM processes and data if you’re trying to do anything strategic about HRM.  What should also be clear is the interconnectedness between these strategic HRM processes and the bedrock, system of record objects on which they are totally dependent, including JOB, POSITION, WORK UNIT, WORK LOCATION, TOTAL COMPENSATION PLAN, the PERSON object hierarchy, and the list goes on.  The larger the swath of strategic HRM that you’re trying to implement, to technology-enable, in order to accomplish needed business outcomes, the more inextricably entertwined are these strategic processes with the structural, often administrative underpinnings upon which they depend.   

For example, recording the termination of an employee is clearly administrative record-keeping, but determining which managers are having disproportionately high turnover, when other variables are accounted for, is very important information for driving the design of supervisory and manager developmental programs.  Keeping track of employee eligibility and enrollment in various health and welfare benefit plans is certainly an administrative responsibility, but determining to what extent the design of these same plans is enabling or working against our retention of top performers is essential to managing organizational performance.  In fact, we can find strategic data connections inside nearly all our humble administrative transactions, and therein lies a very real challenge for the design of your HRM delivery system.  

Another really good example, and one which is so familiar as to lull us into a false sense of security, is managing headcount.  It’s on the backs of such administrative transactions as hires, terminations, promotions, and transfers that headcount reports are made.  But what’s really important about headcount management is to understand what KSAOCs are coming and going through the organization. Are we losing critical KSAOCs at twice the rate at which we’re replacing them?  Are the confirmed deadwood staying even as our best and brightest walk out the door?  Are offers made but not yet accepted turning into offers never accepted for reasons that could be avoided?  And why are some managers’ staff self-identifying for every posted opportunity?  Is it a rush to get away from said managers or that those managers are encouraging career development at their own expense?  So many questions whose answers depend on having the data surrounding those administrative transactions designed to support these more strategic questions.  

“Killer” Scenarios For KSAOC-Centric HRM

Whether you’re evaluating HRM software for in-house implementation or evaluating the HRM delivery systems of HRM BPO providers, you won’t get strategic HRM support unless your vendor or provider has a KSAOC-centered platform.  Figure 1 above (click to enlarge) provides a collection of “killer” scenarios for determining to what extent your HRM software vendor’s products or HRM BPO provider’s platform provide a KSAOC-centric approach to all of the covered/in-scope HRM processes.  For each of the seven highest level HRM processes, the phrases shown in Figure 1 are examples of what goes on in those processes that can only be completed by having an agreed upon vocabulary for KSAOCs with which to replace the “…”.  Furthermore, the relationships among these highest level processes are all about KSAOCs – organizing the work around them, attracting a workforce which has them, developing them in the workforce, incenting their use via total compensation plan design, creating an environment which is conducive to their use, focusing relationships with labor organizations to obtain them, and leading the workforce every day to deploy them, to name just a few.  

Now that the connection between KSAOCs and strategic HRM is clear, let’s NOT lose this connection through the short-sighted use of HRM software silos, whether your own or those of a BPO provider.  And don’t let the design and automation, again whether your own or those of a BPO provider, of those administrative processes hobble your ability to achieve the important business results that only strategic HRM can produce.  When we owned the entire HRM delivery system, we only had to negotiate with ourselves, which was hard enough to do, when we realized that we had failed to design the initial data, processes and transactions to serve more than an administrative purpose.  But when we have outsourced a good chunk of that HRM delivery system, we have to negotiate with our outsourcing provider(s) to redo those early data, process and transaction designs in order to achieve our HRM business outcomes.  Of course, if we never defined those business outcomes in the first place, or if we failed to link those outcomes to the needed HRM delivery system capabilities, then we don’t even know what strategic HRM processes are needed, let alone by what metrics we would measure their delivery.  If we’ve never made the journey down the Yellow Brick Road, shame on us!

 <a href://www.govindam.org> Govindam Business School </a>