HR Practice versus Organizational Performance: Identifying Relevant Approaches to HR Development

Abstract

This study seeks to illustrate the demonstrable link existing between the Human Resource (HR) practice and the organizational performance. The discussion focuses on the perspective of the hard and soft approaches towards HR development. It is a theoretical research based on a selected extant scholarly literature. Having considered the various HR practices involved in enhancing the working environment of the employees, there is a leading indication that the nature of such an environment has a corresponding implication on the overall performance of an organization. Moreover, the other factors that have a direct impact on the performance of an organization include the following areas: nature of handling the ethical concerns in the workplace, availability of structured mentoring and coaching programs, and a demonstration of a clearly incorporated process of career development and succession planning. Furthermore, it is observed that the hard and soft approaches to HR development are not absolute factors, but rather the ideal organization is one that pursues a hybrid approach of the two: the one that neither purely hard nor purely soft in its approach to its HR practice. Indeed, it is argued that the cut line between the two approaches can be quite fine to appreciate the difference at the interface.