Human Resource Organization Asset

Essay Title: Write a short essay that discusses the following statement, using examples and references to support your answer: “Human Resource* is the most important asset of an organization.”

Introduction

According to Boudreau and Ramstad (2007), human resources refer to the individuals who implement organizational duties with the aim of enhancing the achievement of its goals and objectives. In most cases, an organization is made up of three chief assets, which facilitates the organization`s capabilities of producing goods and services. These assets include intangible, physical and financial assets. The intangible assets comprises of the goodwill, intellectual capital (process technology, product designs, and product patents), and human resource. Nevertheless, human resource is not only the most valuable intangible asset, but also the most important asset (out of the three major asset) an organization. This paper pays high attention to an argument that supports this rationale.

In this globalized world, the importance of employee has been constantly being emphasized by organizations. In addition, since the contemporary workforce is turning more diverse and most organizations are working tirelessly in order to maximize the benefits of the differences in employees, most organizational leaders are changing from being side-line players to front-line players. Most organizations are relying on its human resources in order to organizational duties are implemented effectively, efficiently, and upon the set period. This means that the core competences of employees contribute greatly in differentiating an organization from its competitors. The core competences of employees and the ability of an organization to nurture them, enables the organization to attain a sustained competitive advantage. Pfeffer (1994) suggests that embracing occasional training of employees does not only increase the organization`s potential of achieving its goals and objective, but also increases its chances of achieving technological innovations, high rates of employees` retention, and developing the ability of employees to maintain their competitiveness focus in the global market.

Moreover, since competition between various organizations is on the rise, change is a chief aspect in any business. For example, an organization may think it has achieved after developing and introducing new product in the market. However, after some time, some of its competitors may adopt and enhance the same product in terms of quality, appearance, packing, and so forth, and this make them more sales than the initial organization that produced the product. A good example is the competition that exists between Apple and Microsoft Companies.  Betz (2001) reveals that in 2000, Microsoft`s market cap was approximately $500 billion while Apple was still on the brink with approximately $16 billion. However, in the recent past, Apple`s market cap was around $ 240 billion, which is $5 billion higher than that of Microsoft. The author pointed out that this situation was a shock to most individuals since Microsoft had been dominating for decades, as the pioneer in the computer industry. With this regard, human resource enables an organization to not only comprehend the magnitude of existing completion, but also to acknowledge the growing tide of competition, and to adopt effective measures that increases its competitive edge.

Consecutively, the competitive edge of an organization is enhanced by the creativity and talents of employees. According to Pfeffer (1994), most organizations are nowadays embracing workforce diversity, which increases these organization`s innovative abilities, problem solving skills, decision-making process, productivity, among others. Every employee has his or her unique talent and areas of specialization, and this enables these employees to implemented duties that they are mandated by the organization with ease. However, this is possible when each employee is allocated duties based on his or her area of specialization. Moreover, a talent is hard to find and even more challenging to replace since the demand for getting talented employees are not only high, but also permanent. Therefore, placing employees in the wrong job positions can result to numerous negative effects to both the employee and the organization. For example, the employees` morale decreases due to job dissatisfaction, high rates of employees` turnover, decreased productivity, additional costs and time wasting during frequent recruitments of new employees required for replacing those who quit, empowerment of competitors especially when talented employees opt to quit and join similar organizations in the industry, among others.

Employees are also the driving force that contributes to the growth and development of an organization. Each employee possesses a unique knowledge, which he or she had acquired from past experiences, discoveries, interaction with co-workers and other stakeholders such as customers and suppliers. This means that the utilization of each individual`s innate capabilities is a milestone to the performances and achievements of an organization. Consecutively, human knowledge contributes to organizational growth and developments through enhancing the organization`s potential to contemplate, adapt, and focuses on improving its weaknesses. In addition, new and young organizations are anticipated to suffer from the liability of newness, and this hinders them from developing compared with established enterprises, due to lack of information and skill gaps. According to Unger, Rauch, & Frese (2011), young businesses are highly confronted with different new issues and tasks, and for them to survive they must respond to these situations with immediate decisions and actions. However, adequately knowledgeable employees enable these new organizations to not only learn new roles and adapt to new situations, but also to grow and develop.

In addition, human resource is the most important organizational asset since its commitment and morale can be influence through the various motivational programs. In any organization, employees feel highly motivated when their efforts are recognized by the organization. Sims (2002) depicts that there are numerous means in which an organization can recognize employees` contributions, such as medical benefits, sharing of profits as an end-year reward, long service award, paid time off, personal glooming bonus, attendance bonus, performance bonus, simple appreciations such as “good work, well done, keep it up,” among others. Enhancing employees` morale through these motivational methods make these employees feel valued by the organization, and this, in the long run, results to high productivity and reduced rates of employee turnover.

Conclusion

It is, therefore, evident that human resource is the most important asset of an organization. For an organization, especially the young ones, to survive and succeed in this competitive world, it must consider employees as the core factor for success. These organizations manage to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage over its competitors through the availability of innovative workforce, adequate and readily available skills for making quick decisions. Generally, human resource is a valuable asset that must be hired, satisfied, and developed in order to accomplish greater organizational success.

Bibliography

Betz, F. (2001). Executive strategy strategic management and information technology. New York: J. Wiley. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10304291.

Boudreau, J. W. & Ramstad, P. M, (2007). Beyond Human Resource. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. ISBN 978-1-4221-0415-6

Pfeffer, J., 1994. Competitive Advantage through People. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Sims, R. R. (2002). Managing organizational behavior. Westport CT: Greenwood Press.

Unger, J. M., Rauch, A., & Frese, M. (2011). Human capital and entrepreneurial success: A meta-analytical review. Journal of Business Venturing , 341-358.