HRD AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Relationship between Competitive Advantage and Training and Development of Employees at Workplace

Relationship between Competitive Advantage and Training and Development of Employees at Workplace

Literature Review

There are number of approaches organizations at present utilize to create competitive advantage, in order to survive in the fiercely competitive market. However, there is a fact that global economy is transitioning to knowledge economy, where human resource of the company are considered as most important resource for business. Therefore, scholars are focusing on developing human resource as competitive advantage for the business. There are number of approaches considered by businesses for making human resource as competitive advantage for the company. Training and development of employees in this context is considered one of the best approaches by number of researches (Curry, 1996; Brooks & Nafukho, 2006; Markley & Davis, 2007; Schlesinger & Heskett, 2012) for making human resource of the company as competitive advantage for the company. The literature review in this connection will be evaluating different researches, which provide broader perspective on the relationship between competitive advantage and training and development of employees in the workplace.

Training and Development

Human resource management in the 21st century is an organizational role that focuses on meeting the challenges of attracting, retaining, managing, and developing highly qualified and motivated people needed by today's government organizations. Current literature supports this idea. For example, much of today's literature indicates that HRM is being reinvented and is experiencing constant challenges to satisfy the needs and expectations of the workforce. Researchers have found that human resource managers must now respond to changes in the nature of HRM, current practices, policies, organization mission, and vision. The literature also suggests that reinvention trends toward improving government practices directly relate to HRM. The literature often frames the trends in HRM as innovative and participative. This suggests that human resource managers are now involved in strategic planning, are taking a proactive role in the development of employees, and are increasingly active in the organization's decision-making process. Since the implementation of the first factories and industries in the corporate world, the training was already used as a tool for organizing and upgrading work (Brooks & Nafukho, 2006). Over the years, this process gained further strength and has become essential for companies that want to stand out in the market and betting on good professionals to provide quality products and services.

Much more than passing knowledge, trainings aim to train professionals who in turn are expected to meet the expectations of the companies (Schlesinger & Heskett, 2012). Training is the key word for those who crave success; and many organizations already have plans and special programs focusing on their needs to build teams, who are prepared and updated in context of challenging situation and technological advancement respectively.

Wilson (2005) in this relation explained that although the main objective of the training is the company's profitability, they also end up contributing to the professional and personal life of the employee. It is common for organizations to invest in training both technical and ...