The size of an organization, among various other factors, plays an important role in determining the type and shape of organizational strategies, including human resource strategies. This paper aims to examine the relationship between different strategies of recruitment in the Indian software industry and size of organization (in terms of number of employees) with the help of a survey. It also attempts to explore the dimensions of recruitment strategies, namely whom to recruit, from where to recruit and how to recruit, in this industry. Research premises have been examined on the basis of several variables like internal and external recruitment, recruitment of people with right skills, strategy of succession planning, identification of manpower requirements in advance and manpower planning with five yearly projections. The findings corroborate the proposition that recruitment strategies of such organizations vary with their size and that such strategies are focussed to meet short-term requirements.
The
rapid diffusion of technological innovation all over the
globe has dramatically accelerated competition (Bettis and
Hitt, 1995; Friedman, 1999) among technology-based firms,
which are experiencing a shift in the source of competitive
advantage from tangible resources to knowledge, which is
valuable, rare and inimitable. Strategists have found out
that a focus solely on physical resources is short sighted,
as they cannot render sustained competitive advantage in
the long-run. Superior human resource, on the other hand,
can help organizations attain such competitive advantage.
Any futuristic organization that has long-term vision would
thus set its corporate goals contingent upon accumulation
of knowledge and talent inherent in quality human resource.
This trend has led scholars to study the knowledge creation
capability and how firms can develop this unique competence
(Grant, 1996; Kogut and Zander, 1992; Nahapiet and Ghoshal,
1998).
Contemporary
management practices indicate that many leading organizations
have adopted an investment perspective towards their human
resource. They are focusing on their workforce composition
as an integral part of their human resource strategies.
As in any other case, here too one must look at the basics.
The quality of human resource is to be ensured at the time
of recruitment. Getting the right number and right kind
of people in the right places at the right times, doing
things that benefit them as individuals and the organization
as a whole, is gradually becoming an arduous and multifaceted
process. This, along with the changes in the external as
well as the internal environment of any organization, demand
a more comprehensive and more strategic outlook towards
recruitment of employees. |
