Volume 4, Number 2

This paper examines the concept of strategic human resource management (SHRM) in a global organisational environment. The paper tries to indicate that through SHRM, the role of a human resource manager becomes critical in ensuring strategic visioning of the organisation, especially nowadays when organisations are becoming more competitive in terms of product and service delivery than ever before. Strategic competitiveness works through people. But it is the role of the human resource manager to ensure that people can ensure quality delivery onto the market segment. This can be done through internal training, robust recruitment procedures, and good
pay. There is an increasing need for human resource professionals to identify what capabilities they need, and to become insightful advisers and architects for organisations, not just to care for, but also build culture. The article further looks at the challenges and opportunities with respect to diversity, e-HRM, and managing human resources internationally. There is the challenge of multiculturalism in global organisations which poses two competing socialities: shared agency and conflicting socialities.

Keywords: Strategic human resource management; human resource management; shared socialites; competing socialitie