Introduction

Initially, organisations gained a competitive advantage by inventing new products and production
system. Later on, the focus shifted to organizational structure and process to afford them the
competitive edge. The recent technological developments in informatics, communications and
biology have given rise to knowledge society where larger proportion of gross domestic product is
being accounted by services. In this service based new economy, skill, talent, efficiency, ideas,
energy and decision making power of employees are proved to be the driving forces in the ultimate
success of a business. Employees provide benefits to the business along with other tangible and
intangible resources. In today's world of competition and free economy, even with having equal
type of physical assets and amount of funds invested, business can only survive and grow on the basis
of skills, technologists and managing capacity of the people; in the absence of which the growth of
business cannot be thought of. Human beings with organisation are identified as human capital,
which is now being recognized as the human asset.

In the late fifties, the importance of manpower was recognized and was identified as the driving
force behind the success or failure of an organisation. The recognition of employees in an
organisation as an important force shifted the views from considering employees as an expense or
responsibility to important resource –Human resources.