EJ Buenaventura

BSBA-FM

1. There is a rapidly changing environment brought about by the advent of

globalization and deregulation of markets, changing customer and investor
demands and ever-increasing market competition. How can HR professionals
help solve these problems>?
To put it simply, they must either increase efficiency or contribute to revenue
growth. Human resources, both as labor and as a business function, have long been
regarded as a cost to be reduced and a possible source of efficiency gain. Labor
expenditures continue to be the single highest operational cost in many organizations, and
layoffs remain a prominent component of attempts to restructure operations and decrease
these costs. The difficulty is distinguishing between workforce reductions that are strictly
cost-cutting measures and restructurings that need fewer workers but produce value
because the new structures are better suited to the businesses' specific strategy. To
compete, they must improve their performance by lowering costs, innovating products
and processes, and increasing quality, productivity, and speed to market. Through the
Special Research Forum on Human Resource Management and Organizational
Performance, we hope to contribute to a better understanding of the role of human
resource decisions in creating and maintaining organizational performance and
competitive advantages.