1. Discuss That Technological Breakthrough Has Brought a Radical Changes in Hrm

The economic landscape underwent radical changes throughout the 1990s with Increasing globalization, technological breakthroughs (particularly Internet-enabled Web services), and hyper competition. Business process reengineering exercises became more common and frequent, with several initiatives, such as right sizing of employee numbers, reducing the layers of management, reducing the bureaucracy of organizational structures, autonomous work teams, and outsourcing. Firms today realize that innovative and creative employees who hold the key to organizational knowledge provide a sustainable competitive advantage because unlike other resources, intellectual capital is difficult to imitate by competitors. Accordingly, the people management function has become strategic in its importance and outlook and is geared to attract, retain, and engage talent. These developments have led to the creation of the HR or workforce scorecard (Becker, Huselid, & Ulrich, 2001; Huselid, Becker, & Beatty, 2005) as well as added emphasis on the return on investment (ROI) of the HR function and its programs (Cascio, 2000; Fitz-Enz, 2000, 2002). The increased use of technology and the changed focus of the HRM function as adding value to the organization’s product or service led to the emergence of the HR department as a strategic partner. With the growing importance and recognition of people and people management in contemporary organizations, strategic HRM (SHRM) has become critically important in management thinking and practice. SHRM derives its theoretical significance from the resource-based view of the firm that treats human capital as a strategic asset and a competitive advantage in improving organizational performance (Becker & Huselid, 2006). With the increasing use of information technologies in HR planning and delivery, the way people in organizations look at the nature and role of