The value and mission of human resource management in the era of the knowledge economy
Name: Chen Wenlong Student ID: S08202
Research paper supervisor:Dr.Sekou Conde
School of management Minzu University of China
2008-2009 Academic Year
Abstract: Enterprise are being involved in a new era dominated by knowledge economy.Human resource management is playing a more dominating role in the strategy of an enterprise. The challenge from knowledge economy requires the complete refreshing of the conventional Human resource management conceptions and the restructuring of the Human resource management system to meet the needs of the new era and ensure the survial and develpoment of an enterprise.After the analysis of knowledge economy era’s characteristics, the theis presents the challenges enteerprises face in the knowledge economy and status of China's human resources management. The paper also give some measures to solve the problem.
Key words: value and mission; human resource management; knowledge economy
1. Background
"Knowledge economy" is the development of human society emerged in the third wave of a new economic areas, and knowledge has become the most basic elements, the most effective factors of production to create wealth, knowledge productivity is the key in the "Knowledge economy" era and the labor productivity can not create more value, large-scale intensive production no longer is an advanced mode of production, so human resources have change into the most valuable scarce resources in the world. In order to keep up with the development trend of the era of knowledge economy, human resources development and management must reinforce the management of people’s knowledge, intelligence, skills and innovation ability to adapt to the needs of the knowledge-based economy[1].
2.The characteristics of human resources management under the knowledge-based economy
1).Definition of concept of knowledge economy
What is a knowledge economy? It is generally believed that knowledge economy is a new economic model which is different from the agricultural economy and industrial economy, based on the hold and configuration of the intellectual resources[2], the production, distribution and effective use of the konwledge. knowledge economy is a heritage and development of industrial economy and a process of knowledge economization and knowledge industrialization. The characteristics of knowledge economy and konwledge not noly change the human beings in political, economic, military, culture and way of thinking, ways of working and lifestyle,but also put forward a comprehensive human resources management challenges.
It can be argued that the knowledge economy differs from the traditional economy in several key respects:
The economics are not of scarcity, but rather of abundance. Unlike most resources that deplete when used, information and knowledge can be shared, and actually grow through application.
Laws, barriers, taxes and ways to measure are difficult to apply on solely a national basis. Knowledge and information "leak" to where demand is highest and the barriers are lowest.
Knowledge enhanced products or services can command price premiums over comparable products with low embedded knowledge or knowledge intensity.
Knowledge when locked into systems or processes has higher inherent value than when it can "walk out of the door" in people's heads.
Human capital — competencies — are a key component of value in a knowledge-based company, yet few companies report competency levels in annual reports. In contrast, downsizing is often seen as a positive "cost cutting" measure.
Communication is increasingly being seen as fundamental to knowledge flows. Social structures, cultural context and other factors influencing social relations are therefore of fundamental importance to knowledge economies.
These characteristics require new ideas and approaches from policy makers, managers and knowledge workers[3].
2). The characteristics of human resources management under the knowledge-based economy
Human resources, as knowledge creators, owners and the disposal of users, in the era of knowledge economy, not only is a special kind of the most important factors of production, but also one of the most special and important strategic resource. In the era of knowledge economy, human resources is a new kind of knowledge-based employees - knowledge worke, who in today's workforce is an individual that is valued for their ability to interpret information within a specific subject area. They will often advance the overall understanding of that subject through focused analysis, design and/or development. They use research skills to define problems and to identify alternatives. Fueled by their expertise and insight, they work to solve those problems, in an effort to influence company decisions, priorities and strategies.In a word, they have the following new features different from the past[4]:
(1) work of the Knowledge workers need creativity
Knowledge workers engaged in creative work, which is different from the past, and also different from the administrative and operational "white collar" jobs, but on their own knowledge and inspiration to cope with various situations that may occur to promote technology progress and product innovation.
(2) the process of knowledge workers is hard to monitor dircetly and the results of the work is difficult to measure
the work of knowledge workers is the complex thinking of brain, which is free from constraints of time and space, and doesn’t have exactly processes and steps, knowledge workers own the autonomy and can not be peeped and controled. Especially for some production of technology-intensive products, which are often the reuslts of the collective wisdom and difficult to split, which make difficulties for the measurement of the individual performance and the buildingof assessment system.
(3) knowledge workers in an organization has a strong independence and autonomy. Most people have an independent requirement,
the stronger the ability to independently engage in an activity ,the stronger awareness to own. Because of knowledge workers owning the knowledge capitaland some special skills, relying on this protection, they are often more inclined to work in an autonomous environment, not only do not want to subject outsiders, and can not put up with the remote command of their superiors.
(4) knowledge-based employees with high mobility of the will
Knowledge-based employees have the knowledge, skills and ability to continuously innovate, they do not want life-long work in an organization, they have changed the pursuit of life-long employment jobs into life-long employability.
3.The status of China's human resources management in the era of knowledge economy
1).Lack of qualified operators
Business manager is the core and soul of the enterprise. A successful manager should have scientific outlook (thinking) on development in the global competition, and focus on intellectual property development and continuous improvement of production technology.But the actual situation of nowadays, although the operator's level of education steadily increasing, the managers are far from being able to meet the needs of economic development,either quantity or quality. Therefore, the talent shortage is a widespread problem of human resource development.
2).. Lack of professional and technical personnel and senior technicians
The structure of the domestic education is not reasonable and training of personnel is also not consistent with market demand. With the development of the market economy, the gap of the professional and technical personnel and senior technicians is increasingly severe, human resources in China is big country, but it is not human power resources,so we should try our best to take some measures to turn the scale.
3). the lack of a complete mechanism for the talent market.
the market environment of China's human resources development has greatly improved a lot in recently years, but there are still many deficiencies. First, we should further break the barriers on the labor market, especially in rural and urban barriers, or it will seriously hamper China's economic development and further improvement of the labor market .Second, we should eliminate the discrimination in the labor market, such as gender discrimination, age discrimination, identity discrimination. Third, we should break the monopoly of the industry and allow free movement of talents and production factors on markets around the country.
4). Attention to management, but neglect of training and development
At present, there is still a gap about the overall quality of human resources between the developed countries and China . An important reason for this is that many enterprises attach importance to the management of staff, but neglect the training and development staff. Many multinational companies attach great importance to the training and development of their employees, they believe that investment in human resources to produce economic benefits can be multiplied, that’s to say ,the more invest,the more return[5].
4.The role of Human Resource Management in the era of the knowledge economy
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