Critically evaluate the contributions that human resource management can make to the achievement of an organization's strategic goals and objectives. Illustrate your answer with examples. In today's tumultuous times, the challenges businesses face in remaining competitive have changed rapidly. With constant new technological breakthroughs, businesses have fought hard against their competitors to establish and maintain their competitive advantage. However, access to capital and technology has become less critical in today's economy than the acquisition and retention of skilled workers. In a knowledge-based economy, it is important for businesses to be more strategic in the way they operate. Human resources management must today be strategic to meet the business needs of the company. At the same time, we must not lose sight of the crucial value and importance of people in making these strategies a reality. With this in mind, it is now necessary to look at HRM from a different perspective so that it can contribute to the achievement of business goals and objectives. Human resources management (HRM) has always played a role in the success of the company. the company, directly or indirectly. Like other areas of management, HRM involves setting policies, formulating plans and trying to make decisions in the best interests of the business and staff. Above all, the driving force behind the company's success lies in its employees. They give the company a competitive advantage and are the company's most valuable asset. It is therefore important that HRM helps the company to effectively and efficiently manage its human resources and have activities that would complement and promote the growth of the company. Therefore, human resource management is necessary to provide the overall support necessary to ensure that the strategic goals and objectives of the company can be achieved. Reference List: 1 John Bratton Strategic Human Resource Management. URL: http://www.palgrave.com/. business/brattonandgold/docs/bgcha02.pdf2. David Hussey (2002) Business Driven HRM A Best Practice Blueprint West Sussex, England John Wiley & Sons, Ltd3. Haig R. Nalbantian, Richard A. Guzzo, Dave Kieffer, and Jay Doherty (2004). Harness your strengths and manage your internal labor markets for sustainable competitive advantage United States McGraw-Hill4 (2002) 4thed Human Resource ManagementAustralia John Wiley & Sons5 CIPD revised May 2008 Strategic Human Resource ManagementURL: http://www. cipd. co.uk/subjects/corpstrtgy/general/strathrm.htm