POLITICS AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT – AN ANALYSIS

This paper analyses the politics and human resource management. The political changes to human resource management are complex and difficult to analyze. They determine the nature of working relationships and have an impact on both economic and social contexts. The political environment of an enterprise has a direct bearing on the political context or the political climate under which the human resource management of an organization functions. The key drivers of a political climate include the extent of external regulations, nature of work contracts, various labor legislations and case laws, to name a few. Such factors remain ever changing, and as such, the political atmosphere of human resource management remains in a constant change of flux. In the human resource management context, such political change suggests the market or economic conditions replacing the hitherto prevalent regulated welfare-oriented approach as the major factor governing employer-employee relationships. The increased human resource mobility owing to greater opportunities has raised fresh challenges for human resource management. The high cost of turnover and the loss of intellectual capital due to the lack of skilled employees have made Human Resource Management (HRM) a core strategic management function. The competitiveness of the firm now depends on how effectively HR managers devise interventions to retain existing talent and attract new talent.