What is Agile Human Resource Management ?

                                        Figure 01

Introduction

For many years, both industry and academia have focused heavily on the issue of how companies can effectively deal with the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity of today's environments (the "VUCA world"). Although agility is seen as a trendy management concept, it has existed for a long time. Despite having a history that extends back to the 1920s, it only really came to light in the 1960s when some experts created theories on how organizations would handle the more unpredictable world. The word "agility" was coined in the 1990s by academics at Pennsylvania's Lehigh University. Aiming initially at agile production, supply chain management, software development, production economics, and information technology gradually adopted the concept.

In the current business environment, there is growing interest in agile HRM as many firms have shifted their strategies and practices to incorporate agile techniques in a variety of organizational domains, including project management, operations management, human resource management, and more. When it comes to their jobs, employees want more freedom and autonomy as well as recognition for their efforts. An increasingly popular trend today is to use this agility in the context of human resource management. Agile HRM places a strong emphasis on treating each person as an individual. 'HRM for Agile' and 'Agile for HRM' are two distinct Agile HRM viewpoints that are currently being used. The majority of the time, practitioners use the phrase "HRM for agile" to describe how to develop and deploy HRM systems that help a business implement agile. The phrase "Agile for HRM" refers to the use of agile concepts and principles in HRM operations.

 

Definition and Development of Agility

In the 1991 Iacocca Institute paper titled "21st Century Manufacturing Company Strategy," the Persian word agility was used for the first time in an organizational context. (Candan et al., 2017).

proactive and swift enterprise element response to unforeseen and unanticipated developments (Sherehiy et al., 2007).

 By integrating reconfigurable resources and best practices in a knowledge-rich environment, agility is the successful exploration of competitive bases (speed, flexibility, innovation proactivity, quality, and profitability) in order to deliver customer-driven goods and services in a rapidly evolving market environment. (Yusuf et al. (1997).

According to another definition, "agility is the ability to create and respond to change to profit in a turbulent business environment" (Highsmith, 2002).

The organization's strategic flexibility to adjust to rapid market developments. (Rzepka & Bojar 2020).

 In today's competitive world, agility fosters flexibility and responsiveness and is more and more associated with organizational success. (Harraf et al. 2015).

 

What is Agility?

 

Figure 02 

 (Teich and Faddoul 2013) When referring to a continuous technique, Agile means maximizing/expanding the capacity to develop and deliver goods and services more quickly and more effectively. Agile concepts work at several levels of philosophy and culture and have an impact on the teams, individual employees, and leaders' roles and behaviours.

The waterfall model's shortcomings led to the adoption of agility as a concept in the IT software development sector. In terms of project management techniques, the waterfall model was highly well-liked in the 1970s. The progress is essentially tracked using this way, step by step. There was, however, little opportunity for error or flexibility. (Thoren, 2017).

What is Agile HRM? 

Agile is now applicable to more than only technology (Cappelli & Tavis, 2021). It has filtered into a variety of other crucial areas and tasks that a business prioritizes, including product development, production, marketing, etc. It is currently changing how businesses find, select, train, and manage their personnel. Agile will have a significant impact on HR, including hiring, training & development, motivation, engagement, pay, and performance (Thoren, 2017). When used in a business setting, the term "agility" mostly relates to workforce agility, which involves adapting labor levels to changes in demand.

Figure 03 

Difference between Traditional HRM and Agile HRM 

Structures used in traditional human resource management are a direct result of the industrial revolution. These concepts and structures are now evolving to keep up with the world's accelerating change. Additionally, in this age of information and knowledge abundance, the demands of the individual are prioritized over those of the system. Knowledge workers currently have to cope with complicated issues as technology is always changing. The distinction between conventional HRM and agile HRM is shown in Table 1.

 

Traditional HRM	Agile HRM
Top-down, hierarchical organizations can be seen. Decisions making power is not delegated among the parts of the organization.	Practice bottom-up approach where effective communication and the decision making foster.
There are episodic processes that are standardized and reactive.	There are ongoing processes that are proactive. Processes are implemented on the need basis.
There are HR specialists or HR generalists, or HR admins	There are T-shaped HR people who can take on many different roles
Mainly focused on HR functions	Mainly focused on value stream-based HR
Human view is negative	Human view is positive
Extrinsic motivation is there	Intrinsic motivation is there
The HR role is to control and implement standards	The HR role is to support and coach organizational agility
Seldom feedbacks are present	Frequent feedbacks are present

Table 01 

Conclusion

Companies of all sizes, from start-ups to established giants, must operate effectively and efficiently if they are to succeed. However, many businesses are mired in archaic and restrictive human resource procedures and methods that work against rather than for the organization As a result, the assistance provided by human resource techniques is ineffective and slow. The active HR, however, implies that this is not the case. Agile HR promotes greater teamwork, quicker work cycles, and a stronger emphasis on collective effort. Instead of each employee working alone in accordance with the top management's directives, teams would plan, develop, and deliver HR initiatives under an Agile strategy. Agile HR methods thus enable firms to continuously help employees in achieving their goals and objectives in an effective and efficient manner.

References

Ranasinghe,V.,Sangarandeniya,Y.,(2021)Agile Human Resource Management : ResearchGate, pp.23-31[Online]Available from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/352135010 Accessed on 18th April 2023.

 Tolay, E., (2022)  Agility and Agile organization form employees perspective : A Qualitative research in the context of the SAAS business model , International Journal of Management Economics and Business, Vol. 18, No. 4, 2022 [Online] Available from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/366513920 Accessed on 18th April 2023

Figure 01

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fvitalitychicago.com%2Fblog%2Fwhat-would-an-agile-human-resources-department-do%2F&psig=AOvVaw1gr6aWQxzKuxh7VTjF9EBZ&ust=1681976009124000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CBEQjRxqFwoTCLCKk4e3tf4CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAE

Figure 02

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aihr.com%2Fblog%2Fagile-hr%2F&psig=AOvVaw1gr6aWQxzKuxh7VTjF9EBZ&ust=1681976009124000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CBEQjRxqFwoTCLCKk4e3tf4CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAJ

Figure 03

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Figniteorganizations.com%2Fthe-journey-towards-an-agile-hr-function%2F&psig=AOvVaw1gr6aWQxzKuxh7VTjF9EBZ&ust=1681976009124000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CBEQjRxqFwoTCLCKk4e3tf4CFQAAAAAdAAAAABAZ