2. Literature Review
2.1 Human Resource Management (HRM)
In today’s knowledge economy, the success of organizations depends mainly on the
performance of their human resources (HR) (Lippert and Swiercz, 2005). Human resource
management is about the procedures and practices that encompass the human resource aspect
within organizations (Dessler and Al Ariss, 2012). Such practices should be connected to the
overall strategy of the organization. This was discussed by Bratton and Gold (2003) who
stated that "the strategic approach to managing employment relations which emphasizes that
leveraging people's capabilities is critical to achieving sustainable competitive advantage" (p.
7). Many researchers supported this and commented that the change from a primarily
administrative personnel function to a more strategic position attends to re-design the nature
of the HRM functions (see for example Ulrich, 1997; Sheehan and Cooper, 2011).