Core competence: From a strategic human resource management perspective

Abstract

Core competence has become the prevailing term in strategic management (SM) and human resource management (HRM) literature. However, the exact meaning of the “core” term has been ambiguous to researchers, educators, and practitioners. This article addresses the interpretations of “core” in SM and HRM literature and adopts the Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) perspective to redefine core competence and human competence as organizational and individual capabilities that create organizational competitive advantage. We build a conceptual framework to show the relationship between core competence and human competence, and provide business and management implications.