The advent of information technology has changed the world around us. The competitive scenario of the business is experiencing new order. Organisations are investing heavily on IT applications and infrastructure to support their business processes and operations. IT influences the business in three ways—Information technology practices, Information management practices and Information behaviours. The issue of fitting HR practices to IT strategies has become increasingly relevant over few years. The HR functionaries have to work in close coordination with the IT initiatives for creating the high performance work system and thereby help an organisation to achieve its objectives efficiently and effectively. The key challenge to human resource managers is not to ensure the HR and IT fit only but also they are required to define and communicate the information behaviours expected of the employees and initiate an organisational culture building exercise for internalising and espousing the desired values. The present paper has been divided into five parts. In part one and two, changes occurring in the business environment and strategic view of HR1-M have been discussed respectively. In third and fourth part, the concept of HR and IT fit, determinants of fit and challenges have been discussed. In the last part, conclusions have been drawn that what needs to be done on the part of the HR functionaries and the organisation itself to enhance the strategic fit between HR and IT and thereby achieve organisational effectiveness.
Global Journal of Business Management Vol. 2 No. 2, December 2008