Emerging human resource practices at Aditya Birla Group.

This article describes in detail through a longitudinal case study the emerging nature of human resources (HR) practices at Aditya Birla Group and, more importantly, links it to the strategic redesign that the whole organization underwent from 1995 to 2006. The longitudinal case study provides a snapshot of the dynamic and turbulent nature of the new liberalized Indian economic environment and how an organization such as Aditya Birla Group needed to brace itself from competition through innovative HR practices. The article argues that in challenging liberalizing business environments like India, the nature of HR itself demands that organizations develop new capabilities and that HR's role is to reevaluate its competencies and develop new ones to help in the overall strategic redesign of organizations. The article elaborates on two critical issues: (1) the peculiarities and defining characteristics of HR models unique to India and (2) the main factors that shape people management policies and practices in the liberalized Indian environment. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]