Shafa Alishova

Strategic Human Resource Management in the Oil Sector: a Tale of Multi-national and State Oil Companies Shafa Alishova

Human capital, skills and knowledge of individuals is considered essential elements for an effective organizational performance. Researchers indicate that Human Resource Management (HRM) is the most important determinant of organizational success (Schuler, 1992). The growing importance of human resources for organizational success has led to an increasing interest in making personnel management a more integral, strategy-driven activity in organizations. Thus, the most successful companies focus on strategic implementation of human resources practices linked with overall organizational strategy, goals and objectives. This study examines whether SHRM is applied in Azerbaijan. To investigate this study qualitative method of data collection was used to generate the data required to achieve the objectives of the study. Interviews were conducted with Heads of resourcing, Training & Development, Employee Relations at two oil companies. The findings show that SHRM is applied at these companies. Foreign-based company, BP AGT is more experienced in SHRM. However, SOCAR considers the importance of SHRM and differentiates it from administrative HRM or Personnel Management.