Abstract:
This research study is focusing on two very important and modern day business concepts: the
human resource of an organization and the competitive advantages an organization has. The
paper starts off by an elaborate explanation of both the concepts. Various theories and prior
researches done on these areas have not only been highlighted but arguments on them have also
been made. The concept of HR has been elaborated using four dimensions: recruitment and
selection, training and development, employee compensation and employee retention policies
whereas the dimensions of competitive advantage up taken for this study include employee
productivity, citizenship behavior and employee effectiveness. Emphasis has been laid on the
tobacco industry of Pakistan and PTC has been taken as the sample organization for the purpose
of gathering data. The trend in Pakistani industries has been analyzed with respect to the
dimensions and gaps have been identified in between Pakistani and international practices. The
study then narrows down to the establishment of a link in between the two variables and this link
is proved via various work place instances in the literature review section. The later part of this
paper is entirely dedicated to proving a direct proportionality among the HR and the competitive
advantage.
Various dimensions have been selected for both the variables. The research design elaborates the
dependence of competitive advantage on the HR of an organization thus making HR as the
independent variable of the study and the competitive advantage as the dependent variable. Four
hypotheses have been proposed each showing a direct relationship among the dimensions of the
two variables.
The methodology section elucidates the nature of the study. It is a quantitative research which is
why a closed ended questionnaire is being used to gather the data from the respondents. This
data is then analyzed through the SPSS 16 software where various statistical tools have been
used to prove the hypothesis. The scores are then analyzed and interpretations have made in the
findings section. The results indicated that majority of the employees believe in the fact that they
could be an ultimate source of competitive advantage to their organization once they are kept
fully satisfied and well trained.
