Since the 1980’s, the globalisation has brought several changes in companies’ strategies. The new economic context and the development of multinational corporations which become increasingly able to compete in a changing environment, reveal an increase in the key role of Human Resource Management (HRM). Human Resource (HR) department presents continually its usefulness and we can declare that it is a competitive advantage by itself in global context (Legge, K.2005). Boxall et al. (2003) argue that HRM is the company’s ability to learn faster than its competitors, and adapt its behaviour more productively that gives it competitive advantage. From this perspective, companies should place a high priority on becoming learning organisations developing organisational agility and skills of knowledge management. The Guest and Baron research, in 2000, (Pilbeam, S.2002) revealed firstly, that only 10% of chief executives agree that people are a top priority ahead of finance or marketing and most businesses fail to make full use of modern HR practices, and secondly, that HR managers, in companies using the most key HR practices have the most positive perceptions of employee behaviour, which are linked to higher productivity and improved financial results. Thus the research concludes that the firms which embrace progressive HR practices can gain a competitive advantage. Despite there are difficulties to make surveys measuring the impact of HRM in performance, it cannot be denied that most of studies find an association between HR practices and performances (Legge, K.2005). The HR competitive advantage appears in all its current actions, which we will study.

• HRP and HRIS

Human Resource Planning (HRP) seeks to ensure that organisational objectives are achieved by developing and implementing a HR strategy (Pilbeam, S.2002). Bolton adds that HRP is synonymous of “putting the right people in the right place at the right time at the right price” (Leopold, J et al.1999). It