Human Resource Management in Relation to Corporate Culture in the Knowledge Economy

The global society is looking for a way out of the current crisis with the help of the knowledge economy. Human potential development, depending on the human resource management and corporate culture, is essential for future human capital creation. This paper deals with the human resource management in selected enterprises of the South Bohemia region. The most valued assets are human resources, whose development is increasingly considered to be the key competitive advantage within the new global environment. The aim of this research is to evaluate the current status of the human resource management and to assess the functioning of the human resource management in relation to the desired corporate culture. Primary data were obtained from 60 small and medium-sized enterprises with the use of the questionnaire method. This study is a part of the research project GAJU 068/2010/S titled "Process Management and its possible implementation in small and medium-sized enterprises". The results confirm the growing importance of developing human potential in the surveyed enterprises. Finally, we can say that human resource management is dealt with in most of the surveyed enterprises, but it seems that continuous human resources development is usually hindered by insufficiently developed corporate culture.