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Keywords: People Management. Organizational Performance Management. Human Resources (HR) Practices. Human Resources (HR) Subsystems.

Justification/Motivation: Contemporary companies – including those in Ribeirão Preto and region – have experienced strong economical, political and social pressures. The increasing changes of products and services make the competitive advantages to degrade quickly, and also causes companies to be flexible to environmental demands and forced to implement fundamental changes in their organizational and management patterns. Such changes occur to sustain its action strategies, aiming at the improvement of the economic-financial results, in search of maximization of their differentials. These new patterns cause changes in various organizational processes and also influence the people. It’s necessary to establish that the personnel administration based on the execution of tasks, show significant differences in relation to the activity of people management, which is linked to the development of major Human Resources (HR) subsystems – such as provisioning, implementation, maintenance and development of HR – and therefore more suited to the new internal and external organizational environment. In the current context, companies should find ways to manage and invest in human capital in pursuit of organizational goals. The constant changes in the context of companies have redefined the role of HR. Taking HR responsibilities, means to go beyond the operational work to the strategic and accept responsibility for achieving results, assuming the necessary obligations to actually achieve them. Although there are many supporters of HR, claiming it as a strategic organization partner, there are few studies on how is the integration process of the strategy of people management to organizational strategy and how the roles of HR are perceived and evaluated.

Research Problem: What are the major HR practices undertaken by companies from different segments in Ribeirão Preto and region and how the contributions of such practices may be associated with Organizational Performance Management?

Methods: The type of research was exploratory, with quantitative approach, and data analysis was based from bibliographic references. The survey data were collected in 16 (sixteen) companies, from different segments, located in Ribeirão Preto and region. An instrument for data collection was developed using a structured questionnaire, with 34 (thirty four) questions related to the major HR subsystems.

Discussion: The objective of this study was to emphasize the strategic role of Human Resources (HR), identifying their practices – through its subsystems – and linking them to possible contributions to the Organizational Performance Management. The results demonstrated that the participating companies recognize and believe that the practices adopted by them – through HR subsystems – can contribute to support and add value to organizational performance management. This study identified, in the participating companies, the strategic role of HR; the HR practices most used; how they are carried out and how to link them to the organizational performance management, in search of sustainable growth.

Expected Results: to emphasize the strategic role of HR; to identify the HR practices carried out in participating companies; to demonstrate the possible associations of such HR practices to organizational performance management; to propose possible improvements, seeking to enhance the competitive advantages of participating companies; to foster new studies related to the subject and to contribute to establish the professional of HR as strategic partner.