Meaning and Functions of Human Resource Development - Term Paper Example

Human Resource Development Table of Content 1. Introduction 2. Human Resource Management 3 3. Human Resource Development 4 4. Experimental Learning Theory 5 5. Strategic Human Resource Development 6. Process of Learning 7. Planning Learning & Development Objectives 8. Challenges of 21st Century business environment 9. Problematic issues in L&D 10. Adaptation 11. Conclusion 12. Bibliography/References 1. Introduction Organizations are run by Human beings. They are most important assets of any organization or company. Handling HRM of a company or organization is an art. The mishandling of this important asset could lead to disastrous situations. The person who wants to master this art should know and cater about Human psychology and behavior. The qualities of leadership are key for a successful manager. The successful manager should lead by inspiring people not by dictating his terms. A good leader should also strive to groom this asset and take necessary steps for their learning and on job training. 2. Human Resource Management The HRM section of a company plays an important role in its development and survival of any company. The objectives of management are to use the HR in such a way that they could become most useful. It is the responsibility of HRM to chalk out such strategies that may be useful for employees as well as for organization. The main areas to focus should be; collective bargaining at enterprise level, flexibility in relation to various forms of employment as well as in relation to working time and job functions. Close look at heightened competition, rapid changes in products and processes and the increasing importance of skills, quality and productivity. These factors have also had an impact on HRM policies and practices. In managing change, the key elements include employee involvement in effecting change, greater customer orientation, and ensuring that the skills of employees are appropriate to the production of goods and the provision of services acceptable to the market. As such, managing people in a way so as to motivate them to be productive is one important objective of HRM. While in academic institutions HRM scholars emphasize the strategic role of HRM and define a new role for managing the employment relationship including: new organizational designs, flexible work arrangements, and the development of social partnerships. A theoretical development, that involves the central doctrine of HRM, is the integration of strategic management, organizational reforms. All these strategies lead to a prospering business achievements and utter satisfaction of the stakeholders. (Catalanello, R. & Redding, J. (1989). 3. Human Resource Development Human resource managers can support total quality management by training employees in team building, sponsoring educational initiatives, communicating successes, and bringing outside consultants into the company to review work processes. A continuous process of grooming personnel at various levels in an organization is very important for its success and survival. Performance reviews are not often effective as a learning tool even though the performance review may be the most important work-relevant discussion that a supervisor and employee have. It helps in discussing various problems and weakness present in processes used in the organization. These reviews can also help in checking any sort of lapses on the part of workers. But these reviews can not groom workers. They can not increase the knowledge, information and skills of the personnel. 1Human resource development (HRD) can serve all the requirements of the company. HRD can give workers up-to-date expertise in their particular field. Advances in HRD models and processes have kept pace with the increasingly sophisticated information and production technologies that continue to diffuse throughout our nation's most vital industries. During this period of rapid technological development, the HRD function could be relied upon to support a broad range of business initiatives that required a competent workforce. Critical business issues, from new marketing strategies to innovations in production technology, were based on, among other factors, the performance capabilities of those expected to use these new work systems. As a factor integral to business success, employee expertise itself has been expanded through effective programs of employee development. Expertise is defined as the optimal level at which a person is able and/or expected to perform within a specialized realm of human activity.. In short, the development of workplace expertise through HRD has been vital to optimal business performance. (Catalanello, R. & Redding, J. (1989). Today's business environment requires that HRD not only support the business strategies of organizations, but that it takes a significant role in the shaping business strategies. Business success increasingly hinges on an organization's ability to use employee expertise as a factor in the shaping of business strategy. This article examines the strategic roles of HRD. As a primary means of sustaining an organization's competitive edge, HRD serves a strategic role by assuring the competence of employees to meet the organization's present performance demands. Along with meeting present organizational needs, HRD also serves a vital role in shaping strategy and enabling organizations to take full advantage of emergent business strategies. Both the strategy supporting and strategy shaping roles of HRD have distinctive features that are evident in the business practices of successful companies. This article examines the origins and distinctive features of the strategic roles of HRD, and illustrates these roles with examples from today's most innovative organizations. There are numerous examples of how HRD is used to support business objectives. Indeed, most HRD programs referred to as somehow having strategic value assume roles that are supportive of a given business strategy. The education and training used to support business objectives for typical challenges and opportunities faced by many organizations in today's business environment. It is discovered by many companies that introduction of new sophisticated technologies into the workplace was that their employees did not have the skills to make full use of the technologies. Companies that compete in the fast-paced communications market where customers are particularly innovation-conscious must deliver high-quality, reliable products despite short product development cycles. Many companies sought production advantages through both the integration of new technology and the development of employee expertise. These innovative companies offer on- and off-site classroom education and training, laboratory training, and structured training in the workplace for employees at all levels of the organization. In addition to supporting their successful pursuit of business objectives, many of their education and training initiatives serve as examples of best practices against which other organization HRD functions benchmark their performance. Thus these innovative organizations provide an early and influential example of HRD used to support business objectives. Many additional cases in which HRD supports the implementation of business strategy can be cited. Training and other initiatives associated with total quality management have been critical in transforming marginal manufacturing plants into successful facilities. HRD continues to be a primary vehicle for assuring mandated levels of employee competence and public safety in highly regulated sectors like the nuclear power industry. Several leading corporations consider the value added through state-of-the-art employee expertise so important to their operations that they have created extensive internal systems for providing education and training. HRD is moving beyond a role that is exclusively supportive of business strategy. Increasingly, HRD is assuming a more influential role at the point of strategy formulation and is becoming one of the key determinants of business strategy. Successful business strategies increasingly turn on the organization's ability to apply state-of-the-art expertise to new and emerging business opportunities. In today's marketplace, organizations that possess or can quickly achieve the levels of employee expertise required to meet emerging business needs will win; those that don't will be left behind. This rapidly changing business environment requires a dynamic strategic planning process and flexible use of resources. As will be demonstrated in this article, HRD has assumed a formative role in both the strategic planning process and in developing innovative, competent human resources. 4. Experimental Learning Theory (ELT) Theoretically adults are said to be motivated to learn because they need experience and their professional and financial interests motivate them to learn. Their learning orientation is life centered. Adults want to learn about those skills and arts that are useful and important for their respective profession and field. They like to gain experience expertise in the specific field or profession. Any organization or company that is willing to make arrangements for on job training of their employees should consider the individual difference of learners. This individual difference increases with the increase in the age. It is important to highlight the importance of a particular training or course for adult learners. The learners should be persuaded to learn new skill by highlighting the implication of that particular course. They should have clear self-concept so that they may take correct and firm decision for getting involved in learning process. The trainers and instructors of these courses should consider the huge life experience the adult learners already have. There are several of learning styles. They differ with the capacity and capability of learner. A correct style for a particular learner is essential for effective and productive learning. A proper learning style is a set of relations among persons, activity and the world, over time and in relation with other tangential and overlapping communities of practice. A community of practice is an intrinsic condition for the existence of knowledge, not least because it provides the interpretive support necessary for making sense of its heritage. There are many examples of such companies which achieve a phenomenal annual growth rate by dedicating its people, policies, and practices for developing expertise and learning through every dimension of their business. These companies explicitly pursue objectives to ensure a long-term, competitive advantage through processes supported by HRD to turn experience systematically into learning opportunities and by maintaining employee expertise at state-of-the-art levels. Company interactions with employees, customers, vendors, suppliers, and competitors is constantly analyzed in such companies to reap value-added lessons from a variety of business experiences, whether they involve a sales transaction, a delivery, a management meeting, or an unhappy customer or employee. 2On one hand such companies invest in developing employees at all levels of the organization. Normally in such companies entry level employees receive nearly four weeks of training and participate in periodic conferences and training sessions in various sections of the company. On the other hand such companies value learning from customers in any way they can. These companies also allow their business associates to use their makeshift classrooms in each different sections to share their needs and expertise with employees and other customers. Such largely attributed improvements in business performance to their expertise in applying systems thinking and process knowledge to core business issues Staff training and employee support are two other services which would allow rehabilitation counselors to expand their contact with business. Training can be defined as a learning process in which people acquire the skills or knowledge to aid in the achievement of goals. The training process can take many different forms and is typically described by the content, such as basic skills or job related skills. In addition, employees are now receiving continuous training opportunities. Organizational Learning within Small and Medium Enterprises Research into the organizational learning of small and medium enterprises has found that three main levels of organizational learning were identified which encapsulate varying combinations of formal and informal learning activities. 1.Information gathering: The lower data monitoring, acquisition and management intended to ensure that an enterprise remains aware of changes and developments in the markets in which they operate. 2.Knowledge acquisition: A process where by enterprises defines and acquires the skills, know -how and strategic intelligence necessary to carry out day-to-day activities. 3.Competence consolidation and development: A process where by existing information and knowledge is converted into learning through, for example, identifying skills deficits and acquiring new knowledge through training and collaboration. multi-job skills in small enterprises needs to be addressed as well as the lack of expertise in skills auditing. SME support organisations need to develop a skill evaluation culture. 5. Strategic Human Resource Development (SHRD) SHRD is the new terminology for HRD with more emphasis on organizational performance organizational learning and organizational change. SHRD requires recognition of the values, competencies, credibility and integrity of HRD professional. The HRD professional must take into consideration different levels of analysis, environment, organisation, job and individual. They should also cater for orientation and nature of HRD strategies and systems. Satisfaction of stakeholder is also important. If the HRD professional are not focusing on all these factors and then their output can not be productive and effective. 6. Process of Learning Theoretically learning can be defined as a longer term change in the knowledge possessed by an individual, their type and level of skill, or their assumptions, attitudes or values which may lead to them having increased potential to grow, develop and perform in more effective ways. According to a scholar adults are motivated to learn as they experience needs and interests that motivate them to learn. Lifelong learning is becoming an important issue. This is resulting in a new focus on employee learning which, is changing the role of the Human Resource Development (HRD) function and creating many uncertainties for HRD professionals. Research has concluded that the learning organisation is an important metaphor for HRD professionals to assist them in developing collective intelligence within organizations and organizational forms supporting such a need - thus eliminating the holding of knowledge in separate compartments at different levels. It was also useful to help understanding of the importance of knowledge and in particular tacit knowledge, which is embedded within human resources. This metaphor is helpful when moving from training-based development policies towards new policies fostering learning in different ways like support for competence development, learning networks and learning self-assessment in the communities of practice. It was considered that the envisioned role of HRD professionals within learning organizations is to support the business, support informal learning, support knowledge sharing as a special form of supporting informal learning as well as develop and coordinate training and change HRD practices. Although HRD professionals, consider that this is still their main responsibility, managers and employees are important active partners in supporting learning, and are expected to become more so in the future. Their role is predominantly one of identifying learning needs, stimulating and supporting informal learning, ensuring the continuous often observed. Although managers fulfil a key role in changing HRD practices, it was found that it is sometimes difficult to get them to fulfil this active role, either because of their workload, lack of affinity with HRD tasks or a lack of skills in this field. Therefore in the short term, it is necessary to find strategies to involve managers in HRD, by changing their views on learning and increasing their motivation to support learning. In the long run, consideration should be given to incorporating HRD skills in all management training programs. In addition the HRD functions should be more precisely defined and recognized by top management as a major part of the global development strategy of the company and seen as an investment rather than a cost. HRD functions should be recognized by top management and seen as an investment rather than a cost Although often cited in policy statements lifelong learning is a rather nebulous concept, where hardly any detailed research has been conducted, especially concerning the involvement of the universities in its provision. Some research has started addressing this issue by studying the understanding of the concept and how it is implemented in universities in several European countries. Lifelong learning is still seen as a marginal activity in many universities but there is an awareness of the need for its development amongst academic staff and there are embryonic or developed structures for its provision. To encourage the development of lifelong learning, some universities have created central co-ordination offices and vice-rector roles that include lifelong learning amongst their responsibilities. Lifelong learning policies also need to be defined within mission statements and university plans. Reward systems for those developing and operating lifelong learning practices need reviewing to ensure continuous developments in this field. 7. Planning Learning & Development Objectives Work experience is all about partnerships between educational institutions, companies and students. However, the nature of work is changing due to the quickening pace of global scientific and technological innovation and the use of information and communication technologies. The scale and impact of global multinational activity and the process of industrial convergence have also exerted pressure for industrial, organizational and occupational change. An intensive exploration of learning theory was undertaken and innovative approaches to work experience were analyzed through a number of case studies. It concluded that there is a poor relationship between policy and practice. There is a lack of clarity in relation to the aims and objectives of post-16 work experience and its delivery - in particular, a lack of clarity in relation to workplace supervision, mentoring and teaching, the availability and quality of placements. There was also a lack of evidence in relation to learning gains and the role of employers. The quality of relationships between employers and education needs improving and greater attention needs to be paid to the changing nature and modes of work. Work experience should no longer be viewed as developing a technical competence in ‘something’ nor as providing an opportunity to use ‘learning outcomes’ as though they capture in some way the authentic knowledge/skill developed by a young person in a specific situation. Increasingly, work experience should be viewed as a means of developing an involved sense of responsibility. As workers are increasingly expected to act as boundary crosiers. They need to possess the ability to contribute to the development of new forms of social practice and to produce new forms of knowledge. This entails learning how to contribute to the transformation of work contexts. This shift of focus can direct attention to how individuals learn, grow and develop through the strength and richness of their interactions and applications within and between different contexts. 8. Challenges of 21st Century business environment HRD as a major force in the shaping and emergence of business strategy can also be seen from a global perspective. Levels of education and expertise among populations of geographical regions in the world vary widely when viewed from a global perspective. But the traditional view that the most educated and most educable people are predominately in the Western industrialized nations is changing rapidly. In some regions of the word, the levels of education, particularly in technical and scientific areas, and the readiness of the population to acquire even higher levels of training is at least as favorable as it is in the United States. Singapore and Malaysia have invested heavily in an infrastructure for developing targeted industry-specific expertise and have attracted export-oriented manufacturers and advance technology from abroad. China and India are rapidly developing workers capable of absorbing new technologies and direct a large proportion of their top students into elite technical institutes. Just as we witnessed a recent shift in domestic manufacturing offshore to take advantage of lower labor costs for unskilled workers, the planning and location strategies of large corporations increasingly target countries other than the U.S. for business development based largely on the availability of a technically competent work-force. Rather than the offshore relocation of manufacturing based on unskilled labor, today's relocation patterns are increasingly based on the need for more skilled labor. Business strategies are increasingly predicated on the availability and sustainability of state-of-the-art expertise. As HRD efforts and worker expertise in less developed countries rapidly improve, corporations are shifting their locations and centers of expansion away from the West to countries like Malaysia, Taiwan, and Singapore. Recent examples of relocation strategies based on the availability of highly skilled workers. (Kennedy, P. (1993). 9. Problematic issues in L&D HRD regularly engages top management as partners in diagnosing performance problems and provides critical information to the top management team about performance disconnects that exist in present and emergent strategies. For example, it is common that systemic performance issues that are initially viewed as job level concerns may actually require much broader consideration at the process level. From this level of analysis, the redesign of business processes and the redefinition of performance goals often emerge as strategic mandates. It is identified that the special set of problems encountered when implementing a manufacturing information system in small businesses. Location decision criteria utilized by high technology firms was investigated in one of the very few studies that examines the impact of operations management activities on financial performance, found that small mature firms that utilized forecasting and aggregate planning activities outperformed non-users. 3It has also been examined that operations management in larger firms has overwhelmingly addressed small scale micro problems. Although there is an extensive body of knowledge on these specific techniques, there is little if any macro research that examines system-wide interrelationships and their impact on financial performance in large or small firms. Thus, it appears that there is a fertile medium within small businesses to study operations management and system-wide relationships. 10. Adaptation Self-organization is a continuing process of adaptation in a real-time world of global business, with technologies, markets and relationships emerging and disappearing amid a fury of instant communication. Organizations function like amoebae that flow with the environment and constantly reshape themselves. Successful manufacturing companies exposed to the rapidly changing world of technology have realized the importance of designing modular processes, so that an individual piece can change as new technologies that affect it evolve, without throwing all the pieces into disarray. These same companies have also learned to design inherently expandable or contractible systems that minimize specificity to any one activity and that are easily upgraded. While in some cases these design features result in somewhat higher up-front costs, these costs are a small price for the flexibility and the option of being able to incorporate new information as it becomes available. Moreover, self-organization will free employees to act like bosses. Finally, self-organization will not succumb to program- of-the-month syndrome for the simple reason that it is a process, not a program . Replication of this study should occur in mature industries. The volatility associated with the electronics industry might lead one to expect that adaptation issues (planning) have greater importance than efficiency (operations) issues. Another explanation for the lack of significant findings may relate to competitive marketing or niche strategies. It was felt that the small size of sample firms might indicate a lack of marketing since successful achievement of these strategies may propel firms into a size range that was beyond the scope of this study. Another possibility may be that some of the firms had less than desirable results when they attempted more sophisticated marketing techniques. This could be true because: (1) the owner/managers for the most part had advanced degrees and training in engineering, not marketing, and (2) a previous study of this sample found that outsiders (consultants) did not play a significant role in improving financial performance. 11. Conclusion This article has examined the strategic roles assumed by HRD functions that offer a key contribution to their organizations - the development of employee expertise that is vital to optimal business performance. HRD has been traditionally relied upon to serve in roles that are supportive of the strategies chosen to guide organizations. Although the supporting role of HRD is important for operational success in assuring the employee competence to meet present performance demands, HRD can offer even greater strategic value as a key determinant of business strategy. The centrality of information technology to business success and the potential for sustainable competitive advantage through employee expertise have underscored the increasing strategic value of HRD. HRD has been a key enabling force in strategies based on product innovation, quality and cost leadership, customized service, and strategies for global relocation based on workforce skills. In summary, HRD that seeks to deliver employee expertise of genuine strategic value to the organization must adopt a systemic perspective of its role and demonstrate the strategic attributes discussed in this article. 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