Human Resource Development - Essay Example

As a HR Manager, our company CEO has expressed a similar viewpoint, contending that HRD is unnecessary during the financial crisis and that the HRD budget should be the first to go in case of cost reduction. This is informed by previous actions taken after financial crises, during which this strategy worked. However, the present crisis is starkly different from the earlier ones as it has spread very fast globally and brought world economies close to collapse. This course of action, therefore, may not be as effective as it was earlier.

Markets have been steadily decreasing with sales also shrinking; therefore, different solutions are required at company, national, and international level (Caprio, 2012: p54). The current crisis has been compared to the Great Depression, with the remedies used then being implemented by various companies to date (Jungmann et al, 2011: p33). However, serious and vital changes have happened since then. The most important difference is the change in the national economy structures. Compared to the Great Depression era, the service sector has grown in significance with the industrial and agricultural sectors decreasing.

This has meant that there has been an extensive strengthening in an area where connection to the material processes has been secondary, even as employment factors have remained significant (Fuchita et al, 2010: p65). Productive capital is to be found embedded into the employee’s and their work. This paper will seek to show that corporate methodology for dealing with the current crisis cannot follow earlier patterns by cutting funding to Human Resource Development L&D. This is informed partly by the character of the present crisis.

This is especially factual for a company where intangible assets, have a vital role to play and where production is linked to knowledge instead of tangible assets. The Role of Learning and Development in Times of crisis The management of crisis and their solutions appears time to time in the media. This usually involves reduction of working time for employees, lay-offs or cuts to Human Resource Development. In most cases, the organizations have no choice with regards to avoiding insolvency or bankruptcy.

Cutting funding to Human Resource Development, however, offers short-term solutions while leading to long-term problems (Lazear & Michael, 2009: p44). One assumption made regarding knowledge management is that human capital and information play a more significant role in the input process. A significant part of the organization’s value lies with human capital, i.e. the knowledge in its employees possession, which is a crucial factors as far as improved corporate performance and competitiveness are concerned (Lazear, 1998: p10).

Faced by a crisis, however, an organization may begin paying inadequate attention to the retention of knowledge that is lay-offs as well as the improvement of knowledge for its employees. Most companies will utilize a “lawnmower principle” with an aim to reduce costs by trying to economize on their highest components of cost; wages and Human Resource Development (Buckley & Jim, 2009: p22). This strategy, however, is limited in its effectiveness. Cutting costs involves the sacrifice of resources in order to increase profit, with whoever is tasked to examine resource utilization attempting to cut costs by all means possible.

Costs, however, occur during operation and not at the investment point. Assets improve profits and costs need