Human Resource Management as Strategic Human Resource Development - Research Paper Example

Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Focus 3 Method 7 Stages 7 Personal statement 8 Conclusion 8 References 9 Bibliography 10 Introduction Human resource development can be stated as a systematic as well as planned activity which is designed by a company or an organisation for providing its members the required skills in order to meet future as well as current job related demands. Integration of human resource development along with strategy formulation and also implementation is known in the realm of human resource management as strategic human resource development. Strategic human resource development is a part of an organisation’s long term views regarding human resource policy. Also, it is type of horizontal integration among the functions of human resources, and vertical integration along with the corporate strategy. Strategic human resource is a source of competitive advantage for an organization. The human resource development in recent times is changing and in the new approach of human resource development, employees are considered as the prime assets to an organisation. This approach is used as a driving force of a business strategy. Human resource development in its new avatar has certain deliverables like capacity building, performance, problem solving and consulting, and organisational change and development. Strategic human resource development play a role in helping an organisation brings about change in the work culture as well as in their entire setup by helping them to determine, set, and to implement strategy. In the human resource, individual knowledge, skills, and ability, social capital i.e. group level, network characteristics, centrality, marginality, density, and intellectual capital i.e. firm-level, informal, formal, process knowledge all of these are considered as human resource capitals. Human resource development is part of an organisation’s planning to tackle any challenge such as global challenge, quality challenge, social challenge, and also high performance work systems challenge (Kuchinke, 2008). Focus Human resource development has emerged as one of the most significant contributors towards bringing in organisational change. Human resource development has emerged because of employees’ need extension beyond the scope of a classroom environment. The human resource development includes group work, coaching, and also problem solving. Also, the need for basic level of employee development, structured career development has made human resource development a strong contributor to the organisational success. Human resource management is a term which encompasses quite a few functions. One such function is human resource development. It is one of the primary functions of human resource management. The functions of human resource development include training and development, organisational development, and career development. Training and development works as a skill and competence enhancer of an employee or workers of an organisation. Training and development can be provided by various methods like employee orientation, coaching, counselling, and skills and technical training, management training, and supervisor development. A proper training and development program can make the process of undertaking organisational change much smoother because employees are one of the main factors behind the success or failure of a change oriented program. If the employees are taken into confidence regarding the benefits that a training program can bring in to them as well the organisation then the strategic objective of human resource development program will be fulfilled. In the process of organisational development human resource development plays the role of a change agent. They contribute immensely in the process of improvement in effectiveness, efficiency of an organisational work culture. The well being of employees are looked after by applying behavioural sciences approach. They focus on both macro and micro levels. In the function of career development, strategic human resource development plays an ongoing role of advisor and moderator of the employees or an organisation. Strategic human resource development also monitors an individual progress through a sequence of changes until the individual achieves their personal stage of utmost achievement. Career management and career planning are two methods of career development. Human resource development works as an organisational change agent by contributing in developing greater number of efficient work related teams, implementing intervention related strategies, developing change report, and improving quality management. Strategic human resource development works as researcher of the problems that may arise in an organisation. It analyses existing human resource development practices and programs, and also the effectiveness of the existing program. It also develops requirements for any change that may be required in order to facilitate current or future problems in an organisation. Human resource development needs always to be on alert regarding any scenario which may require organisational change, as well as technological, process, product, and people oriented change. Framework for a human resource development process has to follow phases like needs assessment, design, implementation, and evaluation (Werner & DeSimone, 2006). Human resource development provides service to an organisation by looking after the needs of employees by providing them with up to date proficiency. Development in the expertise in a workplace with the contribution of human resource development is extremely crucial for optimal level of performance in a business. Human resource development is a primary contributor towards sustaining organisational competitive advantage. It ensures that employees are ready to meet the demand of performance of an organisation. Human resource development strategies are prepared keeping in mind organisational business strategy. Organisations in the present globalised economic conditions increasingly understand the fact that employees’ expertise plays a very important role in organisational development. Development of an employee’s expertise also has to be conducted keeping in mind the business objective. Human resource development’s point of leverage in the strategic segment is determined by using the centrality of employee expertise as compared to business success. Increasing need for skilled labour in the process of bringing in organisational change has made strategic human resource development a very important factor of organisational strategic process. Strategic value of human resource development is perceived only if it is commensurate with organisation’s genuine strategic related capabilities (Swanson & Torraco, 1995). Strategic human resource development is needed in order to respond to any context by using appropriate mixture of various strategies. The focus related to human resource activities generally emphasises on short term or in some cases long term concerns. It focuses on generic and specific competency development, and it concentrates on operational instead of strategic priorities. A dimension of strategic human resource development focus relates to the degree up to which its activities are horizontally integrated along with strategic human resource management activities. Functional integration aspect of human resource development also emphasises on the need for having a high amount of quality human resource development department for ensuring high strategic human resource development. Process integration on the other hand focuses on delivery related processes which are used by an organisation along with their quality, and intensity of customer focus (Garavan, 2007). Method Strategic human resource development is one of the main associates in an organisations endeavour of bringing in change. To analyse the research topic, a secondary data research has to be conducted to understand the given topic. In the present era of global business domination, majority of the organisations are emphasising heavily on the strategic human resource development for their organisational business strategies. In order to understand this, present day’s important organisations are looked at from human resource development perspective. A questionnaire can also be prepared regarding the given topic in order to collect relevant feedback on the topic. This will provide an in - depth analysis of the given topic. The colleted data will help in understanding the relevancy of studying the topic in the modern day organisational perspectives. Stages The main stages of research will be finding out the research topic, analysing the objectives and rationale of the topic, collecting the relevant data from various sources like journal, magazines, and books and interpreting the collected result. Finally, the result is analysed in the point of view of how much it has been able to successfully provide the results of the selected objectives of the project. Personal statement I am a Master degree holder in Human Resource Development from a university in the United Kingdom. I have gained interest on the topic of human resource development and organisational change from my MSc. I also intend expanding the work on my Masters degree with the knowledge gained to improve the implementation of national policies in my country. The main purpose behind this study is not only to prepare a paper for my PHD research proposal but also to critically examine the degree up to which the foundational theories of human resource development and organisational change are able to have an impact on the implementation of national and governance policies in Niger delta of Nigeria. Also how it can alleviate poverty in this process. Conclusion In this global business dominated business environment, various organisations are putting a high emphasis on strategic human resource development along with organisational change. It has been significantly included along with organisational business strategy to successfully tackle any difficulty in organisational change process. In this change process, the value of human capital is understood by modern organisations. Therefore, they are increasingly focusing on the human resource managers as the change agents. References Garavan, T. N., 2007. A Strategic Perspective on Human Resource Development. Weebly. [Online] Available at: http://seminarinorgcomm.weebly.com/uploads/5/7/3/3/573337/a_strategic_perspective_on_hrd.pdf [Accessed July 03, 2010]. Kuchinke, K. P., 2008. Strategic Human Resource Development. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Yuan-Ze University. [Online] Available at: http://www.ba.yzu.edu.tw [Accessed July 03, 2010]. Swanson, R. A. & Torraco, R. J., 1995. The strategic role of human resource development. Richard. A. Swanson. [Online] Available at: http://richardswanson.com/publications/Swanson%281995%29TheStrategic.pdf [Accessed July 03, 2010]. Werner & DeSimone, 2006. Introduction to Human Resource Development. University of Wisconsin Whitewater. [Online] Available at: http://road.uww.edu [Accessed July 03, 2010]. Bibliography Armstrong, M. Strategic human resource management: a guide to action. Kogan Page Publishers, 2000. Breejen, J. D., 2006. Managers and HRD building bridges. International HRD conference. [Online] Available at: http://www.personae.nl/d/doc/pdf/hrd_2006.pdf [Accessed July 03, 2010]. Garavan, T. N., O’Donnel, D., McGuire, D. & Watson, S., 2007. Exploring Perspectives on Human Resource Development: An Introduction. eResearch. [Online] Available at: http://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/262/1/262.pdf [Accessed July 03, 2010]. Grieves, J. Strategic Human Resource Development. SAGE, 2003. Gilley, Jerry W., Maycunich, Ann & Gilley, Ann M. Organizational learning, performance, and change: an introduction to strategic human resource development. Perseus, 2000. Hamlin, Bob, Keep, Jane & Ash, Ken. Organizational change and development: a reflective guide for managers, trainers and developers. Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2001. Read More