Human Resource Development - PowerCo - Essay Example

Human resource development Human resource development (HRD) means competence creation, creation of loyalty, and culture propagation. Strategic goals of the company and higher productivity depend directly on HRD. In accordance with Rao (1999) Human resource development is a mechanism of organization which creates and changes business goals of the company thus increasing future profits and better reputation. In order to reach prosperity of the company it is necessary to develop and update skills and knowledge of employees. Thus efficient management of HR and delegation of roles, creation of favorable atmosphere among employees is an underpinning of company goals’ completion. Researchers Huselid (1997) and Rao (1999) claim that an employee with strong self-esteem, innovative knowledge and skills is an integrative part of company success. Therefore there is a strong motivation for HRD in any company. What is HRD and what role does it play in development and success of any company? Actually, it is a pivotal question and before evaluation of external partners’ role in SHRD of PowerCo, it is desirable to define SHRD referring to the outer sources. Thus Garavan (1991) claims that HRD deals with management of human resource development with focus on long-term company business goals and corporate strategy. Furthermore companies are thought to have interdependent and connecting relationships among employees. The works of other researchers underline that the main goal of strategic HRD brings closer objectives of the company. Furthermore in strategic context of HRD employees of the company through mission and strategic goal trainings increase both organisational and individual development. SHRD creates a learning culture of the company, involves corporate strategy in every aspect of the life of the company (McCracken and Wallace, 2000, p.288). Nevertheless, HRD deals not only with training, but goes far beyond it. Thus HRD should be considered as a broader concept which involves not only training of employees, but a proactive tool of strategic improvement of the company. Furthermore SHRD can transform corporate culture involving strategic planning unlike HRD which responses to specific problems through efficient and relevant responses to specific problems. In the book by Walton (1999) it is underlined that human resources are the most important organizational resources which can shape all other business resources. PowerCo tends to correspond to this statement, because it ensures constant positive working experience, which improves self-subjectivity and independence of thinking among employees. In such a way each of them can bring something new to corporate strategy and culture. For individual improvement and self development, PowerCo provides mechanism of development to all employees. Thus company propagates justified policy and employer-employee respect. Every employee means a valuable resource to the company. This leads to personal contribution to success of the company. The company respects an individual, an individual respects company. Mutual respect of employees and the company is of high relevance in modern business world (Adkins, 2003). Many business niches are occupied by global companies and in order to join them it is necessary to improve every issue and aspect of the company. PowerCo is inspired to be a leading international electric company though its annual sales are £5.2 billion, it has nearly fourteen thousands employees. Nevertheless a goal of becoming a leader in electric business sphere requires hard work and big capital and human resources, their development and support. In order to trace SHRD of PowerCo, it’s necessary to underline that both male and female employees of the company are treated adequately independently of their gender. For this purpose every employee of the company has equal possibilities for learning and self development. PowerCo promotes constant learning possibilities for all employees. In such a way PowerCo involves training and development programmes thus improving their strategies and business. PowerCo invested £4.8 million in work-based 460,000 employee hours training over the year. Therefore more than 6,500 young people were trained and they even participated in a wide range of government funded programmes. In accordance with the HRD director of PowerCo, there are 4 issues which should be taken into account for further SHRD: 1) delegation of training authorities from in-house HRD staff to line managers. 2) In order to decrease external expenses on training, PowerCo intends to reduce number of external suppliers of training and costs by 20%. 3) PowerCo involves innovations and modernization across all departments, such as e-learning. E-learning should be considered more properly. Concentration on this aspect allows company to train their employees more effectively (Dessler, 2003). In such a way modern and innovative technologies and strategies are available for the company. 4) PowerCo intends to train engineers in asset management and not just “people skills”. This decision is caused by current needs for innovative technologies and management of assets. Generally, there intended to be learning group of engineers, which will share their professional knowledge. In order to encourage individual performance, there is a possibility to organize master-classes in this learning group. Appropriate models of strategic HRD in PowerCo In accordance with model presented by Pettigrew et al. (2004) training activity in organization can be traced in SHRD of PowerCo. 1) Thus in employee training PowerCo reacts to business strategic factors and tries to change training of employees in compliance with major technological or product-market changes. 2) PowerCo trains their engineers in asset management, which refers to second claim of Pettigrew, which underlines the importance of skills not being available in the external labour market. 3) PowerCo underlines importance of corporate philosophy and organisation in the development of a positive training culture. 4) Furthermore PowerCo stimulates and supports external training such as legislation or Government Grants. As far as we can see, Pettigrew’s presentation of training activity complies with PowerCo training activity. Concerning model of SHRD, we can correlate PowerCo strategy with the Focused approach, where training and development is: a continuous learning process (life-long training in PowerCo) important element of any company’s structure essential for business survival (HR as a crucial element of the company) a competitive weapon (well-trained employees are competitive force of the company) linked to organisational strategy and individual goals (improvement of self-performance) on the job plus specialists courses (internal and external trainings) self selected (employees have right to choose trainings they like) usually non-directive, novel methods (engineers are trained of asset management) line managers responsibility (delegation of in-house PowerCo managers’ authority to line managers) tolerant of failure in the learning process (encouragement and support of employees while training) Therefore this model presents training as crucial role in further business development through self-performance of employees. External partners’ role in the existing SHRD of PowerCo SHRD can be supplied by external providers coming into an organization or by staff going outside the organization (Kundu, 2004). Outsourcing is of great demand in modern business due to integration of experiences and skills and its positive influence in the development of employees and company itself. Effective management of HRD is an underpinning of effective management of external partners. Successful partnership is a key to company prosperity. Nevertheless it is necessary to underline the required needs and skills from partners to integrate them into the company. PowerCo intends to be a leading international energy company. Therefore outsourcing is high on the agenda for this company. PowerCo counts on its HR thus it has a chance to be a leader company of new century. As far as Rosenbluth (1991) and Secretan (1996) underline that only satisfied employees can effectively work thus it is necessary to train employees not only in the organization, but also exceed the limits of it, inspiring them and directly making impact on outstanding business of the company. Nevertheless, outsourcing appears to be not very easy to reach. There should be a strict structure of HRD. Furthermore, it should be taken into account that four basic themes for SHRD are suggested (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2000): 1) hiring professionals, 2) encourage employees, 3) grant special attention to every employee, 4) provide mutual change of experiences. The fourth point refers to outsourcing. After an employee has gone through thick and thin, got a lot of experience and opened new horizons for further self performance, it is desirable to let his knowledge and experience available for external partners. Companies with the same approach would tend to do the same thing. Therefore a successful cooperation would appear. External partners can train employees of PowerCo emphasizing on technical and interactive skills. In such a way employees would do their jobs efficiently. Such issues as problem solving, and interpersonal communication skills can be better learned from external partners. PowerCo provides mechanism of development to all workers. Thus company propagates justified policy and employer-employee respect. Every employee means a valuable resource to the company. This leads to personal contribution to success of the company. The company respects an individual, an individual respects company. Mutual respect of employees and the company is of high relevance in modern business world (Adkins, 2003). First of all, managers from other companies would look strict and concentration of attention of PowerCo employees would be higher than while internal training. Secondly, external managers and employees of PowerCo can demonstrate the same values and behaviors which would inevitably lead to successful cooperation (Zeithaml & Bitner, 2000). The third reason of external training of employees will endow them with extra skills experience and compensation (Bowen & Lawler III, 1992). There are three types of power delegation: as Kelley (1993) claim name them daily, creative, and unusual. In accordance with this hierarchy, external partners’ participation in empowerment and in routine discretion in particular is important. On this stage external partners can suggest employees a list of alternative actions for their individual performance. In creative process employees would develop possible variants of their activity. Especially, interesting participation of external partners in deviant discretion, where performance of counter-role behaviors is practiced. Though this stage of empowerment is not obligatory, but it is desirable to practice it in order to consider employees’ behavior under contradictory conditions. Conclusion The research paper considered such issues as: SHRD of PowerCo; definition of the role that outsourcing can play in further HR development; reference to SHRD models studied during the lessons. As human resource development is a mechanism of organization, which creates and changes business goals of the company thus increasing future profits and better reputation, in order to reach prosperity of the company it is necessary to develop and update skills and knowledge of employees. Thus, efficient management of HR and delegation of roles, creation of favorable atmosphere among employees is an underpinning of company goals’ completion. PowerCo intends to be a leading international energy company. Therefore outsourcing is high on the agenda for this company. PowerCo counts on its HR thus it has a chance to be a leader company of new century. As far as Rosenbluth (1991) and Secretan (1996) underline that only satisfied employees can effectively work thus it is necessary to train employees not only in the organization, but also exceed the limits of it, inspiring them and directly making impact on outstanding business of the company. SHRD can be supplied by external providers coming into an organization or by staff going outside the organization (Kundu, 2004). Outsourcing is of great demand in modern business due to integration of experiences and skills and its positive influence in the development of employees and company itself. Effective management of HRD is an underpinning of effective management of external partners. Successful partnership is a key to company prosperity. Nevertheless it is necessary to underline the required needs and skills from partners to integrate them into the company. According to Garavan (1991), HRD is closely connected with management of human resource development with stress made on long-term business goals of the organization and corporate strategy. Moreover, organizations are considered to have interdependent and connecting relationships among workers. The works of other investigators emphasize that the main purpose of strategic HRD brings closer objectives of the organization. In addition, in strategic context of HRD employees of the company through mission and strategic goal trainings increase both organisational and individual development. SHRD can be brought by external visitors or by employees going outside the company (Kundu, 2004). Outsourcing is high-valued in modern business because of the combination of experiences and knowledge and its positive effect in the development of workers and organization itself. Effective management of HRD is an underpinning of effective management of external partners. Successful partnership is a key to company prosperity. Nevertheless it is necessary to underline the required needs and skills from partners to integrate them into the company. Having studied the material and having answered the main questions, it is possible for us to make the following conclusion: PowerCo creates appropriate and favorable atmosphere for employees’ training in order to improve self-subjectivity and independence of thinking among employees thus influencing on future success of the company. In such a way each of them can bring something new to corporate strategy and culture. Training activity of PowerCo correlates with Pettigrew et al. (1988) training activity and SHRD model of PowerCo can be traced in the Focused approach. Moreover, having combined all these aspects of research paper with role of external partners in HRD, we can conclude that successful external partnership is a crucial point in success of the company. But it is necessary to remember that external partners can influence positively on PwerCo if internal atmosphere of the company is favourable for employees. PowerCo’ main goal is to become international electric company, that’s why training of employees and effective outsourcing is pivotal issues for consideration for the company managers. Works cited 1. Adkins, S.S., 2003. The Brave New World of Learning. T+D Magazine, pp. 29-37. 2. BNA Bulletin to Management, 1998. Despite Effectiveness, Empowerment Efforts Far From Universal, BNA Bulletin to Management, p. 181. 3. Bowen, D.E. & Lawler III, E.E., 1992. The Empowerment of Service Workers: What, Why, How, and When. Sloan Management Review, pp. 31-39. 4. Dessler, G., 2003. Human Resource Management. 2nd edition. Singapore: Pearson Education. 5. Fombrun., 1984. Strategic human resource management. New York: Wiley. 6. Garavan, T.N., 1991. Strategic human resource development. Journal of European Industrial Training, 15 (1), pp.17-30. 7. 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