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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT CHAPTER 2 HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT Learning Objectives After going through this unit, you will be able to: Discuss the Human Resource Development Clarify the events leading up to the establish...

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT CHAPTER 2 HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT Learning Objectives After going through this unit, you will be able to: Discuss the Human Resource Development Clarify the events leading up to the establishment of the HRD function Identify and briefly describe each of the HRD functions Recognize the role of HRD professional in an organization Identify the characteristics of an effective HRD manager Locate the emerging issues facing the HRD professional Structure 2.1 Human Resource Development-An Introduction 2.2 Meaning & Definition of HRD 2.3 Functions of HRD Department 2.4 Model of HRD Functions 2.5 Role of HRD Professional in Organization 2.6 Role of Learning Specialist 2.7 Role as on Administrator 2.8 Role as a Consultant 2.9 Emerging issues facing the HRD Professional 2.10 Changing Environment 2.11 Summary 2.12 Keywords 2.13 Self Assessment Questions 2.14 Further Readings 2.15 Model Answers 2.1 Introduction Over the last two decades, organizations world over have increasingly become aware of the importance of the human resources. This awareness is very critical for their organizational effectiveness. Organizations will find themselves very difficult in their growth and effectiveness unless their human resources are complementary to their operations. Herbst (1975) observed that product of work is people. The modern world is becoming far more competitive and volatile than ever before causing organizations to gain competitive 14 | Page  HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT advantage whenever and whatever possible in today's globalized and informational zed world. Organizational survival and success will depend on how they respond to these challenges. For this, organizations have to effectively evolve internal capabilities for enhancing speed, quality, learning and building employee competencies. Human Resource Development (HRD) is fundamental in generating and implementing these competencies. That is, HRD can give the tools needed to manage and operate the organization right from production management, marketing, and sales to research and development in order to be more productive. This can be done through making people sufficiently motivated, trained, informed, managed, utilize and empowered. Thus, HRD forms the major part of human resource management (HRM) activities in organizations. Human Resources Let us define the term Human Resources first and then proceed to HRM and HRD. Human Resources are the total knowledge, skills, abilities, talent, aptitude, values, attitude and beliefs of the people of an organization. However this being the major accepted opinion, still some difference of opinion exists among many experts as some of them consider that human resource stands for not only the people who are part of the organization but the term also involves other stakeholders of the organization namely the customers, suppliers, share holders etc. Integrating the concept of human resource with management, we can define HRM as effective utilization of employee in order to achieve the goals and strategies of the organization. In order to achieve this, HRM activities start with proper planning of human resources required for the organization, recruitment and selection of the right candidates, provide them with appropriate compensation and benefits, maintain proper employee relations and develop them. THE CONCEPT OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT Human resource development in the organization context is a process by which the employees of an organization are helped, in a continuous and planned way to: 1. Acquire or sharpen capabilities required to perform various functions associated with their present or expected future roles; 2. Develop their general capabilities as individuals and discover and exploit their own inner potentials for their own and/or organizational development purposes; and 3. Develop an organizational culture in which supervisor-subordinate relationships, teamwork and collaboration among sub-units are 15 | Page strong and contribute to the professional well being, motivation and pride of employees. This definition of HRD is limited to the organizational context. In the context of a state or nation it would differ. HRD is a process, not merely a set of mechanisms and techniques. The mechanisms and techniques such as performance appraisal, counseling, training, and organization development interventions are used to initiate, facilitate, and promote this process in a continuous way. Because the process has no limit, the mechanisms may need to be examined periodically to see whether they are promoting or hindering the process. Organizations can facilitate this process of development by planning for it, by allocating organizational resources for the purpose, and by exemplifying an HRD philosophy that values human beings and promotes their development. Difference between Personnel Management Functions and HRM /D Functions Human Resource development has gained prominence over the years leading to the emergence of HRD departments in various organizations. The differences between the traditional personnel management and the Functions in an organization are well brought out by Bhatia (2005). They are as follow 1. Personnel management is viewed as an independent function whereas HRM/ D is viewed as a sub- system of large systems i.e. it must take into account its linkages and interface to all other parts of the organization. 2. The personnel function is regarded to be more of a reactive function responding to the demands of the organization while HRM/D function is more proactive as it not only copes with the needs of the organization but also to anticipate the needs and to act on them in advance. 3. While the traditional function is supposed to be the exclusive responsibility of the Personnel department, HRM/D regarded as the concern of all managers in the Organization. 4. Personnel management function and scope is more towards managing people only, but the HRM/D takes a much broader scope of developing the whole organization. 5. The emphasis in the personnel function is on increasing people efficiency while that of HRM/D is on building the right type of culture in the organization. 6. While the traditional personnel function considers salary rewards and job specification as important motivators, HRM/D considers the higher order needs like informal organization, autonomous work groups, job enrichment, job challenge and creativity as motivators. 16 | Page  HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 7. Traditional personnel function considers improved satisfaction and morale as the cause of performance improvement, whereas HRM/D considers the other way round that better utilization of human resources will lead to increased satisfaction and morale. The forthcoming discussion concentrates on what is HRD, major HRD functions, role and characteristics of the HRD manager in an organization etc. 2.2 Meaning And Definition Of HRD HRD means building three Cs—Capabilities, Commitment and Culture. Capability building requires development the knowledge and skills of the person. Capability has to be supported by commitment which comes through desire to excel, positive attitude towards works co-operation, involvement and concern to one's own self and society. Another important factor of HRD is building culture. Culture is the way of life. It involves creating an awareness of what is ideal and desirable. So, building these three Cs is essential for developing the human resource of an organization. Few of the views expressed by different personalities over different time periods towards what is HRD is explained below: Leonard Nadler introduced the term HRD in 1969. He Defined HRD as “Those learning experiences which are organized for a specific time and designed to bring About the possibility of behavioral change.” Frank (1988), investigated the theoretical base o HRD in order to distinguish it from other fields and identified three assumptions on which it is based: 1. HRD is based on research and theories drawn from the field of adult education and is different from the learning that occurs in children. Learning is based on creating the appropriated circumstances in which adults can learn and thereby change behavior 2. HRD is concerned with improving performance within the work environment and not with improving people health or their personal relations with their families 3. HRD utilizes the theories of change and how these relate to the organization. Change affects individuals, groups and the organization and the HRD is predominantly concerned with the change of the individuals. Udai Pareek and T.V. Rao, 1992, explain “HRD is primarily concerned with developing employees through training, feedback and counseling by the senior officers and other developmental efforts.” Harris and Desimone, (1998),defines HRD as “ a set of systematic and planned activities designed by an organization to provide its members with the necessary skill to meet current and future job demands.” 17 | Page Bhaskara Rao, (2000), defines “HRD is a process of improving and developing skill, knowledge, aptitude and values of the employees based on present and future organizational requirements.” Based on above definitions, it can b e concluded that HRD activities in the organization should begin right from the time the employee joins the organization and continue throughout his/her career regardless of his/her level or position in the organization. 2.3 Fuctions Of HRD Departments The aim of HRD activities of an organization is oriented towards socializing the new employees into the organization, providing the required skill and knowledge, helping the individual and the group to become more effective in the present job and developing them to handle future jobs in an equally efficient manner. The term Human Resource Development has been used at both micro and macro level. At the macro-level, in the context of improving the quality of human life, it takes wealth, capabilities, skills, attitudes of peoples which are more useful to the developments and nation's overall development as well. At the micro-level, HRD represents the improvement in the quality of employees so as to achieve higher level of productivity. The objective is to develop certain new capabilities in people to help them perform present job in a better way and to accept future job challenges (Bhatia, 2005). In order to achieve this goal at the micro-level, HRD department in organization has to perform few functions namely: 1) Training and Development (T&D), 2) Organizational Development (OD), 3) Career Development (CD). In order to perform these three primary functions effectively, some of the secondary functions which come under the purview of the HRD department include: 1. Role Analysis and Development, 2. Employee orientation, 3. Performance Appraisal, 4. Potential Appraisal , 5. Counseling , 6. Succession Planning, 7. Participative Devices and QWL, and 8. HRIS and Research. 18 | Page  HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 2.4 The Model Of HRD Functions Role Analysis & Development Training & Development Performance Appraisal Potential Appraisal Career Development Performance Counseling Organization Development Employee Orientation Succession Planning Quality circles. Information sharing Participative Devices & QWL Quality Circles HRIS and Research Training and Development: Training involves the process of providing the knowledge, skill and abilities, required for an individual to perform a specific job or task. Development deals with preparing individuals to perform the current job in a better way and also to handle the future responsibilities. Training and Development function starts right from the time an employee joins an organization and continues until he leaves the organization. At the time of joining he is given orientation training that includes input as to the norms and the values of the organization and how to function within the job. Later, he is put to technical or skill training which helps him to develop the skills needed to perform the job. Once he is set in the job, HRD activities focuses on the development aspects for the individual. Development may take the form of coaching, counseling, and putting an individual through different management development and training programs. These training programs help the individual to take up higher responsibility and also do the work allotted in a more efficient way. Organizational Development: It can be defined as behavioral science concept to bring about planned change in the organization. The aim of OD is to bring about organizational effectiveness by indulging in micro and macro level changes. Some of the micro level changes are Team-Building, conflict resolution etc. Macro level changes are structural reorganization, cultural transformation etc. Amongst 19 | Page these changes, HRD professionals' role is to act as a change agent. Career Development: Career development involves activities performed by an individual to assess his skills and abilities. Career management involves all the steps taken to achieve this career plan. Career Development consists of both Career planning and Career management. It is a process by which individual's progresses through a series of stages each of which is characterized by a relatively unique set of issues themes and tasks. Individuals can progress in their career through proper training and development. Organizations are now planning their training and development programs not only with the organizational point of view but also according to the individual career growth needs. Role Analysis and Development: Role studies are very important to the development, Training and professionalization of HRD (Nadler and Nadler, 1969). They may be used to define a role more clearly so as to avoid ambiguity in the expectation from that role. This helps to 1. Clarify the role for the role occupant 2. In preparing the role description and 3. Reduces role ambiguity. This secondary function has to be performed by the HRD person in order to carry out appraisal, identify training and developing needs of the role occupant etc. once roles are analyzed, other such systems may follow. It will also bring about increased role clarity, increased accountability, and a feeling of significance among the occupants of the roles. Employee Orientation Employee orientation develops the new employee to contribute more quickly to the business. It is also essential to help the employee to meet the challenges they face in coping with the radical change and organizational restructuring, or the challenges of adapting to new work pattern. Effective orientation is concerned with motivating people to become productive in the shortest time and to stay with organization. A comprehensive and successful orientation scheme is one that meets the needs of employees as they progress into their organization. Initially, they will be made to know about the industrial safety, security, health, comfort and welfare. Subsequently, they will be made aware of the role and responsibilities expected of them. Finally, they would be shown their role in the team and how they can make a contribution to the organization and its objective. The role of the HRD staff in employee orientation is in developing an effective 20 | Page  HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT and quicker training program and assisting with a process that is essentially controlled by the various line managers in an organization. 2.5 Role Of HRD Professionals In Organizations In order to succeed in the fast changing competitive environment, Organizations need to anticipate, innovate and adapt. In this context, HRD has the central role to play in promoting and supporting the development of a learning environment to create and nurture knowledge Knowledge is the key source of competitive advantage, and this is brought out through the employees. So the roles and functions of HRD are directed towards the release of the human potential in individuals, groups and organizations through learning experience that results from planned and organized training, education and development activities. There are three major sub roles for the HRD practioner in an organization. They are learning specialist, administrator and consultant. 2.6 Role Of Learning Specialist HRD must provide the required learning and growth experiences to both individuals and groups to help them resolve organizational problems and use the various opportunities for organizational change. This is achieved by: 1) Training activities, 2) Education, and 3) Development activities. HRD helps in organized learning over a given period of time to provide the possibility of performance change. Training activities focus on learning the skill, knowledge and attitude required to initially perform a task or to improve upon the performance of the current job. Education focuses on learning new skills, knowledge and attitude that will equip an individual to assume a new job. The learning to be gained is identified from known pre-requisites of the future job assignments. Educational activities are more in those organizations which are in changing technological fields, and they may be sponsored degree programs, offered by reputed universities in that area etc. 2.7 Role As On Administrator As an administrator, HRD practioners or managers have to perform the following roles in an organization. 1) HRD short and long range planning 21 | Page  2) Organizing the HRD unit 3) Controlling the HRD staff 4) Budgeting for the HRD department 5) Staffing the HRD function 6) Facilitating the professional growth of the HRD staff. 7) Managing facilities and equipment. 8) Building supportive internal and external relations 9) Supervising program and staff. This administrative role is similar to any other managerial function as carried out by various functional line managers for their effective departmental functioning. 2.8 Role As A Consultant The HRD manager is, first a line manager of an organizational unit or department that performs a staff function. Secondly, the HRD manager also serves as a consultant to the organization's chief executive officers and helps the line management team to resolve its personnel, productivity and organizational problems. The line managers with the assistance of the HRD staff, who are the in-house consultants of the organization, can carry out the following activities effectively: 1) To do everything possible to ensure that the on the job application of learning will take place. 2) To identifying the difference that has occurred to the organization by way of cost reduction, quality or quantity improvement or any others, if on- the job application of the learning takes place. 3) To assess the training, education and development needs of their employees to help them determine the causes for the performance gaps within their staff units. 2.9 Emerging Issues Facing The HRD Professionals As any other function HRD professional also have to face various challenges and issues in the dynamic competitive environment. Some of the issues are: 1) Changing Environment 2) Technological impact 22 | Page  HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 3) Low commitment from management 4) Globalization 5) Learning organization 6) Organizational strategy 7) Employee orientation 8) HR outsourcing 2.10 Changing Environment Change in endemics in our society- The only factor that remains continuously present in our system is change. Organization has to prepare themselves to cope up with the changes in the environment in order to survive and be successful. Indian organizations have also undergone drastic transformation in order to assume vibrant new identities especially after the globalization. Changes in structure or strategy may be undertaken in order to be adoptive to changes. HRD will be expected to play key role in such transformations. HRD professional being the architects of change has to learn to change faster and see to issue like: 1) How do we honor the past and adapt to the future? 2) How do we make everyone to accept change? 3) How do we change and learn more rapidly? 4) How do we unlearn what we have learned? Technological advancement is fats in all fields which have brought about changes in the life style of individuals and organizations. The impact of internet, e mails, video conferencing is greater on people. The challenge to managers is to make the best use of the technological advancement. HR managers have to upgrade the employee's skills and competencies in order to make the best use of improvements in technology for the business growth. The impact is already felt on the organizational workings. Focus may be on what services the HR team will provide, which among the employees will be retained, re-skilled and deployed or retrenched. 2.11 Summary This chapter traced the several events that had led to the establishments of the HRD field. Earlier training programs concentrated on skilled training. In response to industrial revolution, emphasis was placed on training semi skilled workers. With the establishments of ASTD, training was recognized as a profession. HRD activities in India started when HRD system was introduced in L&T during the earlier 1970s. HRD can envisage as a part of the larger HRM system. Based on the goals of HRD the functions that HRD has to perform can be grouped into three primary 23 | Page functions namely training and development, career development and organizational development. Secondary functions to facilitate the primary functions are role analysis, induction, performance appraisal, potential appraisal, counseling and succession planning. In order to discharge these functions, the HRD manager should take up the major roles like learning specialist, administrator and consultant. To discharge these roles effectively the HRD manager should be able to provide opportunity to each employee to grow in the organization. Finally, the issues that an HRD practitioner has to face in the future have been highlighted. They include the impact of changing environment, technological impact, low commitment form management, Globalization, learning organization, HR outsourcing, compacting HRD strategy with organizational strategy and employee orientation. 2.12 Keywords 1. 3Cs-Capbility, commitment and culture 2. Career Planning:- It is the planning of one's career and implementation of career plans by means of education, training, job search and acquisition of work experiences. 3. Succession Planning:- It is the process of identifying , developing and tracking new individuals for executive positions. 4. HRIS:- Human resource Information System 5. Changing Environment 24 | Page