Important Issues for Human Resource Development - Coursework Example

Important Issues for Human Resource Development Contemporary HRD and Workplace Learning 1. Introduction Contemporary HRD greatly influences the way human relations are being handled in the workplace while Workplace Learning is increasingly being recognised as a way to improve organisational performance. For this reason, along with a number of articles written about the concept, several new models of HRD were developed supporting the idea of a learning organisation. The following section discusses and issues raised by two recent articles concerning contemporary HRD and workplace learning and its implications to practice. The first article is about the role of HRD in enhancing strategic management and the second discusses the role of HRD and the different issues involve in workplace learning. 2. Important Issues for HRD Raised by Contemporary HRD and Workplace Learning Articles There is definitely no easy way to resolve performance issues in organisations but regardless of position or function, traditional practices are in most situations no longer applicable in today’s business environment. For instance, flexibility and adaptability are now a common requirement for employees in most organisations where employees must be able to learn and work in other discipline (Wilson, 2005). Similarly, although considered a necessity, operational effectiveness alone does not guarantee the success of an organisational strategy (Kozami, 2002). This is because traditional emphasis on performance prevents individuals from realising their full potential (Swanson & Holton, 2009). According to Vince (2004) traditional HRD practices often limits strategic learning and ignores the impact of social, emotional, and political events surrounding employees (p.26). Similarly, although it is concern with learning, current practices are focusing on individual learning rather than giving more emphasis on the organisation as learners (Woodall et al., 2004). Moreover, individuals are being treated and developed as mere resources for the organisation rather than seeing them as people with inherent worth (Swanson & Holton, 2009). For this reason, several behavioural and social sciences based HRD theory has been developed and one of them is contemporary HRD that is focused on making HRD as a strategic tool to advance the business objectives of the organisation. In ‘strategic’ HRD, employees working together and sharing their knowledge can be a source of strong competitive advantage that others cannot duplicate (Chapter 2&3). Although application of strategic HRD appears advantageous in many ways, there are some implications concerning how people are actually being managed in most organisations and the claim that employees shared knowledge can bring great benefit to the organisation (........). Clearly, knowledge comes from learning thus learning must be involved in all levels of the organizational structure. According to (.......), development of employees’ capability for strategic thinking and opportunities for strategic discussion can be a great contribution from HRD thus it must be involved in all levels of learning in the organisation. The author of the article ‘Strategy Making as Learning: Positioning the Role of HRD in Strategic Management’ divided actions needed to achieve this in three levels –strategic, tactical, and operational which is similar to integrating learning at the level of corporate strategy, business units objectives, and at the operational level as identified by Harrison (2002) as cited in (Smith & Smith, 2006). Normally, as far as HRD is concern, their involvement in organisational learning often occurs in the operation level where basic skills and competency training, management development, and operation improvement are being implemented recurrently. However, given that the aim of the strategy is to position the organisation in a secure and competitive business environment, employees must not only rely on their operational effectiveness but have to act accordingly in compliance with the organisational strategy learned from HRD. Since most HRD functions at the operational level and monitoring operational effectiveness, developing strategic thinkers at the strategic level may not be that easy. This is because unlike learning from experience at the tactical level and developing basic skills at the operational level is much convenient than identifying strategic pattern of internal and external events (-------). It is a common belief that the strategic value of HRD and the success of knowledge-based strategy of an organisation will be measured by its impact on the business in the future (Swart et al., 2005). The issue concerning strategic level function of HRD such as creating strategic thinkers out of ordinary employees with varying perspective in life and enabling strategic and tactical thinkers among leaders is a real challenge for most HRD professionals because it involves learning. For instance, to be able to gain strategic insight, one must undergo a series of data analysis and recollection of past experiences. Moreover, aside from instinctive interpretation and judgement, one must determine the extent to which all of the above is required. According to Dubois (1993), the dilemma of getting involve in strategic management can be solve by analysing the existing strategic and management process and collecting information about the organisation’s intention, plan, and current direction (p.53). However, although the suggestion may be possible, it may be a very difficult task in practice as it involves different types of learning which in its own right is another complicated issue. For instance, the learning process often occurs at the individual level and the conversion process is not automatic and requires specific efforts (Dutrenit, 2000). Another problem is the reality that important learning events are often sporadic thus preventing generalization of knowledge being acquired by the organisation (Cross & Israelit, 2000). Since learning is no longer regarded as an exclusive school activity and can take place continuously at work, most organisations today are becoming increasingly in favour of experience and self-directed learning (Tjepkema, 2002; Mayo, 2004). The effectiveness of learning however depends on the smooth flow of communication or the capacity to communicate (Skar, 2009) between members of the organisation and one of the responsibilities of HRD is to effectively conduct learning events. According to the article ‘Putting HRD into Practice’, learning is an essential link between the human resource department and organisations business strategy, different experiences of its members, and processes involve in business operation (.....). In relation to HRD’s function in the different level of the organisation, the author emphasises the need for effective exchange of information to achieve learning and the subsequent knowledge required. This exchange of information may be in the form of a dialogue or a meeting where exchange of views from learner to HRD can occur (Dron, 2007). Similarly, according to the article, learning comes in different forms as there is situational, response, transformative, transcendent, and instrumental learners, learning also involves recollecting our experiences and gathering information that can be use as basis for our response and actions. Employees developed skills and learn new ways of coordinating and communicating thus becoming more effective not only in their work but dealing with families and community (Garrick, 2002). Knowledge of different types of learning therefore can help HRD in the design of learning events for the organisation. In fact, it may be as important as having knowledge about assessment and any other human resource based initiatives (Sims, 2006). For instance, learning in children is different from adults as the former often require formal education while the latter have their own motivation and capable of learning through experiences and existing knowledge (Tusting & Barton, 2003). Aside from being an autonomous learner, adults often initiate learning and capable of determining their own learning process (Tusting & Barton, 2003). More importantly, as far as the study of Tusting & Barton is concern, adult learners are capable of reflective learning and applying knowledge learned to solve their problems. As the article in ‘Strategy Making as Learning...’ implies, as an adult and working for the organisation, members of the organisation at all levels must learn. For instance, learning at the tactical level includes drawing knowledge from experiences such as problems encountered at work and solutions learned from that experience. Normally, the function of HRD at this level is to influence the behaviour of employees and implement an appraisal system which is also a form of control (Harris, 2006). While traditional training and development activity is always present in the operational level, reflective learning is generally applicable in the strategic level. As mentioned earlier, learning at the strategic level often include indentifying pattern of events and learning from the outcome of strategic initiatives. The HRD professional therefore must be able to distinguish differences in learning capabilities and level of application. As with Korpelainen and Kira (2010), people learn from specific learning situation such as encountering problems and other situation that requires problem-solving skills (p.34). In strategic level application where common executives’ concern is influenced by core ideas or strategic intent, learning can be spontaneous as leaders need them in devising competitive tactics. According to (Chapter 6), knowledge gained from experience and information can be use to take appropriate actions and most executives may opt for single-loop or double-loop learning where they can free adjust their tactics and strategies based on their understanding of the situation (p.11). This is may be true considering the most individuals in the strategic level often organise their thinking on known strategies and often reflective and aware (Crawford, 2007). Similarly, employees learning in tactical level often require experience and new situations with no existing solutions (------). It thus appears that learning through formal training is only present in the operation level of the organisation where HRD commonly operates. It is therefore necessary that HRD’s learning design for the strategic level must be based on the kind of learning required by executives and the level of performance expected by the organisation. In an organisation, understanding people and the nature of their work is the primary concern of HRD (Kurchinke, 1998). However, this understanding must not be use to control or disallow independent thinking. Since learning according to (Chapter 6) is acquiring knowledge, competencies, and application of the knowledge to work, the real purpose is to enable learning in such a way that it would enhance operational effectiveness. The important issues in contemporary HRD are actually interrelated as transforming an organisation into a learning workplace and creating strategic thinkers out of the members of the organisation both requires a deep understanding of how people learn. 3. Summary and Conclusion As modern business environment requires flexible and adaptable employees that can work in other discipline as required by the current organisation strategy, the role of HRD is no longer limited to operational effectiveness. Operational effectiveness alone as evidenced by the case studies presented in the article for contemporary HRD is no longer sufficient to guarantee the success of the organisation’s strategy. The problem apparently is too much emphasis on performance and ignorance of the importance of human development in terms of learning. Similarly, traditional HRD practices are focusing mostly on individuals rather than organisational learning. Contemporary HRD is generally developing HRD into a strategic tool to support specific business objectives of the organisation. The idea is to work together and share knowledge throughout the organisation and make employees the source of a unique competitive advantage that competitors cannot duplicate. However, although it may appear logical and advantageous, it has some important implications in actual practice since it involves learning. Learning is a separate issue that must be resolved in order to create strategic thinkers within the organisation. Workplace learning or learning by experience at work can greatly improve performance but it can never guarantee complete strategic compliance. This is because learning at the strategic level requires efforts and support from HRD. Although adults are capable of reflective learning, they should be guided and encourage to consistently learn on the level that effectively support the organisations strategy. In general, the implications of issues such as strategic thinking and learning at the strategic level to HRD practice is the difficulty of implementation. HRD professionals that will be involved in strategic level may not perform as expected since there are number of issues that must be resolve such as the ability of employees to learn and various types of individual learning requirements. 4. 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