hr development

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

MMag. Almina Bešić

Department of Human Resource Management

Winter Term 2011

29 November 2011


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Almina Bešić • HRM in Practice • Winter Term 2011 • Human Resource Development (29 November 2011)

Outline

1. What is Human Resource Development (HRD)?

2. Strategy and HR Development

3. Implementing HR Development

4. HR Development Approaches

5. Summary


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1. What is HR Development?

“Human resource development (HRD) comprises the procedures

and processes that purposely seek to provide learning activities to

enhance the skills, knowledge and capabilities of people, teams

and the organization so that there is a change in action to achieve

the desired outcomes.”

(Bratton & Gold 2007: 306)

HRD is the “planned and systematic modification of behaviour

through learning events, programmes and instructions that enable

individuals to achieve the levels of knowledge, skill and

competence needed to carry out their work effectively.”

(Armstrong 2009: 535)


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• Underlying assumption that,

- Employees are worth investing in

- Through different forms of learning activities

- And that there will be benefits for the individuals and the organization

• Human Capital Theory

- People are worth investing in as a form of capital

- Demand for knowledge and skills (general and firm-specific)

- People’s performance and the results achieved are seen as a return on

investment

- They are assessed in terms of costs and benefits

- Training is required to close a gap between the desired and the already

achieved outcomes


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Development vs. Training

Figure 1: Development versus Training Source: Mathis & Jackson (2011: 303)


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2. Strategy and HR Development

• The strategic implementation of HRD

- Processes for equipping employees with skills, knowledge and

competencies

- Enable employees to undertake current and future tasks within an

organization

• Elements of Strategic HRD

- Performance-related development

- Implementation of specific programs

- Sharing of responsibilities

- Required resources

- Success criteria and measurement

- Line managers and employees set performance targets and

- Identify the competencies required to achieve these targets


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Figure 2: A four-stage training model Source: Bratton & Gold (2007: 329)

A systematic training approach


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An Integrated and Systemic Approach

• Highlights key interdependencies within organizations, such as

- The link to strategy,

- The role of line managers,

- The link to team-based learning and

- Knowledge transfer

• A policy of HRD in the structures, systems and processes that

might be called a learning climate or environment

- Employees have ready access to learning and opportunities for

progression

- Skills and knowledge are valued and managers act as facilitators of

development

- Implementing coaching and mentoring


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Common HR Development Approaches

Figure 3: HR Development Approaches Source: Mathis & Jackson (2011: 306)


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On-the-job Approaches

• Job Rotation

- Moving from job to job within organization

- Fosters a greater understanding of the organization

• Assistant positions

- Staff positions immediately under a manager

- Involvement in all organizational activities

• Trainee programs

- Stays of several months in different functions of the organization

- Mentor support


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• Coaching

- Carried out by a more experienced colleague or line-manager

- Short-term purpose of contributing to performance improvements

- Sometimes focuses on remedying employee under-performance

“BP recently incorporated coaching as a key element of its

development program for new first-level leaders. Each participant was paired with a more experienced colleague who was able to provide

support through the program and further learning once the program had finished.”

(Bratton & Gold 2007: 334)


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• Mentoring

- Help given by one person to another to find new meanings in work

and/or life

- In contrast to coaching

- Focus on longer term learning and development

- Carried out by a senior manager (not line manager)


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Off-the-job Approaches

• Courses and seminars

- Externally sponsored seminars

- Continuing education

• Outdoor development experiences

- Mainly for managers

- Wilderness excursions

- Teambuilding

• Sabbaticals and Leaves of Absence

- Time off the job

- Widespread in academia and in business


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The learning organization

• An organization which facilitates the learning of all its members

and continuously transforms itself

- Concerned with ideas and practices to enhance the learning of groups

and individuals

- Encouraging development efforts through shared information, culture

and leadership that stress the importance of learning

- Enhancing the benefit of the organization

• Corporate Universities

- Development of managers and other employees

- Do not provide a degree

- Sometimes partnership with traditional universities

• Development centers

- Linkage to performance management and appraisal


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Knowledge management

• The management of the information, knowledge and experience

available to an organization

• Creation, capture, storage, availability and utilization of these

factors, in order that organizational activities build on what is

already known, and extend it further

• Emphasis on the skills of employees who are “knowledge workers”

• Human capital accumulation one of the reasons for an

investment in HRD

- Because it is people who own the intellectual capital and

- Who are able to construct, manipulate and apply new knowledge,

adding value to what is produced


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5. Summary

• HR development represents efforts to improve abilities of

employees to handle a variety of assignments

• HR development includes efforts to cultivate capabilities of

employees beyond those required by the current job

• The human capital theory suggests that people are worth investing

in as a form of capital

• HR Development differs from simple training approaches

• Strategic HRD includes several elements (implementation of

specific programs, sharing of responsibilities etc.

• There are several ways to implement HR development

• Approaches to HR development include on-the-job and off-the job

approaches as well as a learning organization

• Knowledge management is the management of the information,

knowledge and experience available to an organization


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Bibliography

Basic Literature

Bratton , J. & Gold J. (2007). Human Resource Management. Theory and Practice. 4th ed. London:

Palgrave Macmillan.

Supplemental Literature

Armstrong, M. (2009). Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resource Management. 11th ed. London:

Kogan.

DeCenzo, D.A. & Robbins, S.P. (2010). Human Resource Management. 10th ed. Hoboken: Wiley.

Harzing, A. & Pinnington, A.H. (Eds.) (2011). International Human Resource Management. 3rd ed.

London: Sage.

Nieto, M.L. (2006). An Introduction to Human Resource Management. An Integrated Approach.

London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Wilton, N. (2011). An Introduction to Human Resource Management. London: Sage.

York, K.M. (2010). Applied Human Resource Management. London: Sage.

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