Bratton & Gold: HRM 3e CHAPTER 2

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Title
Human Resource Development
Words of wisdom A commitment to learning at work
is as much a statement of values, an assertion of
the kind of society that people want to live in,
as an economic imperative. It implies a
preference for a more inclusive
society. Despite the fact that most employers
appear to support the abstract concept of
lifelong learning, it is also clear from the same
study that the majority of employers were not
enthusiastic about being encouraged or assisted
in supporting greater other or general
training. One of the greatest business
challenges is to find some models for how a whole
organization can learn.
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Chapter outline
Human Resource Development
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Human Resource Development
Human Resource 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.
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Strategy and HRD
Strategy and HRD
Integrating HRD into strategy requires the
development of the senior management team so that
the dilemma to be resolved between control
through planning and emergent learning becomes an
acceptable form of their thinking. An orthodox
view makes strategic HRD entirely responsive to
organizational strategy. Alternative versions
provide for a more reciprocal and proactive
influence on organizational strategy. Even when
strategy is given full consideration, there are a
number of possible paths that may be
taken. Choosing a path other than skills and
learning lies at the core of a (UK) problem of
low-priced and low-quality production and a low
demand for skills.
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Establishing HRD
Establishing HRD
A principle assumption underpinning HRD is that,
through the provision of learning activities in
whatever form, employees are worth investing in,
and there will be benefits for the individual
involved, the organization, the economy and
society as a whole. Human capital theory
peoples performance and the results achieved can
be considered as a return on investment and
assessed in terms of costs and benefits. Approache
s to HRD Voluntarist approach Interventionist
approach
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Establishing HRD the machine metaphor
Establishing HRD

• The following implications can be drawn from the
  machine metaphor
• Attitudes are important
• Individuals have responsibility for their parts
• Learning is based on a deficit model
• Training closes a gap
• Little place for feelings

(Marsick Watkins 1999)
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Developmental humanistic approach
Establishing HRD

• Developmental humanistic approach
• Based on the personal empowerment of the
  workforce through workplace learning.
• The key argument is that individuals are the most
  productive when they feel that their work is
  personally meaningful. Learning provides a way of
  coping with change and fulfilling ambitions.
• HRD can therefore move beyond the technical
  limitations of training and embrace key notions
  of learning and development implied in such
  concepts as the learning organization and
  lifelong learning.

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Skills and commitment
Establishing HRD

• Skills and commitment
• If HRD can have a positive effect on
  profitablility, attract good-quality staff,
  indicate the values of the firm and engender
  commitment in times of change, why is there still
  a low commitment to HRD in the UK?
• Many employers underestimate or do not recognize
  skills gaps, or do not consider future needs.
  Training is often concentrated among managers and
  senior staff, whereas unskilled workers receive
  very little.
• The UKs failure to educate and train its
  workforce to the same level as its competitors
  may be responsible for its relatively poor
  economic performance.

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Table 10.1 The national framework for NVQs/SVQs
Establishing HRD
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The demand for skills
Establishing HRD

• The demand for skills
• To ensure a high demand for skills, action is
  required principally from within organizations.
  Many organizations do not however regard HRD as
  being central to their requirements.
• If tasks are designed as requiring a high level
  of skill, this will trigger a requirement for a
  highly-trained workforce and for an investment in
  that workforce if skilled labour is not available
  in the external market.
• The presence of skilled employees can contribute
  to the interpretation by managers that any
  changes can be dealt with by their employees, so
  they are able to take advantage of any benefits
  that the changes may bring.

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The learning movement
Establishing HRD

• The Learning Movement
• The recommendations, ideas and exhortations
  relating to HRD and learning at work, plus the
  structures to support these, are features of the
  learning movement.
• Even though the learning movement provides the
  resources to support HRD, decision-makers still
  have a choice and can remain oblivious to
  pressures for more HRD, or sceptical about the
  benefits.
• Pursuing a policy of HRD has to reflect the
  strategy of senior managers who are able to view
  their organizations in a variety of ways.
• Particularly important are the actions of
  managers at all levels in supporting learning and
  turning an aversion to risk-taking into
  opportunity-spotting.

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Implementing HRD
Implementing HRD
Who should take responsibility? How should needs
be identified? Whose interests should they
serve? What activities should be used? Will they
add value? How does HRD relate to business
goals?
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Figure 10.1 A four-stage training model
Implementing HRD
A systematic training model
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A systematic training model
Implementing HRD

• A systematic training model
• Essential prerequisites for any effort to
  implement a training model are a consideration of
  budgets, attitudes, abilities and culture or
  climate.
• A key requirement of training activity is that it
  is relevant and reflects the real world.
• Bramley (1989) advocated turning the four stages
  of the training model into a cycle in which
  evaluation occurs throughout the process, with an
  emphasis on managers taking responsibility for
  the transfer of learning.
• In this way the model is made effective rather
  than mechanistically efficient.

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An integrated approach
Implementing HRD

• An Integrated Approach
• An integrated approach highlights key
  interdependencies within organizations, such as
  the link to strategy, the role of line managers
  and the emergent features of learning.
• A policy of HRD has to be translated into the
  structures, systems and processes that might be
  called a learning climate.
• At the heart of the learning climate lies the
  line manager-employee relationship.
• A number of roles have been associated with
  managers to support this, including coaching and
  mentoring.

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Figure 10.2 A model of the transfer within HRD
Implementing HRD
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Fig 10.3 Evaluation as a chain of causality
Implementing HRD
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Fig 10.4 Establishing HRD a contested image
Implementing HRD
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Workplace learning
Workplace Learning
Learning in the workplace is seen as the crucial
contributor to dealing with change, coping with
uncertainty and complexity in the environment and
creating opportunities for sustainable
competitive advantage. Workplace learning casts a
whole organization as a unit of learning,
allowing managers to take a strategic view and
others to think in terms of how their learning
impacts on the wider context. Key ideas for
application include the learning organization and
organization learning, knowledge management and
production and e-learning.
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Workplace learning
Workplace Learning
According to Senge (1990), the following
disciplines should form the foundation of the
learning organization Personal mastery A shared
vision Team learning Mental models Systems
thinking
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Table 10.2 Traditions of learning
Workplace Learning
Understanding learning
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Fig 10.5 Kolbs learning cycle
Workplace Learning
Understanding learning
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Workplace learning
Workplace Learning
Organizational learning Cultural view
organization learning is mostly informal and
improvisational, situated in a particular
context and is a function of activity that occurs
at a local level within communities of
practice. Likely to be at variance from what
managers want to happen.
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Knowledge management
Knowledge Management
Knowledge management is the management of the
information, knowledge and experience available
to an organization its creation, capture,
storage, availability and utilization in order
that organizational activities build on what is
already known, and extend it further. (Mayo
1998) Human capital accumulation has therefore
become one of the new reasons for an investment
in HRD and a contrast to the previous narrow
conceptions implied by human capital theory.
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E-learning
Knowledge Management
E-learning One area in which the technology
revolution is having a massive impact in HRD is
the provision of e-learning. E-learning is
learning that is delivered, enabled or mediated
by electronic technology for the explicit purpose
of training in organizations. It does not include
stand-alone technology-based training such as the
use of CD-ROMs in isolation. (Sloman Reynolds
2002)
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Chapter summary (1st third)
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Chapter summary (2nd third)
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Chapter summary (final third)