Human Resources Development key to sustain organisations- Uni. Don

"Organisations are changeable, as well as vulnerable, as they are man-made entities that rely on human expertise to establish and achieve their goals. Hence, they can soar or crumble. Therefore, Human Resources Development (HRD) is intricately connected to the fate of any organisation and, in this sense, is important," saidDean of the Faculty of Management, Uva Wellassa University, G.H. Abeyweera.

He was speaking at the HRM Diploma Awards Ceremony organised by the Uva Province Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Badulla, recently. Excerpts from his speech:

“HRD is one of the major areas which needs grave attention. It is an area which has not been significantly touched and paid due attention, particularly, in the public sector, where economic development is of serious concern. Developing HR or the manpower requirement, is not that easy, as one perceives. Simply because we have to deal with human development and not the development of objects. So, in this perspective, what is HRD? Why do we need HRD? Why HRD for us? And how do we achieve this?

HRD though a relatively young academic discipline is an old, established field of practice. The idea of human beings purposefully and intentionally developing, with a view to improve conditions, is human nature. As it is the central point, it is worthy to consider some of the definitions given to HRD.

According to Nadler, ‘HRD is a series of organised activities conducted within a specified time and are designed to produce behavioural change’. So, the key aspects Nadler highlights in his definition, which came into practice in the 1970s, are the behavioural change and adult learning, which is theoretically psychological.

Craig, in 1976, provides another definition for HRD. According to him, ‘HRD focuses on the central goal of developing human potential in every aspect of lifelong learning’. In this definition, Craig emphasses human performance as the key component in HRD, which is philosophical and psychological in its underlying theory.

These definitions provides us some insight into our understanding of how HRD works in transforming human behaviour through adult learning for human performance in any given professional context.

The definition on HRD provided by Jones in 1981 takes us to another direction. According to Jones, “HRD is a systematic expansion of people’s workrelated abilities focused on attainment of both organization and personal goals’. Jones tends to highlight performance, organisation and personal goals for which the underlying theory being philosophical, systematic, psychological and economic. In simple terms, organisational or personal goals are achieved by means of engaging and exposing the workforce for improvement of the work-related abilities.

I also would like to draw your attention to one more definition on Human Re s o u r c e Development provided by Watkins in 1989 where we happened to experience and cope up with a dark period in the Sri Lankan context. According to Watkins, ‘ HRD is the field of study and practice responsible for fostering of a long- term, work-related learning capacity at the individual, group and organizational level of organizations as such it includes- but not limited to –training, career development and organisational development’. Watkins highlights, the learning capacity, training and development, career development and thereby the organisational development as the key components of human resource development where the underlying theory seems psychological which emphasises system, performance and economic relevance.

When all those theories so far discussed are sum-up, it is evident that human resource development is a process for developing and unleashing human expertise thorough organisation development and personal training and development for the purpose of improving performance and thereby contributing to modern economic development.

In searching an applicable reply to the query on why do we need HRD? One may find several valid replies. Among too many replies, I would prefer to put forward a few statements as replies to the above query why we need HRD?

Organisations are changeable and as well as vulnerable as these organizations are human-made entities that rely on human expertise to establish and achieve their goals. So, organisations have been created by humankind and thus they can soar or crumble. Therefore, HRD is intricately connected to the fate of any organisation. In this sense, HRD is important in any organization.

The other important reply one can provide to the query why we need HRD is that it is only through HRD process that human expertise is developed and maximized. This should be done for the mutual long and short term benefits of the organization and the individuals involved in it. That is HRD professionals are having powerful tools to get others to think, accept and act accordingly.

Another possible reply that one could find for having HRD is that HRD professionals are advocates of individual/ group, work process and organisational integrity. HRD professionals typically have a privileged position of accessing rich information that transcends boundaries and levels of individuals, groups, work processes and the organisation. This is where the necessary reforms can be made to improve the efficiency of the organisation.

From all these, you may understand why we need human resource development and the impact it has in behavioural change through adult learning for improving human performance, training and development, career development and organisational development.

Then, the next question one may pose is that HRD why for us?

In Sri Lanka, the context is an educated society where the educated with various qualifications ranging from certificates to Diploma and then Degree levels will never fit for jobs. Yet, jobs are given for degree certificates. What we really need is to provide the required training for a particular job and then recruit them in the profession for a productive outcome.

Training and Development is one of the functions in HRD. Training makes an impact on improving the knowledge, skills and the attitudes of the employees which are particular to a specific job or a task. This is where the HRD matters in employee orientation or orientation for novice employees for skills and technical training. In training and development: development is preparing the workforce for future responsibilities while increasing the capacity to perform at the current job. Thus, HRD is mandatory for us as individuals, groups and organization.

HRD also equally plays the role of the change- agent in organizational development. It is the process of improving an organization’s effectiveness and the well-being of the members through the application of behavioural sciences. In simple terms, where there is no HRD, there is no significant organizational development.

Optimum use of Human Resource Development is another vital aspect in any given organization. That is getting the maximum benefits to the organization by managing the human resources available within the organisation. The fact is that Human Resource Management (HRM) is only possible and is healthy when there is the human resource development. From this too it is evident that HRD is inseparable from an organization.

Coaching and mentoring also play an important role in human resource development. The regular coaching and mentoring of the staff in any given organisation will bring enormous results as they have a psychological impact on the mindsets of the people to work for the organisation. For them, the work is more important than that of what they earn. For them the commitment will be the top most priority in life. There the organization will never collapse. So we need HRD. (See full text of speech in

the web edition)