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

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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

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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.

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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.”
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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.
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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

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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

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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

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 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
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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

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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

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