FUTURE OF HRD MACMILLAN

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5 FUTURE OF HRD T.V. RAO Chairman, TVRLS Formerly Professor at lim, Ahmedabad Founder President, National HRD Network L&T Professor of HRD at XLRI, famshedpur,_ MACMILLAN

6 M Macmillan India Ltd., 2003 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published, 2003 Reprinted, 2003, 2004,2005, 2007 (twice),2008(twice) MACMILLAN INDIA LTD. Delhi Bangalore Chennai Kolkata Mumbai Bhopal Chandigarh Coimbatore Cuttack Guwahati Hubli Hyderabad Jaipur Lucknow Madurai Nagpur Patna Pune Raipur Thiruvananthapuram Visakhapatnam Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 10: ISBN 13: Published by Rajiv Beri for Macmillan India Ltd. 2/10 Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi Lasertypeset by Sai Graphic Design 8694, D.B. Gupta Road, Paharganj, New Delhi Printed by S.M.YOGAN at Macmillan India Press, Chennai This book is meant for educational and learning purposes. The author(s) of the book has/ have taken all reasonable care to ensure that the contents of the book do not violate any existing copyright or other intellectual property rights of any person in any manner whatsoever. In the event the author(s) has/have been unable to track any source and if any copyright has been inadvertently infringed, please notify the publisher in writing for corrective action.

7 Foreword Human Resource Development (HRD) is still in its infancy. As an integrated field, it is not yet 50 years old. And were we to qualify it with adjectives like 'systematic' and 'strategic', HRD would be even newer. Compare this to, say medicine and law, which have a history of thousands of years. Ethics, standards, norms, roles and competencies-issues which Dr Rao addresses here in the context of HRD-have already been extensively dealt with in these older fields. That HRD has some ways to go is no cause for despair. The growth and development of HRD has been quite remarkable. It takes time to give cohesion to theories drawn from so many different fields, to experiment with various interventions aimed at accomplishing the organization's objectives, and to determine whether these interventions have made a difference. The fact that HRD is currently undergoing tremendous growth in interest suggests that it is making a difference in organizations. The trend towards its increasing application in newer areas-ngos and, even, national level policy making-confirms the value that people perceive in HRD. Nevertheless, as Future of HRD points out, many challenges confront the field as it progresses from adolescence into adulthood. The need of the hour is to ensure that the energies of both, practitioners and scholars, is brought to bear on testing and challenging the advances in the field. Unfortunately the subject of HRD has been marked by the rapid adoption of unproven fads which, more often than not, lack a sound theoretical foundation. So, of all of the challenges identified by Rao, the most critical for the survival of the field is to ensure that the willingness (and expertise) to test and evaluate claims for HRD interventions is there. Practices that cannot be supported have to be rejected while interventions of proven value have to be adopted and improved upon. Globalization is another major challenge identified by Rao. The Bangalore conference held in 2002, which was co-sponsored by the Academy of Human Resour~e Development (International) and the Academy of Human Resource Development (India), is a good example of how HRD can respond to the challenges created

8 vi FOREWORD by globalization. One of the problems facing HRD is the inadequate sharing of scholarly discoveries across the globe. Bringing together researchers from many countries and publishing the research papers in a book will go a long way toward developing new theories and bringing about a new understanding in the field. In Future of HRD, Rao compares and contrasts the state of HRD in two countries (India and the United States)- something that needs to be done more. Defining HRD is an ongoing process, and a wider range of perspectives will enrich the debate, making the resulting definition more global. HRD does itself a disservice when it focuses on a narrow ethnocentric definition. So, while i:.he primary readership for this book is in India, it can contribute considerably to the ongoing international discussion about where we are and where we want to be as a field. Appropriately, Rao also focuses on the lack of an ethical standard for HRD, especially in an international context. Mter the recent exposures of corporate malpractice in the United States, there is a heightened awareness of the need for ethical behaviour in business. Lack of transparency and pervasive corruption is prevalent in many countries, primarily in Asia, Africa, and South America. HRD has an important role to play in countering this problem. I applaud Rao's call to professional organizations in India to develop a standard of ethics for HRD. In conjunction with the standards published by AHRD (International), this will go a long way in helping HRD set the ethical standards of organizations. This book has the potential to usher in significant improvements in the HRD programs offered throughout India. Academics have to work in conjunction with practitioners in the field, as it were, and integrate the results of their research into the curricula. Organizations and their CEOs should also expect much more from their HRD professionals. They should demand accountability and provide the resources to insure that accountability exists. Rao is to be commended for the challenges that he presents before the field of HRD. Simply reading this book, though, is not enough. We have to follow up on its message, or else, HRD in India (and perhaps the world over) will continue to struggle with the issues of identity and contribution to the value chain. What will your response be to the challenges that Rao puts forward? Dr Gary McLean Past President, Academy of HRD (International) University of Minnesota, USA

9 Preface By HRD I mean Human Resources Development and not Human Resources Department. The Human Resources Departments have done the biggest damage in the last two decades to Human Resources Development by renaming the Personnel and Training Departments as HR Departments and diluting Human Resources Development. Professional bodies with all their got>d intentions have unknowingly contributed to this damage. HRD today is at cross roads. So are the HRD managers. Some HRD managers have shrunk their roles and reduced themselves to administration managers, training managers or glorified labour welfare officers, or at best to recruitment and retention managers. The IT industry has perpetuated this. They have missed a golden opportunity of making an impact and lifting themselves to a position of strategic thinkers, business partners, leaders, change managers and CEOs. Those who have made a mark and made a difference are few and can be counted on one's fingers in this large nation of millions of people. Those who missed the boat and continue to do so are many. A number of corporations use them as personnel administration managers though they are designated as HRD managers (to mean mangers of Human Resources Departments rather than Human Resources Development). A number of corporations have begun to appoint line managers without professional training in Human Resources Development as HRD managers and are reasonably happy with their performance. The reason for this is that line managers who have not been trained in HRD, seem to make better HRD managers as they seem to know business better than HR managers and bring with them some humility that they perhaps do not know much about HRD and are willing to learn. On the other hand, a professionally-trained HRD manager (postgraduate in HR) who has perhaps not received adequate and appropriate professional preparation, comes to the department feeling that he/she knows

10 viii PREFACE all about HRD and that his/her knowledge is final. Unfortunately, a large part of the knowledge he/she has had, thanks to the lack of growth within management schools themselves, directs the HRD manager as recruitment manager, wage and salary administration manager, IR manager, compensation manager and rarely as change manager, development manager or performance manager. In the US, some separate categories of managers such as performance managers were created outside the HR departments. Chief knowledge officers, chief learning managers, etc., are the other designations given to them, indicating that the HR manager cannot be a facilitator of learning, knowledge or performance. These are indications of the failure of HRD managers. A part of the blame has also to be taken by the CEOs of our corporations who have not really understood the potential of HRD managers. Also, the failure ofhrd is a reflection on the failure of our CEOs. Our CEOs are more often short-term goa]. driven. They talk of long-term policies and initiatives, but behave in quite the opposite way. The quarterly review phenomenon that has become popular in the last few years, has further aggravated this situation. However, all is not lost. We have some good examples and role models. The future looks bright and it is going to make HRD more relevant than before. This book is about the future. How should the future of HR be shaped? What should the roles ofhrd managers be? What should they do and what should they not? This book attempts to outline answers to these issues. If the future has to look up, we have to learn lessons from the past. This book, therefore, reviews the current status of HRD, draws on lessons from the past and goes on to argue for the future. The examination of the past has been carried out very critically. Critical comments on some HRD managers or the HRD profession are meant to stimulate thinking for the future. I sincerely hope my fellow HR professionals will take these comments as pointers of what should be avoided, and not as my cynicism. I have great faith in the profession of HRD and the HRD managers. If they have to make a mark and get noticed they should not only do things right but also do right things. The future is going to be a competency era and it is people who

11 PREFACE IX will give strategic advantage to firms. The future is full of opportunities. We need to know a lot, learn a lot, discover a lot and apply a lot. The future is going to be the future for genuine Human Resources Development managers. It is going to be of those HRD managers who have an entrepreneurial spirit in them, innovativeness, leadership qualities and a business drive. The future is going to be of those HRD managers who are willing to learn, network, be vision-driven, articulate, communicative, proactive and pushing, and persevering. It is going to be of those HRD managers who may not be designated as such but are willing to take up learning and devefopment as their primary agenda and facilitate the same in the corporations and multiply competencies through the systems approach and business partnership. The book outlines the roles and tasks of such HRD managers and also provides some tips needed to develop themselves and their Human Resources Development function. The book first presents a global scenario in terms of HRD and its development. It then goes on to review the status of HRD in India and points out its adequacies and inadequacies. This book is divided into the following 7 parts: The first chapter deals with the status of the HRD profession. In this part an attempt is made to point out the history of HRD in India, present some details about what makes HRD a profession, etc. The second part deals with global models and Indian HRD. This describes the original HRD work done in India by the author with Dr Udai Pareek at L&T and presents the view that global models available today are not too different from those evolved in India. It also argues that Indian corporations have a long way to go even while adopting Indian HRD models. The third chapter describes current HRD managers and presents their profile. The fourth chapter presents a vision for the future of HRD. In Chapter 5, future HRD managers and their roles and competencies are described. Chapter 6 presents the resources requirements of HRD. The book then goes on in chapter 7 to paint HRD challenges in the context of national development and concludes with painting a new opportunity for HRD to make an impact. T.V Rao

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13 Contents Preface vii CHAYrER 1 HRD as a Profession: Where Are We? 2 CHAYrER2 HRD Function-Global Models and Indian Experiences: An Audit 40 CHAYrER3 HRD Managers of Today: At Cross Roads 72 CHAPTER4 HRD: The Vision 96 CHAYrER5 Future HRD Manager 105 CHAYfER6 CHAYrER 7 Resource Requirements for Making HRD Work 130 HRD at the National Level: The Asian Challenge 159 Appendices 185 References 213

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