Human Resource Development (HRD)

Human Resource Development (HRD) is the part of Human Resource Management (HRM). HRD Includes T8D. Performance appraisal, career planning, counseling etc. People performance within organisations is a source of long term competitive business strength. Human Resource Development (HRD) examines the activities and processes that impact on organisational and individual learning. The focus is on interventions which change. or improve the ability to change organisational behaviour. Interventions can range from the strategic to the functional areas of training and development.

What is human resource development? As a starting point, Richard Swanson has defined it as "a process for developing and unleashing human expertise through training and development and organization development for the purpose of improving performance.' learning is at the core of all HRD efforts. Indeed. a major focus today is on workplace learning and performance. Jacobs and Path define workplace learning as 'the process used by individuals when engaged in training programs, education and development courses, or some type of experiential learning activity for the purpose of acquiring the competence necessary to meet current and future work requirements. In other way, human resource development can be defined as a set of systematic and planned activities designed by an organization to provide its members with the opportunities to learn necessary skills to meet current and future job demands.

Focused most broadly, HRD seeks to develop people's 'knowledge, expertise, productivity, and satisfaction, whether for personal or group/team gain, or for the benefit of an organization, community, nation, or ultimately, the whole of humanity" HRD activities should begin when an employee joins an organization and continue throughout his or her career, regardless of whether that employee is an executive or a worker on an assembly line. HRD programs must respond to job changes and integrate the long-term plans and strategies of the organization to ensure the efficient and effective use of resources. In short, while training and development activities, or "T&D" for short, constitutes a major part of human resource development, activities such as coaching, career development, team building, and organization development also are aspects of human resource development.

Questions:

1. Identify and describe the important actions a HR developer must take to manage and coordinate a learning program.

2. Discuss the relationship between organisational development (OD) and HRDS' strategic and tactical contribution to organisational effectiveness, productivity and the quality of working life.

3. Present some debates on the notion of the Learning Organisation. Discuss sawing, formative assessment and summative assessment.