Concluding Comments
Presently, human resource development is a domain of organizational life with many disciples, detractors, prophets and princes. At times many HRD strategies appear to be fads. The strategies I have identified certainly are not panaceas, nor will they ever solve many of the complex problems facing 21st Century organizations. HRD strategies will have little or no impact if they are isolated from or set against other vital issues confronting an organization. Yet, human resource development can have a profound and lasting impact on the lives of all members of the organization—if it is systematically and patiently implemented as part of a comprehensive and appreciative program of organizational renewal.
Perhaps the one thing held in common by previous approaches to human resource development is a failure to reach many of the organization’s leaders. New approaches to human resource development, such as I have described in this set of essays, must become part of a larger appreciative process. When this happens, human resource development will find its appropriate place as a major force for improving the quality of work being done in today’s organizations. A danger exists, however, in making human resource development part of a larger program of organizational growth and development: incorporation can lead to diffusion and even elimination. Just as the central purposes of any organization can become lost or neglected in the press of committee meetings, office politics, and marketing position, so too can human resource development become lost in institutional goal setting or administrative reorganization.
The processes of human resource development, as they involve any person or organization, are always subtle and ill defined. One should be amazed that any significant change or development ever takes place and should feel gratified if this development has in part been attributable to one’s own efforts. Some change in the attitudes and performance of employees has taken place. These, changes are based on a greater appreciation on the part of an employee for their own distinctive competencies. Employees find their jobs to be more gratifying than in the past. These outcomes are sufficient justification, in and of themselves, for a program of human resource development. However, an appreciative program that is successful may impact on the organization in ways that are not anticipated. If such is the case, then our efforts at human resource development may play a greater role in releasing the human capital of our organization than any of us could hope or imagine.
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[i] Edgar Schein, Career Dynamics. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1978.
[ii] Len Sperry, “Working with Executives: Consulting, Counseling, and Coaching,” Individual Psychology, 1993, 49, p. 257.
[iii] See further, Chris Argyris and Donald Schon, Theory in Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1974; Chris Argyris, Reasoning, Learning and Action. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1982.
[iv] See further, Donald A. Schon, Technology and Change: The New Heraclitus. New York: Delacorte, 1969; Everett Rogers. Diffusion of Innovation. (4rd ed.) New York: Free Press, 1995.
[v] Everett Rogers. Diffusion of Innovation. (4th ed.) New York: Free Press, 1995.
