What issues do HRD managers need to take into account when planning a Essay

What issues do HRD managers need to take into account when planning a management learning and development programme - Essay Example Thus the knowledge-based economy pertains to knowledge creation and its diffusion with the role of information management. All the actors of this new knowledge based economy, whether they are the individuals and companies or even the state have to be wary of losing out the in fiercely competitive global economy .This means that the education and training of the labour force has to be based upon maintenance and knowledge enhancement of the knowledge capital in order to be more innovative and adaptable to technological changes. The HRD plays an important role in the personal development of the labour force.In essence, personal development theory argues that if management implements a specified set of employment as well as work practices, it is going to lead to better performance. A lot of the practices such as teamwork, redesigned jobs, employee participation, teamwork as well as communication and information sharing - have been shown to improve performance, but not in a consistent manner. The strongest results have been obtained where models appear to approximate the real world of work and where measurement and sampling errors are reduced by using special-purpose surveys targeted at workplaces in specific. A common thread running through these studies is that personal development contributes to high performance where workers are expected and encouraged to perform at a high standard. This occurs where HRD and work organization practices provide workers with discretion or control over their work, where they are developed to work competently, and where they are supported and rewarded by management to work co-operatively with colleagues. This theory suggests three mechanisms - structural, motivational and cognitive - that lead to high performance. Structural alterations, for example, the creation of teams or introduction of a new reward system, may provide an initial rather than continuing improvement in performance. For continuous improvement, employees need to increase and sustain their motivation at a high level - a possibility that arises through perceptions and emotions related to greater work satisfaction and empowerment - and/or cognitive changes need to be introduced. These might include improved management communication and investment in formal training and/or on-the-job learning (Appelbaum et al. 737-775). The last 2 decades have seen a significant shift in human resource development (HRD) research from an essentially micro-analytical approach to a new macro-strategic perspective. Other from the conventional administrative role, HRD has identified new roles in terms of employee champion, change agent and strategic partner. Over the years, there has been much speculation about the role of the HRD in the organization going ahead. Authors and business gurus have made various predictions regarding the role, function as well as size of the HRD department. HRD responsibilities have typically come under fire as a result of its perceived unresponsiveness as well as administrative and not strategic focus along with the perception that they are cost centres and not star wealth creation centres they bring in the revenue. The impact on Training of the knowledge based economy thus requires the need for instilling the culture of effective Knowledge management into the learning and education as a whole. According to (Psarras 2006) "Knowledge management is the process of critically managing knowledge to meet existing needs, to identify and exploit existing and acquired knowledge assets and to