On Tuesday, February 04, 1997 11:02 AM Cheryl wrote:
>I need to focus on the HRD professionals position in a learning
>organization. If anyone has any information on this or is an HRD
>professional in a learning organization, please share your experiences
>with me. What kind of actions does the HRD professional have to take to
>help the learning organization progress?
Does any of this make sense?
================================End of Quote
I think your question is very clear and also a very important one. Some
HRD professionals (that is, Human Resource Development pros) will have a
key role in the learning organization while others will have a minor role.
The determining factors will be
(a) the ability of the individual to adjust to a very different
perspective on HRD from the traditional ones and the related ability of
the person to convince the organization that they have undergone this
transformation, and
(b) the perception within the organization of people and services
emanating from the Human Resource function in the organization.
In those organizations where the HR function is not transformed either in
image or in fact, the Learning Organization presents a direct challenge to
all HR practitioners - especially the HRD types. The field of human
resource development has suffered from a serious strategic error three
decades ago when organizations began moving the training/development
function into Personnel Departments (later to be named HR Departments).
This move largely robbed the HRD function of the ability to function at a
strateg ic level, since it was subordinated to the "real personnel
functions" of maintaining employee records and performing dull but
necessary transactions related to employment. In many organizations, HRD
remains in that same trap, carrying the same stigma.
The HRD professional who serves as a vital resource to the creation of a
learning organization, will be those who can distance themselves from that
unfortunate past, or who were fortunate enough to avoid it in the first
place.
The other hurdle that some HRD professionals will have to surmount is that
of shifting from a training model to a learning model. Most learning in
the LO will take place informally rather than within courses, seminars,
programs, or other planned and sched uled activities. I know many HRD pros
who began making that shift years ago; they are welcoming the LO concept,
and are providing leadership in its implementation. Many others, however,
will have real difficulty making that transition even though in a gen eral
way they are supportive of LO's.
Those are some of the views that I hold. I would like to hear reactions
from others, both those who have been around the field for a few decades,
as I have, and those of more recent vintage.
Brock Vodden
brock.vodden@odyssey.on.ca
--Brock Vodden <brock.vodden@mur.odyssey.on.ca>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>