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I nt roduct ion learning f or t he new


work cult ure
People are our most important product! Do
you recall that General Electric corporate
slogan? Unfortunately, it was not a widely
adopted theme in the disappearing industrial
work environment. Too often, the factory
system, dominated by machines, had a mecha-
nistic approach to employees for a while, they
were referred to as hands and industrial
engineering operated on the premise of work-
ers as interchangeable parts. The emphasis
then was more on plant, not people, mainte-
nance. Gradually, under the impact of behav-
ioral science management research and input,
managers have been changing their attitudes
about personnel. Struck by declining produc-
tivity and protability, as well as by rising labor
costs, management has altered its leadership
style with employees, as well as sought less
labor intensive means of production. Quality
circles and participative management are in
for those still privileged to work; so are automa-
tion and robotics as means to contain produc-
tion costs involving people.
In the emerging work culture there are fewer
people on the job, but they are usually better
qualied and more competent than was true in
the past. The majority of them are called
knowledge workers, because their efforts are
mostly directed toward collecting and massag-
ing data then shaping and processing it into
information, which is transformed into knowl-
edge for improved strategic planning, decision
making, and problem solving. Thus, the
metaindustrial executive is concerned about
managing critical resources, especially human
and information resources. Thinking managers
seek ways to improve protability and effective-
ness by enhancing their organization or com-
munitys human potential. That implies an
active search for means to utilize our
colleagues brain power and creativity. Since
managing human resources is a primary con-
cern, the new technology is employed to
advance peoples personal and professional
European Busi ness Revi ew
Vol ume 99 Number 1 1999 pp. 5558
MCB Uni versi t y Press ISSN 0955-534X
Human resource t rends
f or European leaders
Philip R. Harris
The aut hor
Philip R. Harris i s Presi dent , Harri s Int ernat i onal Lt d,
La Jol l a, Cal i f orni a, USA.
Keywords
Corporat e cul t ure, Human resource devel opment ,
Know l edge w orkers, Technol ogi cal change, Trai ni ng
Abst ract
The t ransi t i on t o a more t echnol ogi cal w ork envi ronment
obvi ousl y cal l s f or massi ve re-educat i on of t he exi st i ng
w orkf orce, as w el l as preparat i on f or new occupat i ons. But
f or cont emporary l eaders, t here w i l l al so have t o be a
paral l el new educat i on as t o t he rol e and f unct i on of
management one t hat emphasi zes commi t ment t o
human resource devel opment . In t he new w ork cul t ure,
management t hi nks about opt i mi zat i on of al l empl oyees.
The spread of new t echnol ogi es w i l l revol ut i oni ze not onl y
how w e manage, but al so how and w hat w e l earn.
Management and execut i ve devel opment w i l l i ncreasi ngl y
f ocus on cross-cul t ural and cross-di sci pl i nary educat i on of
busi ness and prof essi onal l eaders. Tomorrow s manage-
ment w i l l have mul t i f acet ed compet enci es not onl y i n
communi cat i on t echnol ogi es and resource devel opment ,
but al so i n st rat egi c pl anni ng and f orecast i ng, as w el l as i n
gl obal meet i ng management . In t hi s new w ork cul t ure,
human i nf ormat i on and t echnol ogy resources t ake cent er
st age. Thus, w i de-rangi ng i ssues w i l l be addressed by
organi zat i ons, f rom t he use of t echnol ogy t o updat e t he
w orkf orce t o human-machi ne i nt erf ace; f rom new yearn-
i ngs about occupat i ons and organi zat i onal rel at i ons t o
copi ng w i t h a di versi ed and decent ral i zed w orkf orce. A
met amorphosi s i s under way i n our approach t o peopl e
and t hei r devel opment w i t hi n human syst ems.
This is an extract from Dr Philip Harriss book,
New Work Culture HRD Transformational Manage-
ment Strategies(1998) (a review will appear in a
later issue). A member of EBRs Editorial Advisory
Board, this management/space psychologist is also
author of Living and Working in Space, second
edition (Wiley/Praxis, Chichester, 1996) and co-
author of Managing Cultural Difference, fourth
edition (Gulf Publishing, Houston, TX, 1996).
growth. This furthers their integration into the
metaindustrial work scene.
Management now becomes directly
involved in the process of human resource
development (HRD) and wisely uses the best
resource consultants and information in this
professional eld.
Terminology
Perhaps it is appropriate to clarify some terms
here before proceeding. In a letter to the
author, Leonard Nadler, Professor Emeritus
of George Washington University and one of
the leaders in the HRD eld, suggests this
denition:
Human resource development is a series of
organized activities, conducted within a speci-
ed time and designed to produce behavioral
change HRDs most common activities are
training (learning for the present job) and
education (learning for the future job)
Human resource management includes those
other dimensions of personnel activities, such as
health and safety, benets and incentives,
performance evaluation, etc.
Other management experts conrm this
position. For instance, George Odiorne,
author of Strategic Management of Human
Resources, indicated that traditionally manage-
ment has tended to view labor in terms of
supply and demand, with employees consid-
ered as short-term expenses to be minimized.
His view is that employees should be consid-
ered as assets, value can be placed on them,
and they can be managed as a portfolio of
stocks is managed to maintain or increase
their value to the organization.
Several professional associations are avail-
able to assist thinking managers in developing
new human resource strategies. Increasingly,
these relate HRD to the bottom line concerns.
For example, the Human Resource Planning
Society held one of its annual conferences
around the theme Adding Value: The
Accountability of Human Resources to
Impact Business Results, while the Interna-
tional Federation of Training & Development
Organizations (IFTDO) held a world convo-
cation on Business Development through
Human Resource Development. The Ameri-
can Society for Training and Development
issued a publication, Human Capital: A High
Yield CorporateInvestment. Its major points
deserve our consideration:
Educated, healthy, trained, and spirited
people are the ultimate source of economic
growth. They are not simply the passive
consumers of an autonomous and inhu-
man economic yield
People, not machines, are the wellspring of
productivity
Productivity is the human art of getting
more with the same or fewer resources
Human resources, historically, have been
replacing all other resources (such as nat-
ural or machine resources) as the basic
building block of production, and the value
of human time has been increasing
Human motivation and cultural differences
are the key differential factors in the eco-
nomic development and productivity of
both organizations and nations
Although human resources are seemingly
inexhaustible, in the near future there will
be a shortage of workers, especially the
technically qualied
Investments in the development of human
assets by employers will improve the imme-
diate bottom line and have long-term pay-
offs for organizations.
Thoughtful managers, especially in new
industries and technologies, understand the
importance of training and education for
career development, employee productivity,
and corporate protability, both for them-
selves and for their colleagues. Therefore,
they assume an HRD responsibility. They
perceive the HRD professionals as a part of
the management process and utilize these
resources when they are available internally,
or seek the aid of external HRD consultants
and learning materials. Occasionally, they
read HRD journals and books or attend
conferences and workshops so that they can
be on the cutting edge of human resource
development. They do not become so enam-
ored with the new technology and robots as to
neglect the human factors that contribute to
the effectiveness of any enterprise.
HRD f or t he new work cult ure
In a national study of companies identied as
productivity leaders, A.T. Kearney, Inc., of
Los Angeles found that 71 percent have made
the management of employee capabilities and
contributions of critical importance in their
strategic planning for the future, while 81
percent of their less successful competitors
simply react to human resource needs as
problems arise. What differentiated the
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Human resource t rends f or European l eaders
Phi l i p R. Harri s
European Busi ness Revi ew
Vol ume 99 Number 1 1999 5558
leading companies from the others? In their
examinations of these high-performing corpo-
rations, whose revenues ranged from $350
million to $500 billion, the investigators
measured them in terms of higher net prot
margins, as well as ve-year returns on total
capital and equity. As a result, Robert W.
Miller, principal for the consulting rm con-
ducting the study, identied ve managerial
practices that contributed to their success:
(1) The human resource role was dened as a
major participant in business decisions
and strategy implementation
(2) Current human resources strategies
focused on important problems before
adding new programs and resources
(3) Human resource staffs initiated programs
and communicated with line manage-
ment
(4) Corporate staffs shared responsibility for
human resource policy formation and
program administration across organiza-
tional levels
(5) Line management shared in the responsi-
bility for human resource programs.
To assist thinking managers in increasing their
human resource management capabilities, the
International Division of the American Soci-
ety for Training and Development (ASTD)
issued Global Strategies in Human Resource
Development edited by your author. The HRD
megatrends analyzed in this report are of
signicance to metaindustrial managers and
thus are summarized here:
(1) HRD should be directed toward the
emerging work environment dominated
by the new technologies related to com-
munication and information processing,
microelectronics, and genetic engineer-
ing.
(2) HRD should utilize strategic planning
methods for each stage of the business
cycle, as well as for each stage of the
employees life cycle.
(3) HRD should be systems oriented and
employ the technology of systems analysis
for a holistic approach to personal devel-
opment and performance management.
(4) HRD should be future oriented and
employ the technologies of future
research, such as technological forecast-
ing and environmental scanning.
(5) HRD should focus on transformational
management; that is, it should empha-
size preparing institutional leaders to
assist in the transition to the new work
culture leaders who will be skilled
change agents for the creation of the
information society.
(6) HRD management should be decentral-
ized in operations and accountability
while providing a wide variety of internal
and external consulting services.
(7) HRD should be a high priority of corpo-
rate executives in terms of both the
organization as a whole and themselves
in particular.
(8) HRD should be research oriented.
Human factor data collection, analysis,
and reporting are important in main-
taining organizational health, in meeting
training needs, and in program assess-
ment.
(9) HRD should be given a human capital
emphasis and be performance oriented
with goals that are specic, measurable,
achievable, and compatible.
(10) HRD should be multifaceted in the
services rendered to personnel from
training in the new technologies and
automation to management development
that helps people redene roles while
coping more effectively and fosters
growth in organizational excellence.
(11) HRD should facilitate organization
development efforts to transform the
corporate culture and humanize the new
work culture.
(12) HRD should be promoting synergistic
training, education, and networking;
that is, it should be preparing people for
collaboration, team management, and
peer sharing through personal and
electronic networks.
(13) HRD should be international in content
and global in the scope of its concerns,
especially by providing cross-cultural
skills training and comparative manage-
ment development.
My book on TheNew Work Cultureincorpo-
rates these 13 insights. Perhaps Alfred North
Whitehead offered the best insights into
developing human potential when he
observed that education is the process of
teaching the application of knowledge.
But then he wisely reminded us: The old
foundations of scientic thought are becom-
ing unintelligible. Time, space, matter, struc-
ture, pattern, functions, etc., all require
reinterpretation. The renewal of our human
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Human resource t rends f or European l eaders
Phi l i p R. Harri s
European Busi ness Revi ew
Vol ume 99 Number 1 1999 5558
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Human resource t rends f or European l eaders
Phi l i p R. Harri s
European Busi ness Revi ew
Vol ume 99 Number 1 1999 5558
systems so that they are attuned to the NWC
will come through learning and the intelligent
use of the new technologies.
The Conference Board has been holding a
series of meetings for corporate executives on
Strategic Human Resource Management.
One of the presenters, Ray Amara, president of
the Institute for the Future, predicted that
human resources would be the driving force for
corporate America throughout this decade;
while human resource management will be
viewed increasingly as the critical path toward
achieving corporate objectives and may even
constrain growth in some industrial sectors.
The Conference Board sessions pinpointed
the following as the principal shapers of the
corporate workforce:
the changing prole of entry-level workers;
the mismatch between demand and supply
for particular job categories;
the continuing revolution of women in the
workplace;
the deepening of the generational conict;
the changing of the work ethic;
the changing map of employee values;
the growing degree of employee risk taking
and number of entrepreneurs;
the push of competition for new markets;
the pull of information technology;
the growing participation and activism of
employees within corporations; and
the uncertain role of trade unions in the
future.
The implications of such ndings for the
thoughtful managers are manifold, especially in
enhancing peoples competencies. The preced-
ing insights provide a basis for creating some
new strategies for managing people effectively!
Educating the workforce in new directions
must take place at all levels of the organiza-
tions; it should begin with the so-called leaders
executives and managers. It is their responsi-
bility to ready their colleagues, as well as their
families, for the changes in the work culture.
The HRD continuum ranges from the career
development of the beginning manager, to the
other end where experienced managers may
nd themselves displaced as organizations trim
back on their administration. Such employees
also need training, coaching, and counseling
for new positions within a corporation, to start
up their own businesses, or to obtain manage-
ment employment elsewhere.
As previously mentioned, workers need
corporate support in coping with the transition
to the technological work environment.
Thinking managers also can make a major
contribution to national and community
renewal of formal systems of education. They
can get involved in reducing the learning gap
in schools and colleges, in universities and
professional schools between what is being
taught (often obsolete) and what is relevant for
a post-industrial society. The same may be
said for education and training within industry
and government. But it is not just the content
of the curriculum or course that may be archa-
ic, but the means of teaching or instruction.
Metaindustrial managers can take the initia-
tive, both in their companies and in their
communities, in reforming instructional
methodology so that better use is made of new
educational and communication technology,
of self-learning packages and programmed
learning. In the emerging work culture, this is
necessary and vital; learning is now a dynamic
and continuing process for a lifetime. Knowl-
edge means both wealth and power.
Since human factors have such a great
impact on the bottom line, thinking managers
would do well to understand what is involved
in HRD and then utilize available resources
effectively through either internal or external
consultants. Further, it behoves European
executives and administrators to increase their
own competencies in human resource man-
agement and development, especially in small
or newly founded enterprises where profes-
sional HR resources may be limited. The
trends indicate that in the emerging work
environment, general management worldwide
will be more directly involved in capitalizing
on their organizations human resources.
Capsule conclusions
Better educated knowledge workers need to
learn continuously if they are to upgrade their
performance in this Information Age. Innova-
tive European managers will aim to provide a
creative work environment that energizes their
people, while striving to meet their human
needs. The new work culture offers opportu-
nities to improve productivity through people.
It means using the current communication
technologies for HRD, while updating and
enhancing the content of training programs,
whether structured or unstructured. It means
exercising effective human resource leader-
ship!

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