New Frontiers in HRD

Monica Lee, Jim Stewart, Jean Woodall

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2004
• Print ISBN:
  9780415650441
• eBook ISBN:
  9781134382866
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Factors such as globalisation, restructuring, casualization of employment and the erosion of pension rights have led to massive tensions in contemporary organizations. By exploring the boundaries of the field of Human Resource Development this book asks where is HRD in the middle of all this and presents an innovative and challenging approach to HR

Part I

New frontiers in HRD

Why now? Setting the scene

1 Introduction

Jean Woodall, Monica Lee and Jim Stewart

Aims and purpose

There is evidence of prolific scholarship in the emergent field of human resource development, with a number of student texts and scholarly monographs which have been published since the mid-1990s (Stewart and McGoldrick 1996; Stewart 1999; Walton 1999; Wilson 1999; Gibb 2002). The Routledge Studies in Human Resource Development – a series of research monographs and edited collections under the overall editorial direction of Monica Lee – has been a particularly fruitful source of new ideas in HRD with titles including Understanding Human Resource Development (Stewart et al. 2001), Action Research in Organisations (McNiff 2000), HRD and Learning Organisations in Europe (Tjepkema et al. 2002), Human Resources, Care-Giving, Career Progression and Gender (Coyne et al. 2003), Work Process Knowledge (Boreham et al. 2002), Interpreting the Maternal Organisation (Höpfl and Kostera 2002) and Science Fiction and Organization (Smith et al. 2001).

This volume is part of that series. It shares a common origin with two other edited collections in the series, namely HRD in Small Organisations (Stewart and Beaver 2004) and HRD in a Complex World (Lee 2003). All three are the products of a UK research seminar series sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council on Human Resource Development: The Emerging Theoretical Agenda and Empirical Research, jointly convened by Jean Woodall, Monica Lee and Jim Stewart, and coordinated by Jean at Kingston University. The aim of the seminar series was to provide a forum in which HRD scholars and scholar-practitioners could debate leading-edge research in HRD in a more relaxed environment than can be provided by the typical academic conference schedule. Ample opportunity was afforded for discussion and reflection on a number of themes, including defining HRD, HRD in small and medium enterprises (SMEs); HRD in Europe, HRD and complexity, human-centred approaches to HRD and revisiting adult learning theory. Two of the seminars provided a specialized core of papers for the books on small organizations and on complexity. This book draws upon papers from the whole seminar series, especially those that stood out as exploring the boundaries of the field, and particularly from the seminars on human-centred approaches to HRD and revisiting adult learning theory.

Putting together such a collection creates its own problems of thematic focus and identifying an appropriate title. The rush of preparing a proposal for the publisher resulted in what was initially a somewhat impulsive choice of New Frontiers in HRD. The far more reflective and constructively critical feedback of our reviewers pointed out that what sounded like a pioneering trek westwards across the ‘great plains’ of HRD was in danger of missing an important opportunity to take a strongly critical stance on the current context of HRD research and practice. We were in danger of making the problematic unproblematic. There are massive tensions in contemporary organizations with globalization, restructuring, casualization of employment, erosion of pension rights and a revival of Taylorist management practice. This has a considerable impact upon employees and work teams and requires us to question whether it is enough just to see HRD as a neutral bundle of techniques to improve organizational performance. Add to this an increasingly volatile geopolitical situation in which blocs and balances of power have shifted so dramatically since the late 1980s that we are now in a world where some would argue that there is but one superpower with an unflinching confidence about its manifest destiny. Where is HRD in the middle of all of this? The stream on ‘a critical turn in HRD’ at the third Critical Management Studies conference in 2003 addressed this question from a number of different perspectives, and this book is intended to add to the debate.

Certainly, from Boyacigiller and Adler (1991) onwards, a strong case has been presented that management theory, attitudes and behaviours are derived largely from that which arose in the United States from the early 1950s onwards. In other words, much of the mainstream conceptualization of management and HRD is based upon a particular culture and way of working. ‘Managerialism’ or the ‘Americanization of management’ ripples through the texts we recommend and refer to, and extends across the world – way beyond its early roots. Because it is so deeply rooted in the way in which we understand ‘management’ we are largely blind to its effects. It is only when we attempt to theorize or practise management or HRD in contexts that are not compatible with the ‘accepted theory’ that we are brought face to face with the realization that different cultures have very different views on the nature and role of management and HRD, even to the extent, for example, of how they conceptualize and deal with conflict (Lee 1999). Part of our argument in this book, therefore, is that HRD occurs under a wide range of circumstances and situations, and part of pushing back the boundaries of HRD is to better understand its nature under different or wider conceptualizations than afforded by the common model. Indeed, many would argue that a common model is not even possible let alone desirable. Attempts to identify a European model of HRD practice, as opposed to the normative and prescriptive models common to many academic texts, and to contrast such a model with alternatives from the United States for example, have proved unsuccessful (Sambrook et al. 2003). This is not to deny the usefulness or appropriateness of a core of understanding, but it is to recognize the situated nature of our theory and practice, and to acknowledge the cultural imperialism that can occur without the accommodation of such differences.

Thus we pondered whether to call this book The Crisis in HRD. However, we did not. We did not want to be lured into the easy temptations of critique and the dangerous seduction of a passive helplessness or a need to align ourselves and our contributors with a single ‘critical’ position, be it critical theory, critical realism, radical humanism or postmodernism. We wanted to be able to identify potential for change by looking back as well as by looking forward. We wanted to be able to see possibilities emerging from practice as well as from rational intellectual endeavour.

So we stayed with our original title. New Frontiers in HRD encapsulates the spirit of this book because it is concerned with boundaries – why they form, why and how they move, and what lies beyond. All three editors share dissatisfaction with current debate seeking to clarify and delineate the field of HRD, and this is particularly apparent in the following two chapters. For us the key pursuit is theorizing HRD, rather than presenting a particular position on HRD theory. While the latter may well have preoccupied scholarships at the end of the twentieth century (Swanson 2001; Weinberger 1998; McLean 1998), others such as Mankin (2001) and Höpfl (2000) have also examined either what might underlie HRD or the way that HRD is defined in practice (see also, for example, Sambrook 2000; Hill and Stewart 1999). Yet other writers have attempted to establish the nature of HRD through comparison with other subjects (Grieves and Redman 1999; Gourlay 2001; Sambrook and Stewart 1998). Perhaps the establishment of social closure is a typical feature of the process of professionalization, and the theoretical foundations and ultimate purpose of HRD scholarship and practice? If this is so, then this concern with definition and creating boundaries must be a necessary stage of growth. Yet it must be a stage and not a permanent block to further debate.

Overview of content

Chapters 2 and 3 engage with this issue directly. In Chapter 2, McGoldrick and his colleagues set out the difficulties in drawing together coherent streams in HRD research and writing. Examining the literature through a framework which begins with philosophy and moves through theory, academic disciplines and language to the empirical base informing current theorizing, their conclusion is that the strength of the subject, certainly as an area of academic inquiry, lies in its variety, diversity and, to an extent, its ambiguity. Rather than limiting the development of research and associated credibility, the authors of this chapter argue that both of those are enhanced by the unsettled boundaries and space of HRD. This argument draws in part on the recent academic history of HRM, and the ‘troubled relationship’ that might be said to exist between HRD and HRM. The authors end with a proposal that the ‘holographic’ metaphor originally applied to HRM by Tom Keenoy (1999) offers a positive and useful way of accommodating the rich variety of work in the field of HRD. This is appropriate to this book in the sense that holograms can be seen as operating at the frontiers of physical, social and virtual worlds.

Lee continues the theme of questioning the desire to ‘settle questions’ in any final form, especially when it comes to defining HRD, in Chapter 3. She argues strongly against the desire to define HRD, suggesting that not only is such definition not needed, but also it is inappropriate and counterproductive. She draws upon Heraclitus’ views of ‘becoming’ to suggest that HRD is indefinable, and that ‘to attempt to define it is only to serve political or social needs of the minute, to give the appearance of being in control’. She makes a distinction between defining HRD and drawing boundaries around it that are dynamic and situation specific. This conception of situated limits links to the idea of frontiers and the exploration of boundaries evident in many of the chapters in this book.

The second and third parts of the book maintain the exploration of boundaries by implication. In Part II, Chapters 4 to 7 focus upon developments in the human-centred approach to HRD. This approach is developing rapidly, largely as a reaction to the professionalization of HRD, which has been accompanied by a focus upon technique and function. A number of chapters in this book are concerned to push beyond this boundary. So a second theme concerns the human aspect of HRD. Despite a century-long tradition of adult learning theory, the humanistic principles which underlie this have been displaced by two forces: on the one hand by a hard-nosed focus upon the so-called business case, and on the other by rejection of the concept of the ‘self’ and the ‘human subject’. On both counts this leaves HRD precariously balanced. An excessive preoccupation with ‘adding value’ can lead to a constricting focus upon short-term metrics (Lee 1995). For a field such as HRD, in which the whole rationale leads to a focus upon the mid-term and even long term, this is ultimately defeating. In addition, the dismissal of the human-centredness and the intra-psychic dimension of HRD leave it eviscerated as a field of both scholarship and practice. Three chapters in this book bring us back to the human dimension through an exploration of ethics and values.

It is only recently that the ethical dimension of specific human resource management practices have been examined in any depth (Winstanley and Woodall 2000; Woodall and Winstanley 2000) and only most recently has human resource development come under close ethical scrutiny (Woodall and Douglas 1999; Hatcher 2002; Stewart 2003). Hitherto most research on business ethics was focused upon issues of governance and social responsibility in relations to consumers and the community. The employee stakeholder was overlooked. A major breakthrough took place among the membership of the US Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD), an association of scholars and scholar-practitioners, between the years 1997 and 2000. This development is traced by Darlene Russ-Eft in Chapter 4, which focuses upon how the process of professionalization led to ‘articulated and shared values’ and in turn to ‘some standards of ethics and practice’. She shows how this emerged out of a grassroots movements among members of AHRD, into a taskforce charged with the development of a code on ethics and integrity (Academy of Human Resource Development 1999), followed by the development and publication of a set of case studies for use in teaching and training students (Aragon and Hatcher 2001). While her comparison with similar codes developed by other professional bodies is favourable, Russ-Eft does ponder on the extent to which HRD scholars and practitioners are aware of the ethical dilemmas in their work, and the extent to which this might vary cross-culturally. She concludes by calling for more research into these issues, and for more ethical debate within the pages of scholarly journals in HRD.

In Chapter 5, Rona S. Beattie reminds us that line managers exert more influence over the learning of their staff than HRD professionals. However, the behaviours they model can be inhibitory as well as facilitative. She makes a link between the underlying principles of adult learning and an ethical approach to staff supervision. This is illustrated through research into professional supervision of social workers in two not-for-profit organizations in Scotland. She argues that an ethical approach can contribute to a powerful effect upon the learning within organizations and to getting people management processes embedded within supervisor and line manager roles. The implication of this is that crude performance management systems resting simply upon targets and metrics will not necessarily be effective in ensuring that line managers play a key role in the learning and performanceimprovement of their staff – especially if these staff are knowledge workers and professionals.

In Chapter 6, Diana Winstanley explores how UK HR consultants working for organizations in the charity and voluntary sector ‘live’ their values. This study highlights the central role that ethics and values have played in underpinning the missions of organizations in this expanding sector of employment. Not only does the nature of work in such not-for-profit organizations means that strong human-centred values are brought to bear, but also it attracts HRD consultants who claim that value congruence with their clients is essential to their way of working. Thus it is not surprising that codes of conduct and practice, although useful for surfacing some value and ethics issues, are not particularly helpful in developing value change, and can also mask contradictions between competing values. These HRD consultants were ‘mavericks’, working with strong sets of values in unusual and innovative ways that do not easily fit into conventional consultancy models and prescriptions of HRD practice. Again this chapter is asking us to question simplistic models of ethical compliance and also the role for HRD professionals to adopt in strongly value-driven organizations. To date most research on HRD in such organizations focuses upon the corporate commercial sector. This study indicates the different context and approaches involved in working with values and value changes in the not-for-profit sector.

The encouragement of individual professionals to engage in continuing professional development (CPD) has become a major HRD concern in recent years. However, the implicit assumptions about professional learning, and the learning contexts and processes in which professionals might participate, lie somewhat uneasily beside the conditions of professional practice. This is illustrated in Chapter 7, where Jean Woodall and Stephen Gourlay provide a critical review of the literature on professional learning as it relates to the experiences of practising UK business professionals. They conclude by arguing for the incorporation of a sociocultural perspective into research into professional learning, and outline a number of implications for future research into CPD.

In Part III, Chapters 8 to 10 continue the exploration of implicit boundaries through the examination of organizational aspects of HRD. Chapter 8 by Rob F. Poell examines the use of actor network theory in understanding learning processes experienced during work-based learning. To be more precise, the specific focus is learning through project work. Such work is though, as Poell argues, an increasingly common experience for employees and so of growing significance for work-based learning. It is also, as Poell points out, a way of organizing and designing work that potentially supports the ‘holy grail’ of learning through work and working through learning. The key strength of the theoretical model of actor network theory is that it focuses attention on all those involved in and who are members of the network. Thus, employees themselves, their colleagues and managers as well as HRD professionals are all involved in practising HRD. Not only this, but all are involved in determining the agenda and purpose of HRD, which means that it is not seen as exclusively a management tool to be used to achieve specified objectives. Poell goes on to identify a variety of forms that learning projects might and do take, and to examine the implications of the method, and of the application of network theory, for established ideas in adult learning and education. Poell highlights the important role of power relationships in work organizations and the related role of organization and work design, and the way work is managed, for the learning of individual employees. He also argues for constructivist positions to be adopted to inform the design of HRD research.

In Chapter 9, Russ Vince sets out the case for seeing the field of HRD as much more than individual learning. He argu...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Illustrations
• Notes on contributors
• Part I: New frontiers in HRD
• Part II: Developments in the human-centred approach to HRD
• Part III: Developments in the organizational orientation of HRD
• Part IV: HRD in the future