Abstract
Globalization and the vaiety of external factors, affecting change management transformed the role of Human Resource Development (HRM) from facilitator to change leader and highlighted the importance of emotional intelligence on individual and group levels within the organizations (Yaeger and Sorensen, 2009).
Human Resource Management
Q1: How would you define OD and its relationship to HRD?
Swanson and Elwood (2009) argue that the fundamental role of OD in a given organization was to bring to light incremental change. Traditional OD focuses on planned incremental change with smaller scope and scale within the company. OD as compared to the change management initiatives in the companies is concerned with such crucial elements as human potential, development, and learning. One of the critical factors that define the OD as it related to HRD is the inclusion of human factor in planned incremental process within the company. While change management is more concerned with the economic value and competitive advantage of the organization, OD brings forward the role of the individual contributor and the human participation in building on competitive advantage and key success factors of the company.
HRD studies distinguish between incremental and transformational change. The truth is that OD is built around the planned incremental process, which makes this concept limited comparing to the change management. As such, being framed into the planned incremental change only, OD does not allow HRD organization participate more in the strategic decisions and changes within the company, forcing this part of the organization to search for new approaches. At the same time OD concept is fundamental for traditional HRD practices, as the focus on human potential, participation and development continues to be critical for modern HRD organization.
Q2: How can HRD become more of a change leader in the organization rather than a change facilitator?
Contemporary business environment demonstrates that more and more companies under the continuous pressure of economic, political social and technological factors face the need to implement strategies for continuous change within their structure and cultural background. The purpose of planning in the company and scenario analysis is focused on predicting a possible future outcomes and, thus, OD practices within these companies also had to transform themselves to be able to build on this future-oriented thinking and build around the concept of strategic change. While incremental change, which is traditionally the focus of the HRD organization allowed HRD become one of the core elements in facilitating the change process on intermediate levels, strategic planning and long-term orientation within OD concepts would be able to bring HRD to a new level as a leader of change within its company. The main difference between the change facilitator and the change leader is that facilitator supports and outlines changes, prepared and formulated by strategically-guided departments (Ronald R. Sims, 2007). Change leader, on the other hand, is the one who builds on the scenario planning process and is able to formulate, implement and follow-up on the changes within the company on all organizational levels.
Change is the process of organizational, group and individual development and learning the process. It is the role of leadership, therefore, to ensure accurate scenario and prediction planning, which ensures safe transformation and engagement of all stakeholders in the process of change. While facilitator is a way a follower, assumingly owning only part of the entire scenario, the leader is the one who can draw the complete picture and delegate implementation responsibilities across organizational levels in a way that reduces to minimum uncertainty (Gumings and Warley, 2015).
It is important to mention that one of the key elements of the organizational change is to manage anxiety and uncertainty. The accepable level of uncertainty at the times of change can be achieved through strong emotional intelligence potential on individual and group level. Rethinking its role in construction of emotional intelligence within an organization through scenario planning, learning, and personal development is one of the principal roles of HRD as a change leader. It is emperical that development and learning are always seen as work-in-progress as work systems and processes within an organization are subject to constant revision, adjustment and review, which allows its alignment with the external and internal influences.
Q3: Determine the topic of your paper and the primary source of your research question (textbook Chapters 16, 17, or 18, Emotional Intelligence, or outside source).
One of the most complex tasks of the HRD in an organization is the management of the change process throughout three elements: organization itself, process design and individual development. While a lot of studies are concerned and look at organization as a mechanism and subject to change, others focus on the process design to bring in effective models of change management. The individual level within the organization as it relates to change management, however, is much more multifaceted and, thus, leaves a lot of room for further studies, especially within the scope of OD in a contemporary company. With that in mind, I would like to focus on exploring such crucial element of change management as emotional intelligence on individual and group levels and, consequently, building on job design to ensure that individual and group emotional capacity is adequate to achieve the job goals (Swanson and Elwood, 2009). The topic of the suggested research is the following: “How can HRD contribute to successful change management by building an effective job design strategy to align emotional capacity of individual and small workgroups with job expectations and goals?”
The research will be based on two main sources, Swanson and Elwood (2009) and Yaeger and Sorensen (2009). Swanson and Elwood (2009) suggest that there are three elements that build on resistance to change: cognitive, emotional and behavioral. For the purpose of this study, we will focus mainly on the emotional element that builds on resistance to change rather then looking at all three fundaments. The study will look into each of the elements as well as general factors making change management a success.
References
Swanson R.A. and Elwood F.H.. (2009). Foundation of Human Resource Development. 2nd Edition. San Francisco: Barret-Koehler.
Ronald R. Sims. (2007). Human Resource Management. Contemporary Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities. Charlotte: Information Age Publishing.
Gummings T.C. and Worley C.G. (2015). Organizational Development and Change. 10th Edition. Stamford: Cengage Learning.
Yaeger T.F. and Sorensen P.F. (2009). Strategic Organizational Development: Managing Change for Success. New York: Information Age Publishing.
