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 56 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 57 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 58 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!