Issues in Organizational Development: Human Resources Aspects

Despite the pressing reality and striving for best practices within organizational development as pertains to human resources professional enhancements, there are always new ideas and ways of adding value to effectiveness and better performances. For example, the pertinent role of Information Technology (IT) may couple with human resources talents to improve and influence outcomes. Werner and DeSimone list attitudes as being vital to the development of opportunity engagement in the workplace, insisting that “attitudes are internal states of mind that can influence,” and “attitudes are not learned simply by hearing facts from others” (p. 98). The most important aspects of human resources in organizational development must include understanding how its role influences outcomes, the vital role of IT, and open attitudes to impact successful innovation in overall organizational development.

The role of IT can be as exciting as it is tedious, in its design strategy and approach. Polites and Karahanna, in their investigation of organizational management theory, propose that when new IT systems are introduced to replace older ones behaviors can be both “enabled” and “inhibited” and therefore it is crucial to gain an understanding of “associated work routines and task sequences” to aid best organizational practice (p. 221). They also suggest that psychology plays a role in terms of system-wide behavior and habits. Human resources in itself fundamentally influences outcomes in the organizational development and process. 

Human resources, as an influence of outcomes, is a key link to goal achievement and other aspects, however the relationship is complex and researchers are still studying how this occurs. Jiang et al., state that while the mechanism of the relational context is “unclear” an exploration of “possible paths” can lead to a comprehension of how HR systems couple with financial outcomes in terms of a “more integrative model” in their quotation of Becker, Huselid, Delery, Shaw, and Guest (p. 1265). The smart manager realizes that theory is only as good as its implementation. 

Identifying better innovation in functionality, practice, and competitive ways to serve organizational development is key to progress and looking ahead in today's global economy. In International Journal Of Business & Management authors Yosuke Kanno, and Satoshi Shibata in their article, “Organizational Factors in the Product Design Development Process” have discussed the need for research in design management innovation in terms of product design. However, they ascertain that a “cross-functional” group process is involved between divisions, which obviously requires communication and participation of all organizational resources chiefly of which concerns human resources.

References

Kaifeng, J., Lepak, D. P., Jia, J., & Baer, J. C. (2012). How does human resource management influence organizational outcomes? A Meta-Analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms. Academy Of Management Journal, 55(6), 1264-1294. doi:10.5465/amj.2011.0088

Kanno, Y., & Shibata, S. (2013). Organizational factors in the product design development process. International Journal Of Business & Management, 8(10), 15-26. doi:10.5539/ijbm.v8n10p15

Polites, G. L., & Karahanna, E. (2013). The embeddedness of information systems habits in organizational and individual level routines: Development and disruption. MIS Quarterly, 37(1), 221-246.

Werner, J. M., & DeSimone, R. L. (2012). Human resource development (6th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western, Cengage Learning.