What Are Some of the Most Fruitful Ways HRD and
Management Intersect?
The common HRD and management resource dependence situation means
that management often allocates resources to HRD toward advancing organizational
success. Although there are many ways that HRD can advance organizational
learning and performance, my own experience with the benchmark
study highlighted two key HRD and management intersections: (1) the development
of individual managers, and (2) the support of organizational management
and operations. The development of individual managers, often called
management development, emphasizes management competencies. HRD’s role
in the support of management competency development most commonly takes
the forms of coaching, training, and related development activities, such as job
rotation and experiential learning (Propenko, 1998).
HRD support of organizational management is often approached from the
system level, such as strategic planning, organization development, and training.
In this capacity, HRD has the potential to support managers toward the
development of their direct reports. In both cases, HRD alignment with manager
needs and organizational managerial practices is essential (Alagaraja &
Egan, 2010). And, as suggested by the CEO quoted earlier in the article, misalignment
can threaten both management development and HRD.
One senior-level operations manager whom I interviewed reported that
she was influenced by her positive management development experience. She
stated, “After the effective management program, I was really able to understand
the quality of the HRD group’s delivery and what they could do for me in other
areas. I am a big advocate for them now.” This manager’s positive intersection
with HRD in management development led to her using other HRD staff for
her work team’s strategic planning efforts. She now encourages her direct
reports to use available training opportunities. The manager further stated,
“Based on my experiences, I encourage others at my level to effectively utilize
our HRD group, as I am more effective as a result of working with them [internal
HRD practitioners].”