HRD CHALLENGES AND RESPONSES IN AFRICA

1. MAKING THE ELEPHANT DANCE HRD CHALLENGES AND RESPONSES IN AFRICA

2. Introduction • ‘Africa’s future lies in its people. Indeed, Africa must solve its current human development crisis if it is to claim the twenty first century. Africa’s future economic growth will depend less on its natural resources which are being depleted and are subject to long-run price declines and more on its labour skills and its ability to accelerate a demographic transition’(World Bank, 2000)

3. Introduction cont. • The strategic importance of HRD has been emphasized as the ‘cutting edge’ of Africa’s strategic development agenda • Africa needs well skilled and competent people to deliver the benefits of change and modernization for her people.

4. Cont. • HRD practitioners in Africa should use their skills and professionalism to entice the elephant so that even if it does not dance; it can at least ‘shake a leg’ in preparation to do a jig.

5. Challenges • Conceptualization of HRD • Is it People development; Education and Training or Learning and development? • Human Resource Development is an organizational process comprising skilful planning and facilitation of a variety of formal and informal learning and knowledge producing processes and experiences that

6. Cont. • occurs primarily but not exclusively at the workplace in order that organizational progress and individual potential can be enhanced through the competence, adaptability, commitment and knowledge creating activity of all who work for the organization

7. Cont. • HRD aims to add value to the achievement of an organization’s goals and objectives through • pointing people in the right direction (alignment) and • in developing their beliefs and commitment to the organization’s purpose and direction (engagement).

8. HRD imperatives six imperatives for effective Human resource development in any organization: • a focus on the performance challenges for individuals and teams; • Seeing performance challenges as encompassing tomorrow’s employability as well as today’s work; .

9. Cont. • Recognizing that most development is the result of social interaction; • Seeing development needs and pathways as contingent; • Assuming that everyone has rights as well as responsibilities; and Collaboration to develop capabilities

10. Funding HRD • Low levels of funding • Decisions about funding of HRD are determined at the annual budget process as an annual ritual • attitudes of learners who see training as part of their benefit package

11. The challenge of Globalization • to modernize and orient services • increasingly diversified needs of customers • the future is increasingly being disconnected from past experiences and ways • To keep pace with rapid rate of Organizational and Technological change makes training and development very central to performance improvement

12. Cont. • As organizations continue to evolve and re-invent themselves in order to respond to the increasingly rapid pace of change, so must all learning and development professionals in order to keep abreast of these changes.

13. Challenges related to the Practice of HRD in Africa • It is perhaps one of the worst kept secrets of organizational life that the measurable improvement in performance over any given period, resulting from attendance of training course is all too often zero” (Carter, 1991). • emergence of the knowledge economy has necessitated development of knowledge productive organizations to replace the old concept of a learning organization.

14. Cont. • Organizations are increasingly relying on knowledge creation in order to gain competitive advantage and to work effectively in various collaborative arrangements. • Effective Human Resource Development is not something that will just happen; The need for professional input and expertise has become even greater (CIPD, 2005)

15. RESPONSES TO THE CHALLENGES OF HRD • Training an elephant to dance is thought to be difficult because of their huge size. Yet, the way they walk on their toes can be compared to the dance of a ballerina’ performing a special style of dancing to tell a story without any talking.

16. HOW PRACTITIONERS CAN ADDRESS THE CHALLENGES Understanding ones values, beliefs and theories on learning • late MICHAEL JACKSON in his song ‘the man in the mirror’ sang; if you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change • Our paradigms are the sources of our attitudes, behavior and relationships with others

17. Cont. • Focusing on oneself leads to an appreciation that personal and professional life do not exist in isolation • Helps get to grips with ‘doing’ and ‘being’ to ensure that the doing is informed by the being. • a realization that ones life is closely interwoven with that of other people in their surrounding

18. Cont. • enhances understanding of other people, their feelings, perspectives and concerns –enhances capacity to influence them • get to grips with how people learn - therefore how to position oneself to add value to their learning.

19. Paying attention to Personal and Professional development • It is impossible to develop new ways of organization and management while continuing to think in old ways.Morgan, G. 1993 • Imaginization helps us to break free, to develop new images of organizations. • CPD enhances an individual’s professional practice

20. cont. • Critten (1999)- the capacity to learn about our own learning in collaboration with others is the defining characteristic of CPD

21. Clarifying Position and context in organizational L&D. • there is a tendency in organizations not to involve HRD professionals on business reorganizations decisions (CIPD, 2006). • ‘Your customers can’t know how good you are unless you tell them’. • relationship marketing can clarify HRD role in achievement of the organization’s goals.

22. Cont. • Leadership, like power does not beg; it is those who have the moral compulsion to take the people where they want to go who rise to the occasion-Anonymous • offer leadership drawn from a personal not positional power • Be an ‘attractor basins ’or surrogate focal points of self organized knowledge processing (McElroy, 2003).

23. Cont. • If HRD is fully aligned with the business, makes effort to understand / be conversant with business operations, speaks the language and is seen by line managers as making a valuable contribution. Then automatically, they will be included in decision-making.

24. Professional Practice of HRD • Professionalism is not a technical skill. • is a set of internalized character strengths, attitudes and values directed towards high quality service to others • Is a reflective practice- involves reflection and experimentation

25. Cont. • focuses attention from outer experiences to the subjective processes of perception, construction, judgment and action to modify the thinking and act with greater integrity • develop a quality of mindfulness that makes one attentive to their thoughts and projects and at the same time to the needs of the learners (Hartog, 2002).

26. Aligning HRD to Strategic priorities • focus more on strategy • deliver a learning agenda that enables managers to achieve what they want to do. • clear vision about peoples ability and potential to provide competitive advantage • ensures there is ‘fit’, ‘linkage’, or ‘integration’ of business strategy, values and action.

27. Cont. • directing the thinking within the organization from the traditional ‘doctor-type’ thinking to the more innovative ‘architect-type’ of thinking.

28. Sharing the responsibility for learning with others in the organization • create an environment that enables people to learn from each other and to embed the learning in their jobs. • Nurturing the Community Spirit: The knowledge that drives an organization does not reside in its formal procedures but in ‘communities of practice’ created by people who on daily basis ‘negotiate meaning’ (Wenger, 2000)

29. Cont. • help the organization to ‘grasp the concept of dialogue and the search for identity in the ‘locus of real work’……then, the organization will be on the way to organizational learning without having to worry what kind of organization it is (P. Critten, 2002).

30. Facilitate learning –Do not train • Teachers and trainers can help learners choose goals, resources, methods of learning but they can no longer assume they know best in defining another’s needs or directly teach another what they need to know (Pedlar, Burgoyne, Boydell, 1988) • shape conversation to focus on issues that are important to people in their work;

31. Cont. • use the art of listening and asking empowering and interesting questions, to encourage people to highlight what has worked before as a way to base their focus on future possibilities together (Whitmore J. 2002).

32. Encourage the use of ICT but ditch the technology in training • Technological development and e-learning have a place in HRD practice • Technology however should not take centre stage • replace high-tech with high-touch techniques • people learn more quickly when learning is more sensory-based.

33. Keep evaluating the impact of L&D on corporate capability • show how the organization’s investment in learning increases productivity, profitability or improvement in skills and performance. • adoption of approaches that are appropriate to the organization • The secret is to define the results required before the learning is embarked on.

34. Cont. • The emphasis should be on the desired change and therefore the evaluation should involve whoever sends the employee on a course • shifts from measuring a return on investment towards incorporating measures of return on expectation.

35. God Bless You • Thank you for listening to me