Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa February 2014 | Page 58

LESSONS

BY GEORGINA BARRICK

Human Consciousness

The 21st century key to competitive advantage

T

here can be no doubt in anyone’s mind
that the 21st century organisation needs
to operate on a completely different level
from those of the 20th century. Technology
has most certainly been the driving force in the
evolution of organisations, with the advent of the
internet, digital and wireless communications
changing the face of business practices entirely.
While organisational leadership has developed and
implemented the necessary processes to effectively
manage their technological assets, how has
leadership evolved in managing the human assets
of the organisation?
People management has not evolved sufficiently
to meet the needs and requirements of either
individuals or organisations in the 21st century.
People issues relentlessly provide the greatest
challenge within organisations and for leaders,
regardless of the economic, technolog y,
manufacturing or product development challenges
they may face.
Research over the past decade clearly indicates
that while infrastructural, systems and process
assets in an organisation have been actively
developed and are sufficiently managed by their
respective divisional heads to maintain competitive
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February 2014 SA Real Estate Investor

edge, the human element is not being optimally or
even adequately managed.
The shift in focus and use of physical assets
within a company to wireless assets is demanding
a change in human resource management to
incorporate a third dimension – that of the
“soul”. This third dimension, or soul, is described
as consciousness, which can be considered an
appropriate definition of human spirituality in the
socio-economic context.
Traditionally, all things spiritual have been
left to organised religion to manage. However,
in the 21st century the importance of the
management of the spirituality of humans has
made it necessary for this aspect of people to also
be managed in socio-economic \