SYNAPSE - 2014
SYNAPSE - 2014
The Courageous and Responsible HR Highway
- Radhika Nadkarny
Radhika Nadkarny is a Research
Associate at Symbiosis Centre for
Management and Human Resource
Development, Pune in the Human
Resource Department. She has received
her Master’s in Counseling Psychology
from SNDT Women’s University,
Mumbai. She has been an Assistant
Professor with Christ University,
Bangalore. Her research and teaching
interests are diverse which include
Organizational Behavior, Psychology
and Leadership.
The psychology of the
future generations is
very vital for HR and
businesses to align,
engage and manage
them to perform
On asking myself what are the emotions the
word future conjures I listed down uncertainty,
unknown, excitement, hope, newness, change,
danger, fear, imagination, growth, confusion,
surprise, awakening, guidance etc. Taking on
the role of an oracle I venture into the realm of
the unknown, excitement, the unimagined and
the new of Human Resources. The quote by
Adolfo Bioy Casares in his scientific novel
“The Invention of Morel”, 1940, describes my
feelings as I write this article: “And the reason
I am so nervous is that everything I do now is
leading me to one of three possible futures...
Which one will it be? Time alone will tell. But
still I know that writing this diary can perhaps
provide the answer; it may even help produce
the right future.”
The past needs reflection and acceptance, present awareness and future courage and responsibility. And HR today is headed in this direction!
Most articles, books read and people I spoke to
mention the key word strategic in the context
of HR. In their view, the future of HR is Strategic! One of the definitions from CiteHR, says
Strategic HRM addresses broad organizational
issues relating to organizational effectiveness and
performance, changes in structure and culture,
matching resources to future requirements, the
development
of
distinctive
capabilities,
knowledge management and the management of
change. Therefore strategies are emergent and
flexible, about to be and not in the present, actions and reactions and future and change oriented.
In this backdrop the need to look at the future of
HR from a behavioral perspective, appears to be
a prominent research option. How are the behavioral aspects of HR going to look like in the future? How are they going to drive the strategy of
HR? If they will what should organizations do to
equip themselves for this phenomenon? Will
organizations have to change their mindset and
basic identity in order to achieve this?
A recent study of Accenture, “Trends Reshaping
the Future of HR – Talent Management Meets
the Science of Human Behavior”, by David Gartside, Colin Sloman, Janice Simmons & Susan M.
Cantrell, on reshaping the future of HR demonstrates that technology has resulted in more data,
information and higher awareness. As a result the
next eventual step is the merging of theory and
practice. A merging of science with business or a
mindset of a scientist to improve business is going to be the need of the hour and future. Data is
gathered to make decisions and the human mind
working on this data has gradually become the
area of interest for many researches. Insights help
us to understand how learning, motivation, emotions, problems-solving, socialization can be used
to create strategies to manage, optimize talent &
get the best outcome. HR using these insights
will vigorously dwell on disciplines like Neurosciences, Psychology, Sociology & Anthropology.
A 2012 article in the Forbes, “Adopting Millennial Mindset”, by Jeanne Meister a consultant &
author, stated that millennials will be roughly
50% of the USA workforce in 2020 and 75% of
the global workforce by 2030. According to
Shashi Tharoor, the Indian Minister of State for