5 Important Trends That Are Influencing HR and OD
According to Schein (2010), the fields of organizational development (OD) and human resource management (HR) may have been preoccupied with economic factors in both business and non-profit organizations that five (5) evolving trends have been overlooked, and these include:
- Complex organizational functions as a result of new technological sophistication. OD: Complex processes for survey methodology, strategic analysis, leadership development, large systems change, group dynamics, culture change, and lean manufacturing leading to licensing requirements for practitioners. HR: Specialization requirements for pay systems, labor relations, management development programs, as well as health, environment and safety programs.
- Technological changes in how work is done and organized including new communication and control mechanisms such as virtual teams.
- Evolving policies that cut across national borders as companies aim to expand to other territories.
- Complexities resulting from multicultural diversity as companies engage with different national cultures, organizational cultures, and occupational cultures.
- The issue of the western business system not applying to many other countries with different cultures which impact issues concerning: social responsibility, business ethics, retirement age, entry age, shareholders, customers, work-family balance, as well as gender.
Reference
Schein, E.H. (2010). The role of organization development in the human resource function. In Vogelsang, J., Townsend, M., Minahan, M., Jamieson, D., Vogel, J., Viets, A., Royal, C., & Valek, L. (ed.). Handbook or strategic HR: Best practices in organization development from the OD network. New York, NY: AMACOM.
