So You Want To Succeed Time for a Paradigm Shift in Human Capital Development

The vast amount of literature on Human Capital refers to the “stock of competences, knowledge and personality attributes embodied in the ability to perform labour so as to produce economic value”. At an individual talent level, it points to the attributes gained through education, training and experience. Human capital is closely connected to competency. Competency improves through experience, training and commitment. Today it is seen as the DNA of organisational and professional success.

As the world intensifies globalisation with revolutionary information and communication technologies, it has turned the world into a global village, encouraged mobility of talent across national borders, enhanced formation of social, cultural, commercial and professional networks, restructured organisational hierarchies and work arrangements, expanded the meaning of organisational bottomlines. All these certainly create the need for a paradigm shift in human capital development. It would be an immense challenge for business organisations to address the impact of a deeply changing world with the old way of thinking about and acting on human capital development.

We definitely need to dynamically and comprehensively assess and practically change our approach to human capital development. What new emphasis must be brought in? What new areas must be included? What areas must be developed? What old ways have to be thrown away? What will be the characteristics of the new paradigm? What national policies are needed to encourage healthy competition and collaboration? What is the impact on our management and business education?

Do we need a new and true learning culture that encourages questioning, innovation, creativity, new knowledge production and accommodativeness of change? Do we need a more elaborate intellectual and analytical culture? Is there a need to move away from human capital development towards talent management? Do we need to, in addition to human capital, draw thoughts on the importance of social capital? And among other things, do we need to reconsider and/or critically balance “seeking economic value and expansion of human capabilities”, “people and markets”, “fairness, equity and economic efficiency”, “ends and means”, “people development and economic growth”, “economic production and consumption and environmental sustainability” and “human development index (HDI) and gross domestic product (GDP)”?

The Asia HRD CongressTM offers a learning platform through its 2012 Congress: So You Want to Change? Time for Paradigm Shift in Human Capital Development to help you explore a much needed change. Your participation and contributions can make a significant difference.