Hi Orange,
Hmm..a good question in today's changing & turbulent times..
Officer---AM----M----Sr M---VP---GM----CEO
Here one has gain competencies like :-
Specialised interview methods
Training skills
Business acumen - a toughest one..!!
Have the ability to discern the future trends
Team work
Sound understanding of all the job functions
Well these above are general ones...if you really want to progress then read this article by T V Rao..
IS IT TIME TO REPLACE HRD MANAGERS BY KNOWLEDGE AND LEARNING MANAGERS?
T. V. Rao
In the consulting report that created the first HRD department in India at Larsen & Toubro in the year 1975 the IIMA Consultants have outlined the following roles to the HRD function and to the HRD Managers:
• Developing enabling capabilities in individuals and the system
• Integrating the development of the people with Organizational development
• Maximizing the learning opportunities of Individuals in organizations through various mechanisms, autonomy and responsibility
• Decentralization, delegation and shared responsibility
• Balancing change and adaptation
• Building feedback and reinforcement mechanisms etc.
The HRD Function was differentiated from the Personnel Function based on the finding in L&T that creation of a learning environment through HRD tools suffers if the same group of people are to look after personnel (essentially monitoring, control, and maintenance roles) and development functions. It was integrated also into the HR function along with differentiation as a lot of development issues depended on personnel policies and both functions were required to work hand in hand. Since the time India had the first dedicated HRD Manager (L&T appointed Dr. D F Periera as DGM HRD) in the year 1975, the population of HRD Managers has grown in the country. Perhaps HRD is one area where such designations came in the US much after India had them. India took the lead. Unfortunately the growth of the role is not in proportion to the needs in this area. If any, the role of HRD Managers over a period of time has shrunk tremendously.
Today most organizations seem to use the HRD Managers for people maintenance and control roles rather than development roles. HRD roles are supposed to derive their power from their expert knowledge, networking and facilitation skills, and from the employee they serve. The HR Manager (new name for the traditional Personnel Manager popularised in mid eighties to keep up with times) derives his power from his association with policy making, implementation, and closeness to CEO. In spite of the need for competency building in a globally competitive environment real Human Resources Development has not got the attention it deserved. HRD Audit by the author of over a dozen Indian companies in the recent past have revealed that the real HRD Managers envisaged two decades ago are getting practically extinct.
The HRD roles are being reduced gradually to recruitment and retention roles essentially involving salary revisions, ESOPs, performance Appraisal and reward systems. There is very little effort made or time left for competency building, creation of learning environment and to aligning HRD with business strategies. Dave Ulrich's books indicating the changes needed in HRD roles are widely read and quoted but very little of it is followed.
It is in this context worth examining if creating a new Role called Chief Learning Manager or Chief Knowledge Manager will help Indian corporate sector.
CLMs and CKMS
The Davos World Economy Forum conducted a survey of how the US CEOs look at the future. The survey revealed that 94% of the CEOs mentioned that globalisation as a priority area, 88% mentioned knowledge Management as a priority area, 79% stated that reducing costs is a priority area, 78% mentioned that creating global supply chains us a priority area and 76% mentioned cross country optimisation of manufacturing as a priority.
Knowledge Management is defined by Anderson Consulting as "The systematic process of acquiring, creating, capturing, synthesizing, learning and using information, insights, and experience to enable performance".
In this way, knowledge management is the engine that transforms ideas into business value.
In another definition, KM is defined as the new discipline of enabling individuals, teams and the entire organization to collectively and systematically create, share, and apply knowledge to better achieve the business objectives.
According to some authors KM is not a HR, IT or other domain but a strategic business development issue.
Organizational learning is a parallel process: a continuous and strategically used process. A learning organization is an organization that learns continuously and thus transforms itself. There are no universally accepted definitions of these terms.
According to one estimate made by Dr. Dede Bonner, President New Century management Inc, USA there are likely to be anywhere between 50 to 250 Chief learning Officers and Chief Knowledge Officers in the world. This is growing. Some of the organizations having such titles include:
• Bank Boston
• Coca-Cola
• Ernest & Young
• Ford Motor Company
• General Electric
• Hewlett-Packard
• Prudential Insurance Company
• Sun Microsystems
• Unisys
• US West
• Pillsbury Xerox Corporation
• US CIA
• British Petroleum
Other titles like Managing Partner of Knowledge Management (Anderson Consulting); Director of Knowledge Management, Knowledge Coordinator, Knowledge facilitator, Knowledge leader, KM Consultant, Senior Knowledge librarian, Learning Coordinator, Learning specialist, Organizational Architect, Director of Organizational Effectiveness. Vice President Knowledge Management is also known to exist. They draw between $80,000 to $ 750,000 a year in terms of salary.
Chief Knowledge Officers (CKOs) are the focal points to leverage the organizations' knowledge into tangible business results and to gain competitive market advantage.
Chief Learning Officers are the focal points to leverage an organization's learning into tangible business results to gain competitive market advantage.
These positions are new, the responsibilities are evolving gradually and duties vary among different companies.
Sample of responsibilities for CKOs and CLOs include:
• Strategic planning at the highest levels of the company
• Ability to integrate diverse groups and work across all functions; develop the culture; build awareness of knowledge management or organizational learning.
• Design and implement a knowledge and or learning infrastructure to tie together corporate databases, employees' tacit knowledge and paper files.
• Consulting activities, organizational effectiveness
• Work closely with CEOs
Hope this helps..
Cheers,
Rajat