In an article authored by Richard E. Boyatzis, Ph.D.Case Western Reserve University and James A. Burruss, Ph.D, they analyzed the importance of Counselling in HRD. The full article is attached as a pdf document.
While the quality movement has attempted to reverse several hundred years of increasing the distance between worker and customer, as well as worker and the complete product, the successes and advances in the HRD field have tended to reduce the one ingredient that seems to be necessary-- caring human interaction! The increased sophistication and emergence of human resource development as a major component of organizational life in the last twenty-five years has helped in the sustainable development of people and their organizations. But success has brought increased specialization, professionalization, and commercialization.
Colleagues of ours make distinctions between the "fields" of HRM, HRD, OB, OD, OT, MD, CD, PD, and T/D (i.e., human resource management, human resource development, organizational behavior, organizational development, organizational transformation, management development, career development, professional development, and training and development, respectively). This provides fodder for academic debate and disaggregates the HRM function's activities.
Professionalization has resulted in increasing rituals and "tests" through which a person must pass to enter one of these specialties. Commercialization, aided by downsizing of internal staff and the frenetic demand for "bottom-line" evidence of the contribution of HRD, has resulted in the multiplicative growth of consulting and training companies. Since they provide their services "by the hour or by the day," the inevitable push toward standardization and efficiency of delivery has resulted in a rush toward packaging of training notebooks, course outlines, trainer training, performance improvement systems, etc. etc. and, now, of course, we have succeeded in eliminating people and human interaction from these processes because you can get everything you need from a computer program (albeit a highly complex and expensive one!).
Without wanting to appear simplistic or naive, we offer the observation that human resource development involves and requires human interaction of a caring, supportive, useful nature-- that is, counseling. At the core of developmental training, mentoring or coaching activities, assessment and feedback efforts, employee assistance, and career planning programs, each of us needs some interaction that can be characterized as counseling. In addition, performance appraisal, career pathing/succession planning, incentive compensation, and organization improvement/development processes and methods require some form of counseling as a catalyst for implementation and often as an essential programmatic component. Although not necessary, even salary and benefits administration, selection and promotion systems, and corporate communications could often be helped through counseling interactions. In the efforts to evolve, or return to a condition in which each manager and leader views HRD as part of their role, counseling becomes an essential aspect of their interactions. In this pursuit, we attempt to train managers and leaders to make eye contact with others, listen to them, develop attitudes and skills to help the other person feel empowered, provide and solicit accurate and timely feedback, stimulate and provoke conversation about new ideas, innovations, improvements, and development.
From the formal training programs or performance appraisal systems to the informal chats while walking down the hall, HRD depends on counseling. Anecdotal evidence suggests that informal (versus formal), episodic or opportunistic (versus planned), and personal (versus bureaucratic and systematized) counseling interactions are more effective.
Regardless of whether the setting and timing is ideal, there is a need for people who can be effective in counseling interactions. We can define effective counseling as "an activity addressing a problem, opportunity, or perspective in a relationship through a process of interaction." You do not engage in effective counseling through fortune-cookies nor computer pop-up "Tips." There are many types of helping situations in which effective counseling is important from those working on deeply personal matters to those teaching someone to use a computer program.
Rogers (1951, 1961) articulated a troika of characteristics that seemed critical for effective "helping" behavior emerging from his work on psychotherapy: empathy, unconditional positive regard, and genuineness. Truax and Carkhuff (1967) and Carkhuff (1969) continued to expand, clarify, and develop these concepts and methods. Although developers or proponents of various approaches to psychotherapy would advocate modifications to this list (e.g., Perls emphasized giving voice to the unspoken and Ellis emphasized pragmatism), the quest for effective helping behavior always returned to characteristics of the helper. Later research on psychotherapy and counseling would suggest that the characteristics of the helper was more important in determining differences in effectiveness than differences in approach to psychotherapy or schools of thought in which the person was trained (Emrick, 1974).
Cheers
Prof.Lakshman
From Sri Lanka, Kolonnawa
32While the quality movement has attempted to reverse several hundred years of increasing the distance between worker and customer, as well as worker and the complete product, the successes and advances in the HRD field have tended to reduce the one ingredient that seems to be necessary-- caring human interaction! The increased sophistication and emergence of human resource development as a major component of organizational life in the last twenty-five years has helped in the sustainable development of people and their organizations. But success has brought increased specialization, professionalization, and commercialization.
Colleagues of ours make distinctions between the "fields" of HRM, HRD, OB, OD, OT, MD, CD, PD, and T/D (i.e., human resource management, human resource development, organizational behavior, organizational development, organizational transformation, management development, career development, professional development, and training and development, respectively). This provides fodder for academic debate and disaggregates the HRM function's activities.
Professionalization has resulted in increasing rituals and "tests" through which a person must pass to enter one of these specialties. Commercialization, aided by downsizing of internal staff and the frenetic demand for "bottom-line" evidence of the contribution of HRD, has resulted in the multiplicative growth of consulting and training companies. Since they provide their services "by the hour or by the day," the inevitable push toward standardization and efficiency of delivery has resulted in a rush toward packaging of training notebooks, course outlines, trainer training, performance improvement systems, etc. etc. and, now, of course, we have succeeded in eliminating people and human interaction from these processes because you can get everything you need from a computer program (albeit a highly complex and expensive one!).
Without wanting to appear simplistic or naive, we offer the observation that human resource development involves and requires human interaction of a caring, supportive, useful nature-- that is, counseling. At the core of developmental training, mentoring or coaching activities, assessment and feedback efforts, employee assistance, and career planning programs, each of us needs some interaction that can be characterized as counseling. In addition, performance appraisal, career pathing/succession planning, incentive compensation, and organization improvement/development processes and methods require some form of counseling as a catalyst for implementation and often as an essential programmatic component. Although not necessary, even salary and benefits administration, selection and promotion systems, and corporate communications could often be helped through counseling interactions. In the efforts to evolve, or return to a condition in which each manager and leader views HRD as part of their role, counseling becomes an essential aspect of their interactions. In this pursuit, we attempt to train managers and leaders to make eye contact with others, listen to them, develop attitudes and skills to help the other person feel empowered, provide and solicit accurate and timely feedback, stimulate and provoke conversation about new ideas, innovations, improvements, and development.
From the formal training programs or performance appraisal systems to the informal chats while walking down the hall, HRD depends on counseling. Anecdotal evidence suggests that informal (versus formal), episodic or opportunistic (versus planned), and personal (versus bureaucratic and systematized) counseling interactions are more effective.
Regardless of whether the setting and timing is ideal, there is a need for people who can be effective in counseling interactions. We can define effective counseling as "an activity addressing a problem, opportunity, or perspective in a relationship through a process of interaction." You do not engage in effective counseling through fortune-cookies nor computer pop-up "Tips." There are many types of helping situations in which effective counseling is important from those working on deeply personal matters to those teaching someone to use a computer program.
Rogers (1951, 1961) articulated a troika of characteristics that seemed critical for effective "helping" behavior emerging from his work on psychotherapy: empathy, unconditional positive regard, and genuineness. Truax and Carkhuff (1967) and Carkhuff (1969) continued to expand, clarify, and develop these concepts and methods. Although developers or proponents of various approaches to psychotherapy would advocate modifications to this list (e.g., Perls emphasized giving voice to the unspoken and Ellis emphasized pragmatism), the quest for effective helping behavior always returned to characteristics of the helper. Later research on psychotherapy and counseling would suggest that the characteristics of the helper was more important in determining differences in effectiveness than differences in approach to psychotherapy or schools of thought in which the person was trained (Emrick, 1974).
Cheers
Prof.Lakshman
From Sri Lanka, Kolonnawa
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