This seminar discusses key forces shaping the role of human resources, including speed of innovation, technology, social media, complexity of growth, and changing lifestyles. It argues that these trends require rethinking organizations, capital, and the role of HRM to be more strategic, flexible, and value-driven. The role of HR is to help organizations adapt and deliver value through building unique capabilities. New challenges for HR include social media, generations, and work-life balance.

1. HRM Seminar
New perspectives on Human Resource
Management – Moving Aruba forward
Rethinking HRM in an era of
rapid change and flux
Edward Erasmus MA
University of Aruba
Organization, Governance and Management
June 1, 2012

2. What we will do in the next 30 minutes…
Have a conversation about key forces shaping
the role of Human Resources (HR)
• Discuss some mega trends
• How organizations adapt
• Rethinking the role of HR
• HRM challenges

3. A growing attention for the role
of HRM in organizations…

4. Megatrends impacting
organizations
Speed of Hyper- Social
innovation connectivity movement
Sustainable Changing
enterprising lifestyles
Complexity
of Growth

5. 1. Speed of innovation
Disruptive innovation is going to dominate your daily
schedule….
if you walk you stand still, so
you’ll need to run pretty fast to
advance just a little.

6. Disruptive innovation
…….an improvement or advancement that enhances a
product, service or a process in a manner that has never
been expected by the market…..
• Good for consumers
• Disruptive for existing industries
(some will adapt, others will fade away)

7. Disruptive innovation

8. Disruptive innovation

9. Disruptive innovation

10. Disruptive innovation

11. Radical innovation…
The biggest fear by big companies in this
innovation era is not to be able to recognize
radical innovation and (timely) capitalize on it
when it appears….

12. Radical innovation…
are we catching up?
XX: “Doing business via the internet is
leading to the death of many businesses in
Aruba and consequently unemployment of
many people?”
EE: “So what you do think businesses in Aruba
should do?”
XX: “We should do something about that
darn internet...”

13. Radical innovation…
(Aruba example)

14. 2. Technology and
hyperconnectivity

15. Technology

16. Technology

17. Technology

18. Technology….
Techs and gadgets used at
home will exceed level of
technology being used at
work and being taught at
schools…

19. Telecommuting
• Increasing webification of applications
• Cloud computing
• Online storage
• Remote access

20. 3. SOCIAL MOVEMENT
& CONSUMER-CONTROLLED MEDIA
You don’t control consumers…
Consumers control you...

22. Thanks to social networking:
• Society is moving towards a more social,
collaborative, interactive and responsive web
• Higher interconnectivity
• Building communities
SN gives people a powerful voice…..

23. From social media to social movement

26. Say goodbye to the era of
monologue

27. The new communication model is
dialogue

28. Social Networking has changed the
‘game’ in marketing and communication,
but also how organizations need to
respond to consumer needs….

29. Mass customization….
Co-creation…
and co-branding….
take on new forms

31. Co-creation….

32. Starbucks gave consumers a
voice....the result:
over 50,000 product ideas

34. • Forget B2C or B2B……
it’s now P2P (person-2-person)
…customers want to connect and interact with
companies on a 1:1 social level
…and those who can deliver that, will gain
substantial competitive edge...

35. The end of traditional marketing…
• Opportunities to engage with customers in a
new ways….
• However, managing SM is posting new
challenges for organizations
• Everyone is a marketer

36. 4. THE COMPLEXITY OF
GROWTH
“This is the end of easy growth”
-Raghuram Rajan

43. ‘Questioning growth is deemed to be the act
of lunatics, idealists and revolutionaries. But
question it we must.’
- Tim Jackson

46. Revenue growth will not be easy…
• Increasing cost control
• Upturn in productivity

47. 5. SUSTAINABLE ENTERPRISING
“We are living on this planet as if we
had another one to go to.”
- Terri Swearingen

53. Think sustainable….
• Environmental resources are limited and are
quite sensitive to everything that we do.
• We are starting to experience the effects of the
actions of generations that came before us.
To make sure that future generations will not
experience worse, we need to be aware of the ideals
and requirements of sustainability….

54. Why adopting sustainability practices..?
• Without a sustainable society, there is no
sustainable business….
• Not only sustaining the necessary environmental
resources, but also the social resources, including
employees, customers (the community), and
corporate reputation

55. Sustainable enterprising
1. Incorporating principles of sustainability into each
business decisions.
2. Supplying or consuming environmentally friendly
products or services that replaces demand for non
green products and/or services.
3. Greener than traditional competition.
4. Enduring commitment to environmental principles
in the business operations.

59. 6. CHANGING LIFESTYLES AND
SOCIAL VALUES
‘Gen Y is an “experience” culture. They do
not want to be told what to like or what to
do. They want to experience the world for
themselves and pass their own judgment.’
- Bea Fields

60. Millennial (Generation Y)

61. Generation Y
What they think of themselves:
“Brilliant, thought-provoking, eager, and exciting”
What older generations think of them:
“Over-entitled, egotistical, know it-alls”

65. Fun - Fabulous
Fortune - Fame

66. Juvenile crime
Performance in
education
Narcissistic
behavior
Workforce
challenges

67. Changing values…

68. If you think you’ve got
everything under control…..
Think again….

69. The main question is…
How can organizations remain
competitive, be able to attract, organize,
nurture and retain that core of talented
people, in order to deliver value in a
sustainable manner to a diverse group of
demanding consumers?

70. How organizations are coping
• Create and embrace diversity in
knowledge, people and resources.
• Focus on ‘creation’…not just ‘operation’.
• Think in terms of value, ‘Win-Win’ and
long-term.
• Embrace new forms of capital.

71. Rethinking organizations…

72. Organizations?..
• An organization is way more that just structure and
system...
• An organization is a series of conversations and
dialogues between people, external or internal, in
pursuit of solutions….

73. Sir, yes sir!

74. Hierarchy models

75. Matrix Organizations

76. Network-based structure

77. Totally new radical forms of
organizations

78. Building organizations around values
…and NOT the other way around
Creating value (Apple example)
• Unparalleled stream of breakthrough products
• Re-defined how people engage the world with
digital devices
• Significant contribution to culture
• High quality

79. Rethinking Capital

80. New forms of capital
Intellectual
Capital
Creative Social
Capital Capital

81. Intellectual capital
Collective knowledge (whether or not documented) of
the individuals in an organization or society.
This knowledge can be used to produce wealth, multiply
output of physical assets, gain competitive advantage,
and/or to enhance value of other types of capital.
IC can include:
• skills and knowledge that a company has developed about how to
make its goods or services;
• individual employees or groups of employees whose knowledge is
deemed critical to a company's continued success (knowledge about
processes, customers, research results, and other information)

82. Social capital
= Social relations that have productive benefits.
People acting and interacting well in communities can
create better solutions, greater accountability, and more
economic growth.
“Social capital is about
the value of social
networks, bonding
similar people and
bridging between
diverse people, with
norms of reciprocity.”
(Dekker and Uslaner,
2001)

83. Creative capital
People/societies exploring, embracing, and nurturing
creativity.
Creativity -> Invention -> Innovation
human creativity is the ultimate economic resource

84. “…creativity will be the single most important
leadership quality for organizations forging a path
through the complexity of today’s marketplace,
workplace, and community.”
~IBM Global CEO Study (2010)

85. Time to start educating our
leaders in a new paradigm…

86. Time to start educating our
future leaders in a new
paradigm…

87. Rethinking HRM

88. Back to pragmatism and
contextualization
• No ‘one size fits all’ model
• HRM should fit within the organizational
context
• Strategic of nature
• Value-driven

89. The Organizational Context for HRM
Culture
Structure
People
Organizational Processes
Context
For HRM
Systems
Size
Resources

90. Changing role of HRM
• Strong HR leadership - develop clear visions,
motivate others to join, and help them work toward achieving it.
• Acute future orientation - how changing
environmental, organizational, and workforce factors will likely
influence the business, and be prepared to deliver appropriate
solutions.
• Flexibility and creativity - responsive to the
changing needs of its client organization.
• Delivering value – from a non-revenue generating
function to a value-creating activity.

91. Changing role of HRM
To build and strengthen the unique set of
organizational capabilities that give the
company its competitive advantage….that
help it to serve its customers in a
meaningfully differentiated way.

92. Some new HR challenges
Social media policy – managing and monitoring
what is being said about the company and how social
media is used
Millennials – how to motivate and meet the
expectations of the millennial generation?
Changing norms and values – re-evaluate
existing policies or not?

93. Some new HR challenges
Security and privacy issues –use of company
smart phones, tablets (iPads) and other gadgets
Team building vs. flexibility in the workplace
– cloud computing and remote access
Work-life blend –intertwined work and private lives,
24/7 on-call

94. Some new HR challenges
Managing the ageing workforce –managing
‘brain drain’, attracting new talent
Continuous learning – learning as an ongoing
activity, which is carried out daily and ad infinitum
??? - ……

95. HRM: a macro/micro approach
• Preparing the Aruban workforce for the
challenges ahead requires a holistic
approach.
• NISP (Nos Aruba 2025), The Green
Gateway, Chamber of Commerce, etc.

96. We see innovation
Title
as a means to:
• unlock talents of all of our
people
• develop every area of the
economy and, in particular,
wherever high value added
businesses can flourish and grow
• generate sustainable prosperity

97. Our own definition of innovation…
“Transforming the (current) resources of our
nation (Aruba) through the creativity of
people into new resources and wealth.”

99. So in essence….
• The global landscape is changing quickly.
• These trends have an impact on Aruba as
well.
• No ‘cook-book’ approach for organization
and HRM design (pragmatic and contextual).
• The role of HR today is one that is far more
strategic than ever before.
• New challenges are coming along.
• Micro/macro approach.

101. Edward M. Erasmus, MA
e.erasmus@fzanv.com
erasmus.bpas@gmail.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/edwardmerasmus
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/em_erasmus
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardmerasmus
Blog: http://edwardmerasmus.wordpress.com