HRD's Strategic Role: Leadership, Innovation, and Corporate Goals

This essay critically evaluates the role of Human Resource Development (HRD) in the formulation and implementation of an organization's strategic and corporate strategies, with a focus on leadership learning and development. It emphasizes the vital role of the HR department in handling manpower and formulating corporate-level strategies and goals. The essay discusses management development issues, such as improper communication and lack of workforce understanding, and their negative influence on strategy implementation. It highlights the impact of management development on securing competitive advantage through training and effective communication. The essay also addresses debating issues like poor performance management and high employee turnover and assesses HRD's role in securing competitive advantage through employee training and skill enhancement. Furthermore, it explores how human resource matters, including recruitment, training, promotions, and transfers, form a crucial part of corporate strategy formulation and implementation. Finally, the essay underscores the correlation between human resource development and corporate strategy, focusing on outplacement services and their impact on corporate-level strategies. It concludes that HR and business growth are inter-linked and that one cannot function without the other.

Running head: LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION
Leadership and Innovation
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION
The human resource department of an organization is one that has a very vital role to
play when it comes to formulating corporate level strategies and goals. This is because of the
fact that the HR department is responsible for handling the manpower, that is, the human
resources that serve corporations and resting on whom, corporations are able to achieve
business goals and agendas in a timely and organized fashion (Analoui, 2017). Without any
assistance provided by HR services, it would prove exceedingly difficult for a corporation to
come up with the decisions and strategies that it needs to in order to move in forward
direction. The HR department of an organization guides managers as to who all are the types
of employees that ought to be selected and when and where for that matter. Based on the type
of human resources that it is served by, a corporation is able to formulate a plan for future
growth and development. Much of the work that is needed to be done for a corporation in this
respect is performed by HR managers by looking into the interests of employees and
enhancing their abilities in the most emphatic way possible (Bailey et al., 2018). This essay
looks at the crucial role that human resource development has to play in the formulation of
corporate level strategies. The essay concludes that HR and business growth are inter-linked
and that one cannot function without the other.
1. Management Development Issues that Influence Strategy Formulation and
Implementation
Management development issues like improper communication and a lack of
understanding of the workforce can negatively influence strategy formulation and
implementation. It is therefore imperative for managers to be familiar with the human
resources of an organization that is the manpower or employee base that keeps an
organization going, in order to come up with the right strategies and techniques that can be
implemented by such a workforce to take an enterprise in forward direction (Bratton & Gold,
2017).

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2. Impact of Management Development on Corporate Strategy for Securing
Competitive Advantage
The training and development of managers and supervisors in an organization is
necessary if such management is to come up with the desired corporate strategies that can
help a firm to secure competitive advantage. Managers need to be well acquainted with the
workforce and must enhance their communication with the workforce using effective
communication skills and techniques in order to manage and guide the workforce in
understanding and enforcing strategies that can suitably help a firm to take on its rivals and
competitors in the market (Brewster, 2017).
3. Debating Issues that surround the Impact of Strategic Management
Development Issues
Two important debating issues that surround the impact of strategic development issues
include poor performance management and high employee turnover. The inability to guide
the performance of employees in a workplace results in employees being asked to resign from
an organization or a voluntary resignation on their part. This employee turnover can prove to
be very costly for a firm which needs to fall back on a steady and plentiful base of human
resources to achieve its goals and objectives (Brewster, 2017).
4. Assessing the Role of HRD on Corporate Strategy
1. The Impact of Human Resource Development on Corporate Strategy for
Securing Competitive Advantage
When employees are trained in the best possible way, when their skills and abilities
are enhanced like never before, it is possible for an organization to go ahead and take the
decisions that it needs to in order to maximize the potential of its employees, generate high
revenue growth and successfully compete with its rivals in the industry (Bouchard &Fayolle,

3LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION
2018). One business organization can hope to take on another business organization only
when it is serviced by talented and committed employees who are willing to work with an
organization for the long term and who possess the skills that are needed to do a good job at
the work place (Papa et al., 2018). This identification of the nature of employees, that is their
nature and behavior, their willingness to stay on with an organization for a long period of
time and the enhancement of their skills and abilities in a way that they are able to the
maximum for the organization they are working for, forms a part of the process of human
resource development (Bratton & Gold, 2017). Such a process is carried out by HR managers
and executives, whose job it is to identify, select and recruit employees into an organization,
make them feel comfortable at the work place and provide with the training and the
development measures that they need in order to be able to do their optimum for the
organization. If a corporation has to move in forward direction and expand rather than
contract and wind up, it needs the help of its talented employees to do so. It is the job of the
HR department of the organization to make sure that the organization has such a talented pool
of employees to fall back on, that is, an employee base that it can count on in times of crisis
(Brewster, 2017). It is the HR managers who engage in the process of human resource
development on behalf of the corporation, providing the organization with the sufficient
manpower that it needs to do well in the world of business ("HR Evaluation Methods", 2019).
Managing and retaining employees is a task that not only falls on the shoulders of the HR
managers but the top level management of a company as well, but it is the HR managers who
steer the process of looking after and retaining employees for a company, for over an
extensive period of time (Brewster, 2017).
2. Human Resource Matters that form a Crucial Part of Corporate Strategy
Formulation and Implementation

4LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION
Human resource development is something that does play a very crucial role in the
formulation of corporate strategies, because strategies for expansion and growth cannot be
undertaken if the employees of the organization are not competent enough to handle all the
duties and responsibilities that come with such business expansion (Noe et al., 2017). As
such, it is the task of the HR department to scan suitable employees for an organization when
it sends out calls for recruitment (Meyer & Xin, 2018). The CV’s of prospective employees
are shortlisted in a careful manner and only the people who have the right amount of
knowledge, qualifications and skill sets are recruited by the HR managers into positions that
are offered in a particular company or business organization (Kaufman, 2015). The HR
department of an organization thus carries out the crucial role of hiring the people who are
well suited for performing the jobs and duties that are unique to a particular organization, and
who are therefore well positioned to take the company in a forward direction. It is when such
employees are recruited into the database of the company and begin working for the company
that the top level management of the company is able to undertake all the means that are
necessary for competing in the market and for taking on projects for expansion and control in
the business world by relying very heavily on its employee base (Hecklau et al., 2016). If the
corporation does not have skilled employees to fall back on then it would not be successful in
all the measures that it undertakes to grow and expand in the business world as much as
possible (Hewett et al., 2018). The job of enhancing the skills and the abilities of such
employees and making them more equipped than ever in order to do well for the organization
is the task of the HR department ("Performance Evaluation and Planning | Human
Resources", 2019). It is the HR department that has to select the training and development
measures that have got to be put in place in order to make sure that the employees of an
organization are trained with the best resources and by the best people possible, so that they

5LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION
gain a thorough understanding of what it is that is required of them at the work place and
proceed to perform their job roles accordingly (Collings et al., 2018).
A very essential part of the human resource development process is promotions and
transfers. The promotions are carried out when employees are able to demonstrate a
considerable amount of skill and expertise in the work that they do. Promotions are aimed at
elevating the status of an employee within an organization (Shaukat et al., 2016). Promotions
are given to employees in order to provide them with the incentives that they need to do their
best for the organization. Employees need to feel adequately rewarded if they are to give their
optimum for an organization and this is something that is guaranteed by giving an employee a
promotion. A promotion takes place when an employee of an organization is promoted or
appointed to a position of leadership (Brewster, 2017). This position of leadership is given to
an employee as a measure of proof that the organization has faith in the employee’s
leadership abilities and that it is confident that this employee will take the organization in a
forward direction (Peccei & Van de Voorde, 2019).
By showcasing so much faith the abilities of an employee, the trust and the
confidence is won over by the organization and the employee becomes an intrinsic part of the
activities or operations of the organization that are directed towards attaining further growth
and development in the industry (Bratton & Gold, 2017). In addition to promotions, transfer
of employees also take place at a time when the HR management of an organization feels that
an employee has exhausted all his talent at a particular branch of the organization, and that he
would likely be able to offer much more to the same organization by working in a different
branch office in a different location. Promotions are akin to transfers (Noe et al., 2017).
Transfers of course take place by acquiring the consent of the employee first. Those who are
not willing to transfer are never forced to do so by the HR department of any organization.
The transfers are designed to provide employees working for an organization with a new

6LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION
lease of life. A transfer is usually aimed at providing an employee with a much needed break
from the monotony of routine. When an employee is relocated and is made to perform
different operations for the same organization from a different city or town, then such an
employee is likely to find the variety that he needs to sustain his interest in working for this
organization for over a considerable length of time (Collings et al., 2018).
3. Understanding the Co-relation between Human Resource Development and
Corporate Strategy
Out placement services form an integral part of human resource development and this
in turn is an activity that also has a direct impact on the formulation of corporate level
strategies. Out placement services, are again carried out by HR managers and executives, and
entail recruitment of employees at campuses and other destinations where people visit in
large numbers with the hope of being placed in a job in some organization (Bratton & Gold,
2017). The work done by HR executives and managers at such locations is usually quite
intensive. It is the job of the HR managers to gather people together at such destinations, and
explain the pros and cons of working for the organization that they represent. The purpose of
HR managers at such locations is to capture the interest of the people in working for the
organization that the HR represents. In doing so, the HR managers get potential employees to
line up for interviews and those who are regarded to be most suitable for the job profiles that
are being offered by the organization are recruited into that organization (Brewster, 2017).
Corporate level strategies of growth and expansion are further achieved due to outplacement
efforts, as this is a channel through which HR executives are draw in plenty of man power for
an organization, giving it all the human resources that it needs to carry out its business
objectives and goals without any interruption whatsoever (Analoui, 2017). The out placement
activities are those that are carried out within a period of two to three weeks and the top level
management of the organization is kept informed about the progress made by HR managers

7LEADERSHIP AND INNOVATION
and executives at such out placement campusing. Sometimes, when an organization is short
on staff, the out placement activities are undertaken on the part of the HR managers to get
sufficient number of people to work for the organization. As such the out placement activities
are those that directly serve the interests and the needs of organizations. The purpose of such
activities is to identify the type of talent that can help an organization to accomplish its goals
and objectives in the desired manner, and since it is mostly college graduates and university
graduates who attend such out placement events, the HR managers are able to recruit fresh
pools of talents for organizations by highlighting the benefits and the rewards of working for
a particular organization, that is, the organization they represent (Bailey et al., 2018).
Thus, it is without a shadow of a doubt that human resource development is
something that goes quite a long way in assisting in the formulation of corporate strategies
and goals. Corporations need to be serviced by sufficient manpower and skilled manpower at
that, if it is to be able to grow and advance in the best way possible in the particular industry
in which it is functioning. Corporations require a secure and steady base of talented
employees who will be willing to take on hurdles and challenges on behalf of the corporation
in order to attain the ends of the corporations. For this purpose, HR managers need to go
ahead and select or recruit the right type of employees into an organization. It is the job of the
HR executives to hire talented and committed individuals into an organization either through
online recruitment or through outplacement activities and also provide such employees with
sufficient training and development in the form of workshops, lectures and intensive
coaching sessions, from time to time if they are to serve the interests of the corporation
successfully enough, and do well for themselves as well as for the corporation in the bargain.

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