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innovations within work and organisational context                181
                        are available to measure and develop potential. Finally, we will illustrate an approach
                        that is in our opinion very promising regarding the measurement and development of
                        (management) potential.


                        INNOVATIONS WITHIN WORK AND ORGANISATIONAL
                        CONTEXT AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS
                        FOR MANAGEMENT/HUMAN DEVELOPMENT


                        HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AS THE BASIS OF MODERN HUMAN
                        RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

                        Nowadays, a number of changes that follow one another rapidly are taking place within
                        the context of work and organisation. In the many discussions that we have had with
                        managers of organisations we have noticed that the opinions regarding the influence
                        of all the technological, market and organisational changes differ considerably. These
                        opinions can be divided into two, rather extreme, viewpoints. The first viewpoint is
                        based on the idea that there are so many changes occurring so rapidly that within a short
                        period of time a rather chaotic business context will emerge that is hard to manage. The
                        other viewpoint supports the idea that this discussion has also been going on for some
                        years, and although some changes have been implemented, none of them has been ‘earth-
                        shaking’. Based on this idea it is stated that the coming period will certainly bring about
                        changes and innovations, but these will not have a profound impact on the organisation
                        policy.
                          Part of the difference in viewpoints can be attributed to the position that the manager
                        takes (as well as his/her organisation) in the anticipation on new developments. And
                        indeed, considering that organisations are fairly classifiable in terms of ‘conservative/
                        reactive’ and ‘entrepreneurial/proactive’, this need not always be correlated with the
                        actual characteristics of the business context (Ansoff & McDonell, 1990; Quinn, 1992;
                        Peters & Waterman, 1995). Consequently, managers and human resource specialists
                        differ in their reactions to the developments that take place. Some are looking for new
                        ways to retain talents in organisations, others are adhering to existing methods of re-
                        cruitment, selection and development of potentials because these methods have proved
                        their merits in the past (Capelli, 2000). To state in general that the one or the other is
                        applying a more sensible strategy is not the case, because in strategies that relate to
                        developments in economy, society and organisations, and thus also the attraction, de-
                        velopment and retention of potentials actions, have always be attuned to the specific
                        situation.
                          Despite this, the opinion that the activities on the development of organisation mem-
                        bers should be the focus of human resources management in the next few decades is pre-
                        vailing (see, among others, Dutch surveys, Haak, Jansen, & Mul, 1998). Concepts that
                        have been only applicable to certain target groups in the past, such as managers, should
                        be applied more broadly in ‘human development’. In other words, organisations have to
                        concern the development of a broader target group of potentials within the organisation
                        in order to create ‘competitive advantage’ (e.g. Moingeon & Edmondson, 1996). As
                        Lohaus and Kleinmann (this volume) argue, human development, and more specificially
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