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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