HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT FROM PSYCHOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE
By-Professor Muhammad Raushan Ali, Ph.D. (London)
http://www.psychologybd.com/Article%20Human%20Resource.html
The most frequently used concept in recent years about human beings and human
performance is human resource development. This concept has been used by different
persons from different perspectives. Human resource development (HRD) from
Psychological Perspective is a process of change or modification of human behavior and
mental processes through education, training and other corrective measures and through
services for the purpose of making a person think rationally, behave purposefully and act
skillfully. It is a process of transforming human population into human resources.
When can we say that a person has become resourceful? A person is said to be resourceful
when he/she has attained problem-solving ability. Man is born with immense potentialities
which might remain dormant or useless unless these are nurtured from the beginning. The
purpose of the HRD program is to help a person think rationally and decide purposefully
and use his/her hands and feet skillfully. A person receives information through the sensory
mechanisms and analyses the information in the brain. The brain is the central organ which
not only analyses the incoming information, but also creates new concepts and ideas. It
generates different problem-solving alternatives and tries them and selects the most
appropriate one. The most developed and matured brain is the one which is capable of
processing information efficiently and taking the most appropriate decision. The executive
organs of the human body are the hands and the feet. When the hands and the feet
become skillful, the individual can execute the solution sequences efficiently.
Operational definition of human resource development
The population of a country may be regarded as a resource or a liability. When does it
become a resource, and when does it become a liability? When the population can sustain
itself and works as a factor of individual, social and economic development and becomes a
source of prosperity for the country, it is regarded as a resource. But when it is illiterate,
ignorant, unskilled and cannot sustain itself, and becomes a factor of degradation of the
society, population is regarded as liability for that country. So, individual human-beings who
constitute the population of a country have the potentialities to grow as an agent of change
and development, or they become a factor of degradation and backwardness for the
country. These dual possibilities should be understood in the first place.
Human resource development may, therefore, be defined operationally as a planned effort
or action to help individuals to unfold and develop their inner potentialities. This is to help
individuals to achieve physical, social and psychological well-being and to become
educated, knowledgeable and skillful, so that they can solve all the problems that a human
society is likely to face. Finally, human resource development action also involves in
assisting individuals to achieve self-actualization, harmony and peace, and spiritual wellbeing. This is the highest form of human resource development.
What are the components of human resource development?
There are four integral components of human resource development. These are the
physical, psychological, social and spiritual well-being of the individual. These four
components arise from different, but integrated, needs of the individual, namely the
physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs.
The maintenance of a nutritional balance and physical health, treatment during illness and
the provision for an adequate shelter and maintaining a healthy social and psychological
environment will help develop a well-balanced personality, intelligence and emotional and
psychological health of the individual.
The spiritual well-being of an individual transcends his physical and psychological wellbeing. Spiritual development of an individual involves in transforming his belief and action
system in order to enable him to achieve a universal humanistic attitude, a mental state of
loving and seeking for the truth and a longing for the union and harmony with the creator.
Through a spiritual development an individual can free himself/herself from the narrow limit
of the materialistic outlook and satisfaction. If a proper balance is not achieved among these
four components of human needs, human resource development remains incomplete,
Human resource development areas:
Any human resource development plan should include provisions for the development of all
the four components of an individual discussed before. Thus, any action plan for human
resource development should include the following programs.
1. Provisions for food, shelter and health. These provisions do not mean that you are to
provide these items to everybody. It means that the society must create conditions in which
the individuals can earn and pay for these goods and services.
2. Provisions for developing individuals psychologically, emotionally and socially. These
would include congenial, healthy and peaceful family, community and social lives where
human infants can grow and develop, opportunities for freedom of thought and expression,
and a free and unhindered atmosphere where individuals can strive for self-actualization.
3. Provisions for education and training: The best way to develop human population into
human resources is to educate and train them so that they can analyze issues critically,
take decisions correctly and can perform tasks efficiently.
4. Opportunities for spiritual growth and development: These would include freedom for
religious believes and practices without causing injuries to oneself and to others.
Human resources development vis-à-vis economic development in Bangladesh
Bangladesh has two major problems. These are human resource development problem and
human resource management problem. The former involves in making people able
physically and psychologically, efficient and skillful, while the latter involves in utilizing them
in meaningful productive purposes. If we can achieve these twin objectives, we can
reasonably expect to develop our country in all spheres of life.
Some experts say that Bangladesh is a poor country, because she has too many mouths to
feed but too little resources to utilize. This diagnosis is not correct. A person has only one
stomach to feed, but two hands to work with, two feet to walk on and a brain to think and
decide upon If a person is healthy and intelligent, and is educated and trained to use his
hands and feet skillfully and the brain to think rationally and decide purposefully, he can
solve all the problems that a human society is likely to face. If the majority of the people in a
country are of this type, that country is bound to develop economically.
Moreover, Bangladesh is a resourceful country It is a country with plain, fertile land. It is full
of sweet water rivers. She has the potentiality for developing a viable fish cultivation and a
fishing industry which alone can sustain a larger section of the population. Bangladesh has
forests and natural gas reserves. In spite of all these resources and possibilities,
Bangladesh is a poor and underdeveloped country. This is mainly because most of the
people are illiterate, unskilled and inefficient. There is only a shortage of knowledge, skill
and technological know-how to utilize these resources. So in order to develop Bangladesh
economically, her human population must he developed into human resources,
Human resources development strategy
The development of human beings into human resources involves many factors, four
factors were identified for this purpose and were described earlier. However, we consider
education and training as the strategically most important factor for the development of
human resources, That is why, we should give major emphasis on education and training.
Education is a process which unfolds and develops the inner potentialities of a person. It
helps a-person in developing the faculty of critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Education is the gate way to knowledge which is light and power. It broadens one's outlook.
Education is likely to increase the information-processing capacity of the brain and thereby
enhances the decision-making power of the individual,
Although learning is involved in both education, and training, there is a difference between
the two. Education is more broader and general in scope, \\liereu, training is narrower and
specific in scope. The purpose or education is to acquire knowledge and develop general
abilities, the purpose of training is to make a person skillful in certain specific area or areas
thus, a person may be educated, but may not be skillful in performing certain tasks. For
example, an educated person may know the different parts of a motor car engine and the
different control systems, but still may not be able to drive the car if he does not have the
training to drive a car.
Thus, education and training are very close to each other and in many cases are
complementary to each other. Through education we acquire knowledge, develop our
faculties and broaden our outlook, and through training we gain skill in applying our
knowledge in performing certain tasks efficiently.
Why should we consider education and training as the strategically important factor in
developing human resources in Bangladesh? This is because the best way to develop
human beings is to educate and train them in order to make them creative, imaginative,
highly motivated and skillful. and to help them develop a congenial work-habit and acquire
problem-solving skills.
The precious resource of Bangladesh is her people, but the value of this resource is
dependent upon the extent to which it is developed through education and training.
Education Lo be a vehicle for human resource development must develop not only general
abilities but also specific skills that will help graduates in situations they are called for.
Education plays an important role In maintaining the fabric of the society and in preparing
individuals to make their maximum contributions to the economic development of thecountry.
The sole of psychologists in education and training is to apply the principles of learning and
motivation, so that the process of education becomes effective, easy and enjoyable. Other
psychological strategies of human resource development include manipulation of
environment, child rearing practices, exercise of parental authority, and other correctional
services.