Managers are becoming more aware of the importance of developing the competencies and talents of human resources, but their focus is too much on the interests of their companies or business organizations. Only a few try to enhance the lives of the people involved in the companies' business activities.
Some managers, for example, implement a talent and competency management framework consisting of the alignment of business strategy with human resource initiatives, assessment of individual talents and competencies, and the designing of an action plan in order to achieve organizational objectives for future growth.
"The interests of the persons involved are interred in the larger goal of the corporations and organizations," says Anugerah Pekerti, a freelance lecturer, consultant and coach for management and governance with specialization in entrepreneurship, organizational behavior and business ethics.
Pekerti, who has a doctorate degree from the University of Southern California, used to be a director of the PPM School of Management, a commissioner of Astra Otoparts Tbk. and a board chair of World Vision Indonesia. He is now commissioner of PT Samudra Indonesia Tbk., PT United Tractors and Singapore-based Samudra Shipping Lines.
According to Pekerti, there is a common and token belief among corporations and organizations that human resources are their most valuable assets. Their practices indicate that indeed humans are treated as one of many other resources to be used effectively and efficiently. People are not perceived and treated as actors.
"Perhaps, management or top management perceive themselves as the actors and the rest are mere resources. People are not treated as persons with equal human dignity," he says.
Hence commonly practiced human resource management and development are organization-centered with a focus on the primacy of organizational interests. Even the current trends of competence-based and talent-based human resource management are organization-centered approaches.
Pekerti, therefore, proposes that companies implement a person-centered human resource management and development concept, in which people are viewed as ends, not means. Under the concept, business organizations have to view every individual as a person with dignity and to adopt a person-centered approach in managing their people.
He assures that this concept is not at all pie in the sky.
He told The Jakarta Post last week that some of his close friends in Kompas-Gramedia, Tempo magazine, Prodia Widyahusada and Dexa Medica are trying to implement the concept of person-centered human resource management and development in their organizations.
He said at the recent Asia HRD Congress 2008 in Jakarta that the person-centered concept has three main characteristics: primacy of the persons, holistic and empowered persons.
The person-centered approach focuses on persons as the primary subject for development, not only on competencies that are useful for the organizations. The strategy is to not only develop people's talents and competencies to meet the needs of the organizations but to allow the persons to grow and develop as whole persons as well.
It addresses the persons' needs to have a full life at work in the organizations and other domains of their life. The person-centered approach implies strategies to empower people, not just to enable them. The key to empowerment is self determination, a sovereign self.
The person-centered approach will produce empowered sovereign persons, who will contribute to the organizations with maximum discretion.
To produce empowered and top people, companies should develop an organizational culture based on the right set of values. Thus, the culture is based on commitment to values not compliance to rules.
Values that can be promoted for the development of the organizational culture include, among other things, respect of self and others with dignity, freedom of expression -- even expression of contrary and dissenting views -- truth, honesty, justice, openness to new or other ideas, sharing of knowledge and experiences, and independent learning.
Value-driven persons will work with maximum efforts at their own discretion, unlike rule-driven workers who work for minimum compliance.
That means that value-driven persons will work with strong intrinsic motivation based on commitment to values and intrinsic motivation and, in turn, will produce sustainable excellent results.
Then can companies develop such an organizational culture based on the right set of values?
They can develop such a culture by allowing people to express themselves freely, even voice outrageous ideas and dissent, protecting their right to be honest and truthful, giving them the freedom to learn what they are passionate about and reward them for it, supporting and rewarding excellent performance even if it is outside the persons' domain of work, as well as practicing and institutionalizing the values embodied in the set of person-centered core values.
Andi Wijaya, chief commissioner of Prodia Widyahusada, said that his clinical laboratory company can accommodate any ideas contributed by its employees. Even contradictory ideas are accommodated after being aligned to the interests of the company.
"Managers and employees, therefore, realize that their interests are accommodated and they are proud of having made contributions to their company," he told the Post on Monday.
He said his company also encourages employees to continue studying to improve themselves. "We have thus far sent hundreds of our employees to continue their studies to get not only bachelor but also master's and doctorate degrees," he said.
He said that because his company has implemented a person-centered human resource management system since its establishment, its employees consider their office as their second home and employee turnover, therefore, is very low.
Established in 1973, Prodia Widyahusada currently operates clinical laboratories with 80 branches in 18 provinces and employs about 2,000 people.
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