Article Series: The HR Fantasy
Kenji Yamamoto’s Human Resource department didn’t make it through the reorganization intact. A confident director of the HRD, Kenji had a smooth running operation. Only recently, the HR department’s executive advisory committee had evaluated and approved a new corporate executive development program. Kenji seemed to be doing all that could be expected of a director of a Fortune 500 company.
Article Series: The 4 HRD Myths
A number of value-laden myths have entered the HRD profession. These myths may have been partially the result of HRD’s having taken on too many “it feels good” goals without performing a thorough performance and work analysis to back up their HRD programs. Some myths that have haunted HRD include:
- 1. Social pressure is the basis of HRD
2. Managers don’t care about HRD
3. HRD costs too much
4. You can’t quantify/measure the benefits of HRD
CoreComm Case Study 1
My Career Stopped
On the first day of the class, Tanaka-san sat at the table with his arms crossed a sharp frown on his face.
He was asked, “Is communicating in English difficult?” “Yes, I don’t like it”. He was asked “Why?” He said English vocabulary was difficult to remember, grammar was difficult and he couldn’t think in English, translating all the time was too troublesome! In addition, because of this, he couldn’t communicate well, he couldn’t improve his TOEIC™ score and so his career had stopped.
CoreComm Case Study 2
Overseas Assignment Stress & Family
This client had a problem with the communication skills of key managers who had been chosen for overseas assignment.
They had already taken over 250 hours of English lessons. The same kind of evening classes many companies tend to use- 1 or 2 hour English conversation classes after work. The lessons were boring, not effective and not motivating and many of the managers still could not communicate in English.
CoreComm Case Study 3
Overseas Assignment & No Communication
A group of engineers had been chosen for 2-year overseas assignments to Europe and Asia.
The group had been given over 250 hours of English lessons and Business English lessons at their company. The lessons were usually once or twice a week. But after many months, they still couldn’t communicate effectively in English. And the departure was very close. The Human Resource Director was extremely worried and upset. She was so shocked by the engineer’s lack of language ability and communication skills after taking so many classes.
This was a panic situation.
CoreComm Case Study 4
Don't Come Back!
The International Training Director told the Japanese team “Don’t come back".
The global European IT company’s Japan branch had finished the language and communication training program for 10 recent recruits. The team had been sent overseas to complete their global training. They were scheduled to go back for the second part of the global training in the late fall. This training was very important for their future promotion and development. Also, it was important for the Japan branch to make sure the branch was represented at the global level.