Moves to foster partnering and collaboration
London (UK), July 2010 - (by Bob Little) New research suggests that a new job title is coming to the business world: the human systems director. According to a study - conducted by the Future Foundation on behalf of Google - of 3,500 employees, 100 HR managers and 100 IT managers across the UK, France, Germany, the US and Japan: by 2020, the workplace will be transformed by the sharing and development of ideas.
"It will be an ideas and innovation economy rather than knowledge economy," said Future Foundation account director Judith kleine Holthaus. The study revealed an 81% positive correlation between collaboration and innovation across all markets.
As collaboration and innovation accelerate, thanks to new enabling technologies, elements of the HR and IT functions will integrate. Some 34% of HR personnel agree they will need to learn new skills to foster a sense of corporate community and a third of chief information officers believe they will take on more responsibility for innovation in the future. Some 44% of HR managers say HR will also need to have a better understanding of technology.
"The HR director and IT director will have to come together," believes Carsten Sørensen, senior lecturer in information systems and innovation at the London School of Economics and Political Science. "They will have to manage issues such as how to balance IT infrastructure, which produces better functionality and productivity, with collaborative technologies and individualisation."
The idea of HR and IT merging to produce a -˜human systems department' is something that e-learning suppliers have wanted for many years - principally to overcome the challenge of having to convince both HR and IT specialists to buy their product or system. So it's timely that the draft British Standard, BS 11000 Collaborative business relationships, is now out for public consultation in the UK.
This standard builds upon PAS 11000, the framework specification for supporting collaborative business partnering. The framework, developed by BSI with Partnership Sourcing Limited (PSL) along with government and procurement professionals, helps organisations to establish, manage and improve strategic partnering both within and across the public and private sectors.
BSI Standards director, Mike Low, commented: "Both business and the public sector are increasingly working in open environments with collaboration seen as an increasingly effective business model."
To view and comment on the draft standard, BS 11000, visit www.bsigroup.com/drafts by 31st July. Publication of BS 11000 is expected in December 2010.
For over 20 years, Bob Little has specialised in writing about, and commentating on, corporate learning - especially elearning - and technology-related subjects. His work has been published in the UK, Continental Europe, the USA and Australia.
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