Human Resource Development in the Russian Federation

Alexandre Ardichvili, Elena Zavyalova

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317815839
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Human Resource Management
• Index: Business

Unlike Brazil, India, or China, prior to the beginning of market-oriented reforms in early 1990s, Russia maintained a high level of human capital and possessed a highly developed system of vocational education, continuous education, and management development institutions sponsored by the government. However, after the beginning of the market reforms many state-sponsored programs were disbanded and individual enterprises and newly emerging private educational institutions found themselves in a position of having to provide training and professional development services for future and current employees. Both government-level policies in support of HRD and enterprise-level HRD systems have emerged fairly recently in the Russian Federation, and are still in a stage of change and development.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of the current state of HRD in the Russian Federation. It covers country-level policies, organizational-level programs and strategies, and individual-level educational and training efforts. While the study is focused on Russia, its conclusions will be of value to scholars, students, and practitioners examining similar issues surrounding the emergence and development of HRD systems in emerging countries. Furthermore, the authors' framework for analyzing HRD on multiple levels and across various parts of the adult and vocational education and development systems offers a unique and important contribution to the theoretical debate on comparative educational systems outside the HRD and HRM communities.

Part ITheoretical Framework and Methodology

Part I introduces the theoretical framework for our study. We start with a general framework for a multilevel analysis of HRD in the first chapter, and move on to the analysis of the Russian HRD model in Chapter 2. Chapter 1 starts with a discussion of definitions of HRD. We explain why we adopt a broad view of HRD as the development of human resources at national, community, and organizational levels that include multiple learning and education systems, ranging from the preparation for work at secondary schools, to higher education, corporate training and development, workplace learning, vocational and career and technical education, and community-based education, to name a few.

Two theoretical streams informing our study are discussed next: the human capital theory and the institutional theory. We explain our rationale for using these theories as building blocks of our own theoretical framework.

The second chapter presents our institutional framework as applied to the analysis of HRD in the Russian Federation. We discuss our institutional matrix and how it is used to trace the evolution of HRD on multiple levels.

1 HRD, Human Capital, and Institutional Analysis

DOI: 10.4324/9781315818153-3

This chapter introduces the theoretical framework for our study. We start by explaining the scope of HRD processes and activities covered in this book. The concepts of Human Capital (HC) and Human Capital Development (HCD) are also discussed. We explain why it is especially important to consider these concepts in a study of HRD in Russia. Next we provide our rationale for using the institutional theory as a foundation for an investigation of the emergence and growth of HRD and HCD systems. We explain our view of the main tenets of the institutional theory as applied in this investigation. We present our analytical framework, using ideas from economic, sociological, and organizational institutional theories. Finally, a brief overview of the data collection and analysis approaches is provided.

Human Resource Development

There are numerous perspectives on HRD as a field of practice and research, and there is little agreement among scholars on what constitutes HRD. A review by Hamlin and Stewart (2011) presented 24 different definitions of HRD found in articles published in leading journals in the field. About 20 of these definitions focus on HRD in organizations, while the remaining definitions acknowledge HRD’s role in community development and/or in national human development. An example of a focus on organizational-level HRD is provided by Swanson and Holton’s (2001) assertion that HRD is founded on “a strong belief in learning and development as avenues to individual growth; a belief that organizations can be improved through learning and development activities; a commitment to people and human potential; a deep desire to see people grow as individuals and a passion for learning” (pp. 145–146). On the other hand, McLean and McLean (2001) expanded the scope of HRD beyond organizational boundaries to include a larger spectrum of human collectives and societies and defined HRD as “any process or activity that, either initially or over the longer-term, has the potential to develop adults’ work based knowledge, expertise, productivity, and satisfaction, whether for personal or group/team gain, or for the benefit of an organization, community, nation, or, ultimately the whole humanity” (p. 322).

Hamlin and Stewart (2011: 213) provided what they called an “all-embracing … but non-definitive statement of HRD”:

HRD encompasses planned activities, processes and/or interventions designed to have impact upon and enhance organisational and individual learning, to develop human potential, to improve or maximise effectiveness and performance at either the individual, group/team and/or organisational level, and/or to bring about effective, beneficial personal or organisational behaviour change and improvement within, across and/or beyond the boundaries (or borders) of private sector (for profit), public sector/governmental, or third/voluntary sector (not-for-profit) organisations, entities or any other type of personal-based, work-based, community-based, society-based, culture-based, political-based or nation-based host system.

Overall, in developed countries HRD tends to focus more on organizational performance issues. In contrast, issues of societal development and human capital development at national, regional, and community levels come to the forefront in developing and emerging economies. While the development needs of each country are different, most of developing and emerging economies share a concern for strengthening their human capital. In developing countries, this focus on human capital as the key factor in national competitiveness goes hand-in-hand with a concern for creating better living conditions and better individual growth opportunities for millions of people still living in poverty. These goals are achieved through investment in education, adult literacy, and vocational development. In countries labelled as “emerging economies” socio-economic conditions tend to be different from those found in developing countries. As a rule, a significant part of the population is enjoying middle-class standards of living and the overall levels of human capital are higher. At the same time, millions of people could still be facing challenges similar to those found in developing countries. Furthermore, emerging economies have, as a rule, a combination of advanced, globally competitive sectors of industry and lesser-developed sectors that are in dire need of restructuring. This means that in an emerging economy, like Russia, both concerns for increasing organizational effectiveness and for promoting national competitiveness through societal human capital development are present. Therefore, for the purposes of our study we assume that HRD involves the development of human resources on national, community, and organizational levels and encompasses a multitude of education and skill development systems, including preparation for work at secondary schools, higher education, corporate training and development, workplace learning, vocational and technical education, and community-based education.

Human Capital and Human Capital Development

The above discussion of different foci of HRD efforts in developed, emerging, and developing countries suggests that, when analyzing HRD systems in an emerging economy, it is impossible to avoid using the concepts of human capital and human capital development. As will be demonstrated in Chapter 2 and in Part II, current academic and practitioner publications in Russia utilize terms “Human Capital” and “Human Capital Development” much more often than “HRD.” In Chapter 2 we will explain why the logic of both external pressures and internal adaptation mechanisms leads to the emphasis on HC and HCD as opposed to HRD. For now, we will focus on the general definition and application of the two terms.

Human capital can be studied at three levels: human capital of individuals, of organizations, and of whole countries and societies. Economic analysis of human capital, pioneered by Nobel Prize winners Schultz (1971) and Becker (1975) focused on human capacity for productive activity and demonstrated that the economic value of human capital can be significantly increased through investment in education and professional development. A recent report by the World Economic Forum (WEF 2013) defined human capital as “the skills and capacities that reside in people and that are put to productive use” (p. 3). The WEF Human Capital Index (HCI) includes, among the four main components, education (measured through indices of access, attainment, and quality) and workforce and employment (including participation, talent, and training).

Organizational-level human capital research is grounded in the resource-based view of the firm. It assumes that an organization’s human capital is its most valuable source of competitive advantage (Wernerfelt 1984). Human capital of individual organizations is a combination of knowledge, skills, and abilities of its employees. Organizational strategy research demonstrates that investment in firm-specific human capital has a significant positive impact on firm’s performance and organizational learning (e.g., Hatch and Dyer 2004).

Development of human capital is achieved through education (ranging from primary to higher education), training and development and vocational education in the workplace or at public or private institutions, apprenticeships, and various forms of informal and incidental learning. Investment in human capital can be made by individuals (e.g., through individual participation in further education), organizations (e.g., through providing technical or managerial training to its employees), and by societies (e.g., through direct investment in the creation of vocational or higher education institutions or through targeted programs of tax breaks and other incentives for employers and educational and training institutions).

At the organizational level, Fitz-Enz (2009) proposed a methodology for measuring the return on investment in human capital. His framework included such metrics as the percentage of employees undergoing training and development; an average number of hours in training per employee; training-related expenditures per employee; percentage of training-related expenditures in total operating expenditures; total expenditure for training and education per employee; and ratio of trainees to training personnel.

Institutional Theory as Lens for Analyzing HRD

To understand the emergence and historical evolution of any educational or human development system it is necessary to understand the role of major external and internal forces that influence and shape this system. In the field of HRD, the majority of research studies are based on psychological theories borrowed from social psychology, educational psychology, and organizational studies. A smaller group of studies is grounded in neoclassical economics. Finally, there are studies focusing on the role of culture as the main explanatory variable, and these are usually grounded in sociological and ethnographic approaches.

Such grounding in one of the foundational disciplines is justified when focus of the investigation is on a specific aspect of HRD (e.g., development of leaders in organizations, evaluation of return on investment in training, or assessment of effectiveness of training transfer). However, as soon as we take the discussion to a more all-encompassing plane, where an attempt is made to describe the emergence and development of country-, industry-, or organization-level HRD systems, such a narrow focus on one disciplinary lens is insufficient. Systems of education, skill formation, and human development are influenced by a variety of factors, including economic conditions, national and ethnic cultures, and political systems, to name a few. When studying educational systems in transitional economies, it is especially important to account not only for culture or economic conditions, but also for rapidly changing and complex dynamics of political and regulatory frameworks. Therefore, to understand how these different factors and influences interact to create a unique configuration of entities and processes that is an HRD system, a sophisticated analytical framework is needed that accounts for multiple influences and for the interactions of all these factors.

One of the most promising approaches affording such a comprehensive understanding of a variety of influencing factors is the institutional theory. Discussing applications of institutionalism to organizational studies, Lawrence and Suddaby (2013: 216) wrote: “Central to both theoretical and empirical examinations of organizational phenomena that adopt an institutionalist perspective is the idea that there are enduring elements in social life—institutions—that have a profound effect on the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of individual and collective actors.”

The roots of contemporary institutional theory can be found in writings of social scientists that date back more than 60 years (see, for example, Van de Ven and Lifschitz (2009) for a historical overview of the institutional theory of John Commons). In economics, the most influential institutional framework was proposed by the Nobel Prize winner Douglass North. For North, institutions are “the rules of the game in a society” (North 1990: 3) and “the humanly devised constraints that structure human interaction” (p. 3). In sociology of organizations, Scott (2014) has provided a most comprehensive review of applications of institutional analysis to organization studies and developed a “three pillars” model of institutional research that includes regulatory, normative, and cultural “pillars.”

Peng (2003: 276) observed that “although the economic … and sociological … versions of institutional theory have some differences, they are broadly complementary” and using a combination of the two approaches makes sense in an applied field like management. We believe that the same logic applies to research in an applied and multidisciplinary field like HRD. In our work, we will draw on ideas from economic and sociological institutional theories, especially from their applications in international and comparative management, organization studies, and comparative education fields.

Institutions

Given the variety of disciplinary roots of this theory, it is not surprising that there is a vast array of definitions of institutions. For Fligstein (2001: 108) institutions are “rules and shared meanings … that define social relationships, help define who occupies what position in those relationships and guide interaction by giving actors cognitive frames or sets of meanings to interpret the behavior of others.” For North (1990: 97), institutions are “humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic, and social interaction. They consist both of informal constraints (sanctions, taboos, customs, traditions and codes of conduct) and formal rules (constitutions, laws and property rights).” North called for developing an “account of the political, economic, and judicial system of each society as a web of interconnected formal rules and informal constraints that together made up the institutional matrix and led the economic development down different paths” (1990: 115). Furthermore, according to North, “institutions provide the basic structure by which human beings throughout history have created order and attempted to reduce uncertainty in exchange” (p. 118).

For Scott (2014), institutions can be both material (practices and structures) and symbolic (ideas and meaning). While it is easy to confuse institutions with rules, routines, and artifacts, Scott (2001) emphasized that the latter are only tools that transmit institutional influences: “Institutions are transmitted by various types of carriers, including symbolic systems, relational systems, routines and artifacts” (p. 48).

Some scholars expanded the definition of institutions to include various socio-political entities. Thus, according to Child and Tsai (2005: 97), “Institutions are defined … as collective and regulatory complexes consisting of political and social agencies. Institutions potentially dominate other organizations through the enforcement of laws, rules and norms that constitute both ‘formal rules’ and ‘informal constraints.’ ”

A concept from the institutional theory that is especially important for studies of institutions in developing and emerging economies is pat...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• List of Figure
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I Theoretical Framework and Methodology
• Part II Evolution of HRD Systems in Russia (1917–2014)
• Part III Case Studies of HRD in Russian Business Organizations
• Discussion and Implications
• References and Further Readings
• Index