**Abstract**

Traditional HRM consists of people and profit management. In the recent decades, HRM has transitioned into human capital management (HCM), focusing on people, planet and profit management. HCM views employees as assets who should be talent managed and supported to innovatively produce and perform through talent opportunities. HCM and talent management strategies promote multiple intelligences and enable multitalented potential to meet individual, organisational, economic and societal needs. Since 21st century humans seek meaningful employment that purposefully contribute to all sectors of society, businesses need to go beyond HR, innovatively exploring how all employees can be developed, thus transforming their high potential into entrepreneurship ventures. Can organisations transition HRM to HCM providing talent creation opportunities, while strategically aiming towards transforming employees into self-managing talent entrepreneurs? The proposed HRM-HSM Transitioning Model with five key steps and roles for HR, line managers and employees may hold the answer to this question, as explored in this conceptual chapter.

**Keywords:** human capital, talent creation, talent entrepreneurship, transitioning, 4IR, self-management

### **1. Introduction**

Humans are awakening and becoming aware of their intrinsic potential, skills, talent, creativity and value to organisations, societies, humanity and the planet. As intelligent, conscious, creative human beings, we can and do employ multiple intelligences to engage in multi-dimensional, creative thinking. We are also capable of employing head-heart coherence when taking action, performing tasks and solving problems. Hence, empowering humans to make meaningful decisions for and via self-management processes are significant for the 21st century human, organisation, economy, society and planet to not only survive, but to thrive. Employees seek employment for survival, purpose, contribution, development and advancement both at work and in society. As such, employees are more than just resources or even assets and capital generators; they are an investment of great value, especially within the rapidly advancing forth industrial revolution (4IR) era we live in.

Human resource management (HRM) and human capital management (HCM) strategies may be poorly designed to engage with the 21st century, 4IR aware,

multigenerational workforce that desire flexibility and integration with technology. HRM, HCD and talent leaders, managers and professionals are called upon to redesign HR so that employees can self-evaluate and self-develop, and that performance improvement can be self-measured and self-managed. Upgraded HRIS (HR information management system) must allow for the organisation to strategically transition the traditional HR value chain and functions into the modern era. Upgrading or transitioning HRM means providing integrated 4IR solutions, systems and support to not just line managers, but to the entire workforce. Digitally competent employees are ready, willing and able to employ multiple intelligences, create on multidimensional levels, make decisions for themselves and navigate their career paths in the 4IR workplace independently of HR or line managers.

Traditional HR (human resource), is concerned with how employees and people are managed within organisations. Traditional HRM focuses on how line managers, departments, divisions and business units manage human labour, performance, time and costs. HRM is the custodian of the HR value chain, managing employees from selection and appointment, to performance and talent management, to training and development, to promotion and bonuses, to employee relations and wellness, and finally to retention and retirement, or dismissal, or resignation. HRM as we know it, is concerned with people management, recording employee time and cost to the organisation, and providing the skills development they require to increase the performance of both individual and business.

In gaining a new understanding of HRM in the 21st century, especially in this decade, we must move beyond traditional HR to seek new and innovative research paths for workforce management. Currently talent management is concerned with integrating, engaging and developing people, profit and planet strategies. Yet, the 21st century employee demands workplace nurturing that allow them to flourish and expose their talent, creativity and innovation. Furthermore, younger talented employees desire to work independently, meaningfully and purposefully in order to not just generate an income, but to contribute and serve society while protecting the environment.

This chapter focuses on the shift in paradigm from traditional HRM to beyond HCM or talent management into new, innovative HR practices. Moving beyond HR means valuing humans as assets and being willing, able and ready to transition existing employees into talent creators and talent entrepreneurs. Whereas traditional HRM manages people via policies, procedures, business partners and line managers, moving beyond traditional HR is a turn-around strategy towards people managing themselves. Human self-management (HSM) is a new concept introduced in this chapter that speaks to embracing a new way of thinking, where every employee is assumed to have the potential to become a self-managed talent entrepreneur, especially in the 4IR era.

Currently, most organisations are ill prepared for transitioning HR into the future 4IR and multitalented workplace. While 21st century employees are evolving, gaining global competencies and characteristics that meet international criteria, organisations are lagging behind with traditional HR practices, procedures and policies. Furthermore, there is a gap in the literature, with limited research on how employees can be transformed to become self-organised and self-managed talent creators and talent entrepreneurs that boost not only business performance and individual creativity; but transforms communities via environmentally friendly, innovative products and services. This chapter is motivated by the inquiry of how HRM can strategically transition organisation and employees into future-ready talent entrepreneurs via human self-management processes and systems. The solution lies in answering this research question that guided this chapter: What businesses model can HR use to manage workforce transition from the traditional

*Transitioning HRM to HSM - Human Self-Management Goes beyond Traditional HR DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96981*

HRM practices towards talent creation, talent entrepreneurship and human self-management?

Theoretically, the chapter contributes to the body of knowledge on HRM, HCM, talent management and human self-management. Practically, the chapter contributes by providing HR leaders, managers and professionals with an evolutionary HRM-HSM Transitioning Model to effectively and efficiently transition traditional HRM into 21st century human self-management (HSM) systems. The contents of this chapter are presented as follows: introduction, literature trends, findings, discussion, implications for application, and conclusion.

## **2. Literature trends: global HRM transition**

#### **2.1 Human capital workforce management**

Globally, the traditional HR value chain and functions are implemented and governed by cooperative partnerships between HR business partners and line managers. 21st century HR views employees as human capital and as organisational assets. This view promotes employee and organisational agility, embracing emerging block chain management and employee value propositions (EVP) as innovative business operational tools. The management of a multigenerational workforce who form the key organisational assets in a 4IR landscape requires more than managing employee agility and intelligences. Evolving workforce management practices indicate that the development of mass customization capability within organisations, sector, country and continents promotes business growth. Benefits of enhancing workforce customization capability include: enhancing organisational customization capability at all levels; integration of internal and external business expertise; integrating operational performance with workforce management; effective, efficient and flexible operational strategies; promoting employee-centric behaviour, safe group dynamics and employee empowerment; and boosting organisational competitive advantage [1].

The call is for management to address important human capital changes in the 4IR environment, taking a more human-focused perspective. Besides 4IR, human capital is a significant emerging force. Hence, management must consider new and innovative conceptual and practical levels of human operation in industry. Recommendations include: new structural interactions among employees; measuring qualities of human capital; identify workforce talent competences; and integrating PESTEL (political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legislative) into HCM strategies [2]. Big data analytics has transformed multidisciplinary industrial and business practices and research. Yet, HRM big data analytics has primarily focused on job candidate screenings, appointments and vacancies. Significant strategic human capital questions should be addressed using big data analytics to enhance overall business performance. HR data analytics help assess workforce performance in real time, identifying and developing talent at all occupational levels and thus grows and reinforces individual and organisational capabilities. HRIS (or other information systems) is responsible for big data analytics; hence they are called upon to upgrade their reporting strategy to include talent statistics. HRIS must also address online, electronic and social media regulatory and ethical challenges; including privacy, piracy and intellectual rights and concerns [3].

21st century HRM/HCM should focus on measuring and monitoring the employee experience, performance and development. Performance managing the evolving employee means managing employee engagement in an evolving business, social and electronic environment. Current workplaces are evolving rapidly, due to dynamic workforce demographics, flexible psycho-social contracts, growing competencies, and preconceived employee expectations. Managing employee experiences means that HR must electronically capture the employment journey of all employees in an organisation. The transformed, evolved HCM must value the employee engagement from hire to exit. This entails knowing their experiences, what they feel, do, and achieve from the job; as well as understanding their relationships in teams and attitude to the organisation. Current HCM practices aim to revamp HR practices and policies, creating employee experiences that provide the highest level of engagement, performance, innovation and development [4].

Many drivers and challenges exist in the field of HRM currently, including integrating the evolving human capital employee with 4IR, artificial intelligence, big data, robotics, and many others technological innovations. Recent local, national and global crises have ushered in radical transformations; affecting the way businesses, governments and countries are managed. Business analysts, managers and leaders are challenged by both human and digital workforce changes. Effective human capital management in the 4IR landscape involves effective development and deployment of human resources, artificial intelligence and robotics to achieve organisational strategy. New, innovative HR practices are required for managing our current digital workforce, succession planning, staffing, development, compensation, and human capital investments [5].

#### **2.2 Talent culture and creation**

Talent creation begins with establishing innovative and strategic talent management policies, procedures and practices that include the perspectives of all organisational stakeholders. Employees, managers, business heads, CEOs and HR professionals must collaborate to create organisational value added talent innovation, interventions and culture. Many strategies are advocated to enable talent culture creation as follows: resource based view; managing expert talent; supply and block chain talent management; employer branding; career management; innovating management strategies; and globalising the HR architecture. Current challenges including the gaps between workforce planning and talent management. The call is for creating effective bridges between talent practice and theory [6]. Sustainable talent creation depends on the effectiveness of the organisational learning and development culture. Line managers who are trained mentors and coaches are more likely to enhance talent development and creation. Such managers develop not only their own talent, self-reflexivity and critical problem-solving capabilities, but empower employees to improve their innate potential and talent. A five-phase talent creation intervention is advocated by the literature as follows: Phase 1 explores and reflects on previous experiences and understanding needs; Phase 2 understands past, present, and future values and strategies; Phase 3 cocreates a talent cultural analysis, establishing individual and organisational identity and developing self-reflexivity; Phase 4 designs value-based compass posters for talent culture enhancement; and Phase 5 shares, evaluates and plans within the local sociocultural context [7].

The World of Work (WoW) forum created in 2019, offers a comprehensive framework of key performance statistics, reflections and qualitative feedback from staff, students, industry partners and other participants from India, China ASEAN and Europe on the future of jobs, global talent shortages and graduate skills gaps. The call is for the WoW and other global forums to collaborate to offer platforms for critical participatory action research on talent culture, creation and enrichment. Furthermore, the call is for global multi-dimensional events and decisions to

#### *Transitioning HRM to HSM - Human Self-Management Goes beyond Traditional HR DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96981*

demonstrate the value of talent internationalisation [8]. The effect of talent management on organisational learning capability and intellectual capital is significant. The emphasis is on the role of these talent enablers: HR and talent managers; line managers; and employees. Employees are considered the most valuable recourses in an organisation that can enhance the learning capability of the organisation. Human Resource Development (HRD) professionals are called to design effective and efficient talent management systems so that talent creation and culture promotes an agile learning environment [9].

Currently, remote and virtual working allows employees the flexibility for working and developing their talents and interests. With remote working, managers experience talent management challenges as follows: difficult to harness global talent; global markets are not accessible easily; business growth is stifled by limited talent identification; limited physical interactions between employees; challenging talent innovations; cannot observe talent operations in highly virtual work environments; and limited opportunities for growing talent socialisation and talent culture. A digital organisational culture handbook is advocated to support highly virtual organisations, employee experiences and measure rapid talent growth. The symbolic aspects of organisational culture (values) and pragmatic aspects (policies and toolkits) should be integrated using theory-generating descriptive analytics. Organisational talent culture creation can be established via an information artefact consisting of a series of HRIS reports on talent engagement, performance and innovation [10].

#### **2.3 Managing talented employees via talent innovation**

Although talent management is well theorised, researched and practiced, there are limited studies on the relationship between innovation and talent management. Human capital theories, such as the McGregor's X and Y, social exchange and employee attraction theories, established the link between talent management, product innovation, process innovation and marketing innovation. Empirical research also verifies that talent management has a significant and positive impact on product, process and marketing innovations, providing that organisations are invested in talent development and talent innovations [11]. A socially responsible talent management strategy consists of the following values: inclusivity; corporate responsibility; transformation; transparency; autonomy; equity; and equal employment opportunities. Benefits of responsible talent management practices include promoting and achieving multidimensional sustainable outcomes; providing meaningful, purposeful and decent working conditions; enhancing employee and organisational well-being; promoting responsible, ethical management practices; and growing innovative, sustainable work practices with employee wellness as the focus [12].

Until recently, the war for talent was defined by competitiveness, aggressive poaching and elitism. Current talent recruitment involves a more collaborative and inclusive approach, proving opportunities for new and innovative talent management solutions. Reverse mentoring is emerging as an innovative talent management practice, allowing for the bridging of skills, generational, digital and other workforce gaps. Romanian and Swiss hospitality industries experienced the challenge of a lack of trust by employees on whether managers can effectively implement reverse mentoring as a talent innovation strategy, where the younger generations teach and develop older employees on 4IR integration [13]. Today's dynamic business and 4IR environments require managers and employees to gain business agility and flexibility. Innovative and engaging talent management strategies can shape organisational agility, thus contributing to increased organisational dynamic capabilities and

competitive advantage. Germany identified different types of innovative dynamic talent capabilities that promote organisational agility, talent engagement and the creation of talent pools [14].

Undoubtedly, HR, human capital and talent management are all about people experiences within and outside the organisation. The 21st century is riddled with 4IR advancement, global crises and multitalented opportunities. HRM must adapt to view all employees, planet and productivity as valuable resources to invest in daily. HRM must become agile integrators of artificial intelligence, robotic process automation and promote a healthy blend of human and machine learning, thus innovating talent acquisition, engagement, development and management. Whereas traditionally HRIS utilised machine learning tools primarily for acquiring, hiring and firing talent; current HRIS is invited to expand its services to detect and promote organisational agility. HRIS measuring instruments must innovatively engage employees in online self-uploading of required data for evaluating performance, promotion and reward management. Challenges facing HR and line and top management with regard to talent innovation include the following: digitalization and data management mismatch; mapping talent traits to development interventions; and enlisting board-level talent management collaboration and support [15].

#### **2.4 Talent entrepreneurial workforce management**

Talent innovation as a workforce management tool allows for the emergence of entrepreneurship skills within individuals, teams, organisations and communities. Similar to block chain technology used to transform public and private organisations worldwide; innovative HRM employs organisational and surrounding infrastructure, developer and managerial talent, and local demand for human talent to drive its strategy. Workforce development entails identifying employment opportunities and training needs around block chain systems, thus enabling rapid growth of regional block chain clusters via organisational talent entrepreneurs. In the USA, talent entrepreneurs who tap into block chain investment increased their operational efficiency and reduced their transaction costs. Innovative talent strategies include investments in block chain software development, finance and accounting systems, and employee entrepreneurial skills development that drive enterprise solutions [16].

Taiwan's ageing working population promotes talent entrepreneurship to drive economic growth and social development. This aggravates the structural population and talent market imbalances. The call is for new generational employees to maximise their digital talent as a means to attract global employment. Furthermore, talent entrepreneurship eradicates workforce differences in values, cultures and practices. An entrepreneurial approach to talent and workforce management minimises risks in selecting, nurturing, engaging and retaining talent. Strategic internal entrepreneurial mechanisms and systems are required to create new talent opportunities. The 4IR transformational era allows Taiwanese business leaders to adjust leadership styles, strengthen multigenerational workforces and implement strategic internal entrepreneurial mechanisms to measure and manage valuable talent knowledge, experiences and innovation [17].

Talent innovation increases individual and organisational growth, sustainability and enhancement. Employees and businesses can survive and succeed in the local and global dynamic, volatile and uncertain business environments if they remain agile, creative and innovative. Entrepreneurial talent management strategies in Nigeria was found to promote organisational agility, adaptability and alertness of construction firms. Dimensions of entrepreneurial talent management, such as entrepreneurial skill and entrepreneurial knowledge, seem to

*Transitioning HRM to HSM - Human Self-Management Goes beyond Traditional HR DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96981*

significantly influence individual, team and business adaptability, agility and problem-solving alertness [18].

There is limited literature on the relationship between HRM practices, entrepreneurial orientation and business performance, especially in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Yet, we agree that talent and general employee knowledge and competencies do translate into business value-add when individual and organisational entrepreneurial capabilities and culture are fostered. HRM, line and top management have strategic roles to play in initiating entrepreneurial orientation and developing entrepreneurial capabilities while nurturing, enriching and monitoring employee knowledge, skills and distinctive competencies. The strategic alignment of HRM, talent management and business strategy was found to shape employee attitude, behaviour and working culture. Integrated talent management was found to promote innovativeness, entrepreneurship, risk propensity and initiative-taking. Furthermore, business entrepreneurialism seems to translate into individual and group productivity and overall organisational performance [19]. Knowledge management research detects a link between entrepreneurial and organisational performance, revealing that when dynamic capabilities are recognised, opportunity recognition is aroused. Effective knowledge management practices have been found to have a positive and significant influence on improved dynamic capabilities and on enhanced entrepreneurial and organisational performance [20].
