Discussions

The disruptive potential of IoT could drive profound changes across many dimensions—in the lives of individuals, in business, and across the global economy. The IoT is such a sweeping concept that presents a challenge about how to imagine all the possible ways in which it will affect businesses, economies, and society (Manyika et al., 2013). However, it is undeniable that it will have a significant impact and all aspect our lives and the way human resources should be developed. Since 2010, when a special issue on Virtual HRD (VHRD) was published in theAdvances in Human Resource Development , there has been an increasing stream, albeit, slowly the literature on technology-enabled HRD. However, there has not been any serious discussion or research as to the role HRD will play in the age of IoT and the impact of IoT on the practice of HRD as a profession in the mainstream HRD discussions. It is, therefore, gratifying to learn that the keynote speaker for the 2018 Academy of Human Resource Development International Research Conference is a recognized expert and thought-leader in the adult development arena and will be discussing “Re-thinking learning and HRD for the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” As, authors we share the same view as the Keynote Speaker [Pat McLagan] that “learners’ capabilities, confidence, and self-image in learning need a radical change to thrive in a world of proliferating resources, information overload, artificial intelligence, and many other paradigm-shifting forces.”(AHRD, 2018, p.1)
Bennett, (2014) defines Virtual Human Resource Development (VHRD), as a “media-rich and culturally relevant webbed environment that strategically improves expertise, performance, innovation, and community-building through formal and informal learning” (p.265). While we agree with this definition, we contend that there should not be anything like VHRD. While this may sound controversial, our reason is that in the age of IoT the entirety of HRD including its connected yet disparate areas of scholarship like Strategic HRD, Critical HRD, International/Global HRD, etc., are all covered in the description of VHRD provided by Bennett, (2014). We can no longer see VHRD as a separate area of study under HRD but the new paradigm of HRD or the evolution of HRD. Bennett and Bierema, (2010) stated that “VHRD can be viewed as a living system because of the interactivity, learning, and development that occurs through its enabling technologies.” We argue that the entirety of HRD in an IoT era should be viewed as such. HRD professionals need to identify potentially disruptive technologies, and carefully consider their potential before these technologies begin to exert their disruptive powers in the workplace and society. The impacts of IoT on HRD are considerable. The advances in IoT create a demand for new sets of skills, and as working adults assume these jobs, they need to be retrained and reskilled. Training and preparing the human capital needed to fill the high demand of high-tech jobs is going to be a considerable undertaking, which makes the implications for HRD enormous.
During the last few decades, millions of individuals globally have been raised from poverty into the middle class, which means they not only need but demand access to higher education (Kortuem et al., 2017). Hence, in the age of IoT, Adult Education and HRD are uniquely positioned to provide the education and training needed not only by the workforce of today but also that of tomorrow, which will face increasingly high-tech and shifting demands in the workplace.
We envisage the impact of IoT on HRD and the role HRD should play in maximizing the benefits and challenges of IoT under three dimensions of IoT applications to: