Conclusion

The emergence of IoT is undisputed and - as a phenomenon – irresistible (Maarten Botterman, 2015). IoT is disruptive, and it is driven by societal needs and economic opportunities; by demand pull and supply push. It is enabled by many different strands of technology innovation application development in domains as varied as synthetic biology, biotechnology, cognitive sciences, and nanotechnology. Instances are already seen in almost every area; the influence of IoT devices, services and architectures may rapidly become pervasive. These different forces certainly produce transitory conflicts of interests, gaps, and distortions for which trade-offs need to be made (Maarten Botterman, 2015). Whether we as HRD professionals recognize and respond to the IoT as a “thing in itself” will greatly influence the effectiveness of our ability to exploit and eventually resolve these tensions.
The IoT poses profound challenges to HRD as a field of study. Many stem from the means in which it is likely to affect and even disrupt areas either of traditional HRD research and practice (Performance Improvement, Training & Development, Leadership & Career Development, Workplace Learning, etc.) or new frontiers of HRD like Knowledge Management, Critical HRD, and International/Global HRD. For example in the area of CHRD, policy challenges are arising from the IoT itself that will affect social justice, gender, and other related issues in the domain of CHRD. In International/Global HRD, some of the issues would be similar to the experience of other emergent technologies, especially those with the potential to transform public services and the national innovation ecosystems. These include the need for suitable forms of cross-cultural understanding (when things of different geographic and cultural orientation are communicating with each other), access to skills and fair and efficient market access. They also include organizational capital and human resource needs, “in particular for business, entrepreneurial, technological and societal knowledge available to new and existing enterprises moving into this area or building new businesses with the aid of IoT capabilities” (Maarten Botterman, 2015, p. 26). Underpinning these is the need for a predictive and adaptable HRD research and practice capable of providing the right mix of certainty and flexibility.
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