The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and key among them classified as Human Resource Development are career development, motivation, training, competence building and organization development.

Humans are an organization's greatest assets; without them, everyday business functions such as managing cash flow, making business transactions, communicating through all forms of media, and dealing with customers could not be completed. Humans and the potential they possess drive an organization.

Today's organizations are continuously changing. Organizational change impacts not only the business but also its employees. In order to maximize organizational effectiveness, human potential-individuals' capabilities, time, and talents-must be managed. Human resource management works to ensure that employees are able to meet the organization's goals.

"Human resource management is responsible for how people are treated in organizations. It is responsible for bringing people into the organization, helping them perform their work, compensating them for their labors, and solving problems that arise" (Cherrington, 1995, p. 5). Human Resource Research is part of the various functions of human resource management. With the number of organizations participating in some form of international business, and globalization being the order of the day, the need for HRM research will only continue to grow. Therefore, it is important for human resource professionals to be up to date on the health of the organization's human capital.

As global competition intensifies, the need to fully mobilize the unique capabilities of organizations - their human capital - has become a strategic imperative. When organizations are small and everyone is known to each other, this process is relatively straightforward. When the organization grows, however, it becomes increasingly difficult to understand and manage.

Therefore, it is important to address issues that adversely affect the contributions that human capital can make. The idea accounts for why organizations have become more interested in assessing their own health or climate. It is no longer enough to simply conduct employee satisfaction surveys. It is important to the organization's bottom line to know how the organization is doing in many areas and to continually work towards improvement.

At VALMAR INTERNATIONAL, Behavioral and social science researchers seek to improve human performance, particularly in organizational settings, through behavioral and social science research, development, consultation and instruction.

Our Programs and Services promote research and development to solve specific problems in: training and education; development, studies and development of techniques to improve the motivation of personnel in training and on the job; research of leadership and management, and development of leadership programs; criterion development, individual assessment, and program evaluation in training and operating systems; measurement and evaluation of human performance under varying circumstances; organizational development studies, including performance counseling, group decision-making, and factors that affect organizational competence.