Assessment of Development Needs of Ford Australia Staff - Assignment Example

Executive Summary: Training and development activities are designed to impart specific skills, abilities and knowledge to employees. As engineers start taking management roles they come into a position where they must manage professional people, and this is a difficult task. Personal and interpersonal management skills and Team management skills are probably the most difficult. This demands a participative style, with a sharing of responsibilities and the development of individual skills within the team (O'Driscoll et al. 1993). Considering these difficulties in imparting the necessary skills Ford Australia has directed its HR department to develop the interventions and strategies to inculcate these skills in to its engineers. The training process starts with the needs assessment in which the needs of engineers are known which helps in designing the training and development process. This can be done by observations, reviewing company’s records and by some tests. For different-2 skills different-2 strategies are also used. Such as for interpersonal skills the role plays, case study methods are used, while for team skills, case studies, small task and sensitive training methods are used. Fro leadership skills no specific method is available since but above mentioned methods can also be used for that. After training and development the evaluation of that process is mandatory which can be done at four levels namely, reaction, learning, behavior and results. For evaluation number of methods can be used important being use of experimental and control groups to see the changes that training has brought in the trainees. Table of Contents: Induction of New Staff: 6 Customer Service: 6 Interpersonal Skills: 7 Development of Team Skills: 8 Development of Leadership Skills: 8 Levels of Evaluation: 10 Techniques of Evaluation: 10 Introduction: In certain organizations the technical upward movement of engineers is prematurely truncated (Yeh, 2008) and because of that they can not move up to the managerial position in the organization. But certain organizations (such as Ford Australia) have recognized their value in managerial positions and are putting afford in transitioning them from just an engineer to engineering manager. However, this transition is difficult for both those who make it and those who do not, and may cause good engineers to become derailed managers. (Paauwe et al. 2001). As engineers start taking management roles they come into a position where they must manage professional people, and this is a difficult task. Personal and interpersonal management skills and Team management skills are probably the most difficult. This demands a participative style, with a sharing of responsibilities and the development of individual skills within the team (O'Driscoll, Humphries, & Larsen, 1993). Managers must be leaders, holding the team accountable for solving their problems together. (Climbing the Management Ladder., 1990). Considering these difficulties in imparting the necessary skills organizations mandate these engineers to undergo learning progression from design skills to interpersonal skills and finally business skills before taking any senior management positions. The Ford Australia has also directed the same instruction to its Human Resource Department. However, they are yet to figure out the development needs of engineers at Ford Australia and strategies or interventions that would be the most appropriate to address these needs. The following pages of this report try to cater the above aspect of transition of engineers as management engineers. Assessment of Development Needs: Before moving to the process of bringing transition in engineers to make them engineering managers it’s necessary to find out the development needs of these engineers. The needs assessment might be done at two levels: group and individual. Since here the emphasis is on the individual skills necessary to reach the management position so needs assessment must be done at individual level. There are number of methods available to assess these needs such as observations, interviews, consultation with key people, tests, questionnaires, reviewing the records etc. Observation: In this method the staffs would be directly observed and recorded what naturally occurs. The observer doesn’t create an artificial situation. Their work, behavior in the team would be observed carefully to know the skills that need to be inculcated in him/her before transition process begins. The direct observation method is advantageous in the sense that allows the observers to discuss the real and indisputable actions as they occur. It can be discussed why a particular behavior is shown by one engineer but not by other while doing the same task. The observation method is best suited to know whether the engineer has leadership skills necessary to work at senior management position. The leadership skill can not be measured by some test or some questionnaire it can only be observed whether a person has it or not. Reviewing Company Records: The main records that need to be checked are the performance and rewards records of the staff. In this context it needs to be cared that it an engineer who had performed well may not continue to perform well in management position, so, it’s necessary to analyze the records on the basis of certain parameters that can be useful in figuring out the development needs of the engineers. This method is best suited to know whether a staff is self motivated or he is externally motivated. Being at management position requires being self motivated with acumen to take initiatives to achieve certain organizational and personal goals. Tests: There are various testing methods which can be used to assess the development needs of the engineers. These tests may include Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), Picture Frustration etc. These projective techniques can be useful in analyzing the habitual patterns of thought and emotional responses of the staff. These tests reflects the overall attitudes of a person so can be useful in knowing the attitude and personality of the staff at Ford Australia which would help the HR people to design the appropriate training methods for each individuals. The needs assessment would help in preparing the blueprint that would describe the objective to be achieved by the trainee upon completion of the training program. (Aswathappa, 2008). Learning Strategies/Interventions: After analyzing the needs assessment, the appropriate learning and training strategies or interventions should be designed. The training and learning program must be developed which can impart interpersonal, team and leadership skills in the engineers. There can be many learning interventions such as structured, semi-structured and unstructured. In structured interventions the individual learner has a roadmap and learning plans to acquire work relevant skills and knowledge with the assistance of trained lead workers. This method is more useful in imparting technical skills in learner. Unstructured interventions do not follow a proper structure and roadmap. These interventions are more useful in developing soft skills which are related to managerial positions (Kubr et al. 1989). The learning strategies to develop these skills are described as follows: Induction of New Staff: Induction, also called as orientation is designed to provide a new employee with the information he or she needs to function comfortably and effectively in the organization (Aswathappa, 2008). Since these engineers who are to be given training belong to the Ford Australia itself and so already familiar with the working environment of the organization, so they are not required to be given induction or orientation training. Customer Service: A person at managerial level of Ford Australia must understand his/her customers. They must know how to gain new customers and retain existing ones. This requires understanding the needs, expectations and psychology of customers. To impart the customer handling skills the Ford Australia can use either case study or role plays method of training (Buch et al. 2002). A case study is a written description of an actual situation in business which, in the reader, the need to decide what is going on, what the situation really is or what the problems are, and what can and should be done. Taken from the actual experiences of organizations, these cases represent attempts to describe, as accurately as possible, real problems that managers have faced (Aswathappa, 2008). In current situation the case studies which are related to customer handling and service should be used. They should be given to each trainee and then their responses should be analyzed and should be instructed how their response could be done better. These case studies can provide stimulating discussions among trainees as well as excellent opportunities for individuals to defend their analytical and judgmental abilities. The essence of role play is to create realistic situation and then trainees assume the parts of specific personalities in the situation. To understand a customer needs and expectations the staff may be given the role of customer itself, or the role of a manager who has to handle a customer. This can help these trainees to understand the customer from the manager’s point of view. Interpersonal Skills: For interpersonal skills also case study method and role play method can be used. The only difference in the case would be the nature and problem that case study and role play would be addressing. To inculcate interpersonal skills Television method can also be used in which a small movie involving the display of interpersonal skills can be shown to the trainees and then they may or may not be asked to analyze the movie. Development of Team Skills: Apart from using case study, small task methods can be used to impart team skills. These small tasks should be intended to make the trainees to work in teams while taking different roles. To develop complete team skills it also necessary to pass through sensitivity training, in which a small number of trainees usually fewer than 12 in a group meet with a passive trainer and gain insight into their own and others’ behavior. The objectives of sensitivity training are to provide the trainees with increased awareness of their own behavior and how others perceive them. Specific results sought include improved listening skills, greater openness, increased tolerance to individual differences and increased conflict resolution skills (Mckenna, 2004). Development of Leadership Skills: For developing leadership skills role plays method can be used. Apart from this the trainees may be asked to lead a small group to complete a task within a given time frame. Learning Principles: Training and development programs, especially for managerial positions, are more likely to be effective when they incorporate certain principles of learning. These principals are employees’ motivations, recognition of individual differences, reinforcement, knowledge of results (feedback), schedule of learning and transfer of learning (Aswathappa, 2008). Motivation comes from awareness that training fetches some rise in status and pay (HBSP, 2009). Regardless of individual differences and whether a trainee is learning a new skill, the trainee should be given the opportunity to practice what is being taught. Reinforcement of new learning must be done at appropriate time and in appropriate way. Feedback about the performance enables the learner to know where he or she stands (Buch et al. 2002). Scheduling of learning must be in such a manner that trainee do not feel overburdened to grasp new skills. Finally, the most important is to transfer the learning that is learned in the training on the job. Evaluation of Interventions: Evaluation of training or interventions is the last stage in training and development. Evaluation of intervention involves evaluating the results. It helps determine the results of the training and development program in practice (Training Evaluation, 2007). The main objective of evaluating the interventions is to determine if they are accomplishing the specific training objectives (Practical advice for business, 2009). Levels of Evaluation: The evaluation process can be done at four levels: reaction, learning, behavior and results (Aswathappa, 2008). Reaction measures whether the employees appreciated the training and the facilities (Giangreco et al. 2009) – it is usually measured by questionnaire. Learning measures whether employees know more than they did prior to undergoing training. Behavior measures what employees do on the job after the training. Behavioral impact is measured through performance appraisal. Finally evaluation of results looks at the overall outcomes of the training and the impact that the training has on productivity, efficiency, quality, customer service or any other dimension. This can be measured by sales figures, production, consumer surveys or any other means that correspond to the Ford’s performance measures. Techniques of Evaluation: There are many ways Ford can evaluate the training, however, it may be noted that usefulness of the methods is inversely proportional to the ease with which the evaluation can be done. One approach towards evaluation could be to use experimental and control groups. Each group should be randomly selected, one to receive managerial training (experimental) and the other not to receive training (control). Then measures can be taken of the relevant indicators of success (such as time taken to take a decision, number of people led effectively etc.) before and after training both the groups. If the gains demonstrated by the experimental groups are better than those by the control group, the training program can be labeled as successful. In other method the Ford can go for longitudinal or time series analysis, in which measurements of indicators are taken before the program begins and are continued during and after the program is completed. Another simple method of evaluation is to send a questionnaire to the trainees after the completion of the program to obtain their opinion about the program’s worth. Conclusions: In Ford Australia before positioning engineers onto the role of senior managers they must go through the training and development process that can inculcate the necessary skills required to be at those levels. There can be several advantages of mandating this system. Some of them include higher accuracy at decision making situations, lesser chances of picking up wrong person and positioning him/her at higher level etc. In the role of engineers the staffs of Ford need to posses ability to compromise at every places on the way to achieve lower costs while in the role of senior managers they need to rarely compromise with the work. Being at that position requires interpersonal skills, team skills and leadership skills. So a transition period and process is needed to achieve that. The utmost care must be taken in identifying key people who have the ability to reach at these levels and then in identifying the needs of those employees who have the abilities to reach at those levels. Training and interventions must be designed in such a manner which can be used to inculcate the individual skills as well as team skills without undermining any of them. At last the most important point in training is to give feedbacks to the new trainees for their performances. In the new roles they may develop new expectations from the organization and new ways to fulfill those expectations (Berge, 2008). So, care must be taken that their expectations are met in the right spirit. References: 1. Aswathappa, K. (2008). Human Resource Management. New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill. 2. Berge, Z. L. (2008). Why it is so hard to evaluate training in the workplace. Industrial & Commercial Training , 390-395. 3. Buch, K., & Bartley, S. (2002). Learning style and training delivery mode preference. 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Paauwe, J., & Williams, R. (2001). Seven key issues for management development. The Journal of Management Development , 1-90. 11. Practical advice for business. (2009). Retrieved May 20, 2009, from Business Link: http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?r.l1=1073858787&r.l3=1074424250&r.lc=en&type=RESOURCES&itemId=1074425042&r.l2=1074202347&r.s=m 12. Training Evaluation. (2007). Retrieved May 20, 2009, from Trainnig and Development Naukri hub: http://traininganddevelopment.naukrihub.com/training-evaluation.html 13. Yeh, Q.-J. (2008). Exploring Career Stages of Midcareer and Older Engineers—When Managerial Transition Matters. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management , 82-93. Read More