Learning and Development for Career Building - Essay Example

Topic Lecturer: Presentation: Introduction Learning and development are among the essential aspects necessary for career development. It is voluntary and determined pursuance of knowledge to satisfy individual or professional desires. Continuous acquisition of knowledge enhances the competitiveness in the workplace as well as inter-personal relations no matter the career an individual pursues, thereby raising the chances of career progression. Workplace learning goes beyond the normal classroom system of learning whereby knowledge is acquired through day-to-day interactions with other employees as well as tackling challenging tasks in the workplace. The need for learning and development increases with the rising technological advancement. Application of innovative processes requires continuous learning for an individual to use new technologies effectively. This paper presents a critique of what contribution learning and development makes to the human resource management career path. Workplace learning is a significant source of new knowledge through the day-to-day interactions with other employees and brainstorming with teammates to establish solutions to emerging problems concerning human resources (Noe and Winkler, 2009). As Cross (2007) observes, knowledge acquired when a person knows that he/she desires to accomplish a particular goal leads to efficiency. Self-motivated learning leads to greater achievements by enhancing the knowledge gained in formal education. Most of the skills I will acquire through workplace learning will be through unexpected encounters in the workplace whereby the employer may not control what I will learn. Work experience is usually a strong characteristic of capable employees (Stone, 2011). Human resource management is a field that involves interacting with people and helping them to overcome drawbacks to successful accomplishment of tasks. Learning and development will be significant for me to understand workplace diversity and acquiring skills. They are significant in ensuring that human capital is utilized maximally (Alred and Garvey, 2000). Overwien (2000) argues that people learn better when they are able to visualize and relate the knowledge acquired with its application in the workplace. Learning and development are unending processes that entail organized integration and shared understanding of new information. The process involves continuous acquisition of knowledge and taking risks through testing the applicability of new knowledge (Senge, 1990). According to Felstead and Ashton (2000), workplace learning is holistic in the sense that an individual acquires a wide range of information regarding the particular career path. It contributes significantly to career development, which on the other hand raises the morale to work. Generally, workplace learning encourages teamwork, as workers tend to combine efforts to accomplish tasks, which is necessary for knowledge transfer. Each individual in the workplace has strengths and weaknesses. The desire to learn is helpful for me to understand other people’s strengths that I can emulate to enhance personal capabilities and to help others to cope with challenges that may hinder performance. Smith et al. (2002) argue that a good learning strategy is where individual employees capitalize on the strengths of their peers to deal with their own weaknesses. Life-long learning makes it possible for an individual to learn continuously thereby maintaining constant transformation that is necessary for the accomplishment of personal and professional goals (Ashton and Sung, 2002). One of the implications of his statement is that incessant learning and development are significant in the improvement of potential. Beckett and Hager (2002) share the same viewpoints on the continuous process of individual transformation, which is described as lifelong learning. It is a significant strategy that will help me to constantly develop my capability to generate the results that match my long-term aspirations, where new and extensive ways of thinking will be cultivated, where shared goals will be liberated, as well as where new knowledge will be acquired to enhance competitiveness. Billett (2001) supports learning and development of an individual and observes that it is a person’s responsibility to ensure that he/she takes advantage of learning opportunities and that learning is not hindered to continuously build his/her capacity and empower him/her to expand his/her perspective in approaching day to day tasks. Lifelong learning will help me to approach problems with sophistication. It requires engagement in individual learning aimed at acquiring knowledge through reading published documents such as journals, published reports on human resource management strategies, innovations as well as evaluating the successes of the human resources in the employer organization with competing organizations. The idea of lifelong learning is seen as a person’s quest for a better work-life in future and can not be accomplished barely through attainment of grades in a formal educational setting only. The conception of developing, taking a broad view and engaging in lifelong learning, therefore, forms the basis of all measures aimed at improving the competence of an individual with regards to personal, social, and economic wellbeing (Marsick and Watkins, 2001). Therefore, it is clear that the concept of learning and development goes beyond an extra emphasis on workplace learning. I need to concentrate on lifelong learning and development for the purpose of attainment of freedom from influence by others, or rule that may be autocratic, authoritarian and any other authority of whichever kind to ensure that workplace relations are amicably accomplished (Bagnall, 2000). Learning and development that involves teamwork is also necessary to ensure that goals are accomplished collectively with other people who share similar interests. The other implication of learning is that the self-development should be seen as a whole by integrating other individuals who contribute to the day-to-day experiences in the workplace (Colley, et al., 2003). Personal learning and development is a constant and purposefully applied process incorporated and running at the same time as the day-to-day activities that improve the capacity of an individual especially through upholding inventiveness and resourcefulness (Caffarella, 2001). Beckett and Hager (2002) further argued that learning is acquired, internalized and integrated into work practices to inform individual approaches to problem solving and accomplishment of tasks. From the previous arguments, it emerges that a major significance of learning and development is to help a person to cope with the rapidly changing environment and to deal with the ambiguity emanating from changing human resource practices as a result of innovations, globalization and inter-organizational collaboration. As illustrated by Evans et al. (2006), the learning and development are focused on discovering new ways of promoting continued performance and growth, flexibility, accommodativeness and receptiveness to change. As a human resource manager, I will have a responsibility of learning fast and consistently to muddle through tumultuous and constantly changing operating environments. Learning and development are important in leadership development. An open-minded approach in undertaking tasks in human resource management is necessary to allow mentoring and coaching which are significant in developing strong leadership. According to Huczynski and Buchanan (2007), as an upcoming leader in human resource management, I require coaching to increase my scope of thinking with regards to tackling workplace issues. Leadership development is accomplished with the understanding that performance can be improved through additional learning. Coaching is usually focused on giving the leader additional skills to improve their competence (Findlay, et al., 2002). For example, as a new human resource manager in an organization, the skills acquired in education need to be augmented through learning with regards to the organizational operations. Coaching is a necessary tool that improves the knowledge of a newly employed manager regarding the organizational goals and strategies. Leadership development through learning tags along Kesler’s suggestion that coaching helps leaders to apply the skills acquired in studies to real practice (Kesler, 2002). As a leader in the field of human resource management, I need continuous learning to augment my focus on building a strong relationship between subordinates, and me, which enhances understanding and increases the ability to identify weaknesses that need to be suppressed. Learning and development generate a new approach towards accomplishing tasks and involves acquiring and promoting new working strategies (Alldredge, et al., 2003). The democratic progressive sentiment of lifelong learning postulates that individuals are focused on attainment of social justice, equality and development in the social context. It is seen to promote democracy as individuals are involved in democratic processes. Learning and development bring in the desired transformation that generates the necessary social action for the establishment of a more compassionate, open-minded, fair and democratic workforce. Cultural transformation, which originates from learning and development, therefore, enhances harmonious workplace relations (Avoseh, 2001). One of the significant experiences gained from this work is how to plan for lifelong learning to help maintain competitiveness through continued accumulation of knowledge. In my personal reflection of this work, I agree with the various scholars whose works have been cited supporting the need for learning and development for greater competence as a human resource manager. It is evident that learning and development have been applied in the creation of strong leadership. The main things I have concluded from this work are that great achievement emerges from self-motivated learning in the day to day interactions within the workplace. Learning and development requires continuous acquisition of knowledge and concerted efforts to apply the new knowledge even when it involves risk taking. It is my responsibility to ensure that learning opportunities are utilized to enhance acquisition of knowledge, hence, increased competence. Learning and development are significant in maintaining the capacity to cope with the rapidly changing working environment. Sharing strengths and weaknesses through teamwork is a critical source of learning and development. Formal education is strengthened through life-long learning and development. In my future as a human resource manager, I plan to engage in continuous learning and development. One of my major strengths that I will capitalize in planning for learning and development is my strong educational background in human resource management. I will also have to establish ways of coping with my weakness with regards to lack of practical experience in the career. My short term plan will be to analyze personal strengths and weaknesses as well as the available learning opportunities. The medium term goal will involve an evaluation of personal learning needs to help in choosing the most relevant sources of information. My long-term goal will be to establish a strong foundation of learning and development in the workplace as a human resource manager to enable every employee to utilize any learning opportunity available maximally. Conclusion The human resource management career path involves interacting with human resources and promoting an enabling environment to maintain individual competitiveness. Learning and development will be significant in developing my capacity to approach problems with sophistication. They will lead to the development of a new way of accomplishing human resource management goals as well as acquisition of a wide range of information with regards to my career path. Leadership development will be facilitated by learning and development, which will also guide the maintenance of strong workplace relations that are necessary for a competitive workforce. Learning and development are also necessary in maintaining a democratic and competent workforce. This analysis confirms the need for learning and development to be an integrative part of my career path. Reference List Alldredge, M., Johnson, C., Stoltzfuz, J., and Vicere, A., 2003. Leadership development at 3M: New process, new Techniques, New Growth. Human Resource Planning, 26, 3, p. 45. Alred, G. and Garvey, B., 2000. Learning to produce knowledge: the contribution of mentoring. Mentoring and Tutoring, 8, 3, pp. 261-272. Ashton, D. and Sung, J., 2002. Supporting Workplace Learning for High Performance Working. Geneva: International Labour Office. Beckett, D. and Hager, P., 2002. Life, Work and Learning: Practice in Postmodernity. London: Routledge. Billett, S., 2001. 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