Travel and Tourism Organization - Essay Example

?Training and Development and other Learning Initiatives of a Travel and Tourism Organisation Overview of our Organization Our organisation has been involved in the travel and tourism business these past several decades now. At present, the management is tackling the challenges of globalisation and the effects of inter-culture and diversity in what commentators call the global village. The owners, managers and stakeholders have diversified the organisation to provide products and services throughout the world, but the organisation’s primary business from the start has always been travel and tourism. It provides travel needs, information, and promotion of tourism spots to different countries around the world, among other services. It maintains a state-of-the art website which provides customer interaction on a 24/7 basis. Recently, the organisation has signed a joint venture with a transportation and communication company whose business is also global. The company is still in its infant stage with respect to this new venture. The joint venture is a strategic move by the shareholders and stakeholders who have seen the progress and metamorphosis of the company, from a mere travel agency into a diverse and global organisation. However, the organisation is a consultant firm in terms of travel and tourism. The primary aim and objective of this organisation is to promote international tourism and provide assistance to international tourists, promote tourism in different countries, and guide travelers and tourists to the different tourist and scenic spots, heritage sites and other places of human interest around the world. The organisation has been doing this for the past several decades, and it can be said that they are the leading tourist experts. It has maintained a network of tourist agencies and guides involving individuals, groups and governments worldwide. Its network is unmatched and its database is a collection of years of experience coupled with a management style and organisational governance which have made it a giant in the travel and tourism business. Government leaders and renowned personalities look up to the organisation and usually consult the management in the subject of places and peoples of diverse cultures. 2. Outline: (a) how human resource needs are generally identified and assessed in your organisation; and (b) what HR development opportunities are normally available in your organization. (a) The first that our organization does periodically is to conduct needs assessment. Needs assessment is done every six months, but there are times that managers and key personnel request an immediate needs assessment when situation demands. First, a team is formed to conduct a needs assessment. The team is composed of a manager, who is the team leader appointed by the Board. The members of the team are key personnel and experienced employees of the organization. The needs assessment may last for a few days to a week, and they submit their recommendation to the Board. Needs assessment also answers the questions: What are these changes, and why are there changes inside the organisation? What trigger or motivate these changes that need to be addressed directly by the management? What kind of training is needed, and what kind of training is available? Without the needs assessment, the organisation cannot go on with the other objectives of training and development and other projects or activities for the organisation. The importance of needs assessment to the organisation can be seen in light of the following benefits: a. Needs assessment involves studies and surveys. The collected data and information naturally become a valuable contribution to the organisation and their evaluation and preservation for training, employee development or performance appraisal. b. Needs assessment constitutes a continuous process in the organisation. c. Needs assessment is a coping mechanism for change. d. It provides the organisation a clear view of what is going on, for instance, the problems of employees are known, and the situation is assessed by management. A situation may occur in which changes in the daily operations being undertaken are needed as detected by the field people. The management can also seek and study remedies for the problems and changes in the organisation. The changes may be required because of several factors such as new technology, new products, and competition in the market. Information and data along with improvement can be made possible through assessment. These are being carried out and accomplished by field personnel, the result of which should be reported to the managers or for recommendation and action. Through needs assessment, a good line of communication can be sourced from the employees who may have suggestions and valuable information which need evaluation and focus. (Keaveny 65) Needs assessment activity gathers information, and subsequently assess, calculate, and inform or report all the data gathered so that the manager or department head can arrive at a right decision and make the necessary changes for employees to follow and adjust. In other words, everyday changes should have corresponding actions and changes to avoid discrepancies and malfunctions in the organisation. Sometimes, a manager’s routine jobs or traditional ways are not anymore applicable. The changes are triggered by market and environmental forces like technology, the Internet or Information Technology, products, competition, consumer taste, labour markets, government regulations, prices of raw materials and energy, international business relations, and so forth. Managers cannot just guess and go on with the traditional methods. They have to determine the different but precise environmental changes occurring in the market. Technology changes over time. There are new inventions, innovations or development in technology introduced to the market. The management should be able to assess the situation. Personnel, workforce, work area, or the so-called atmosphere of the work area, should be assessed and understood so that possible adjustments will be incorporated into the operations of the organisation. Needs assessment can do it for management and the organisation. The organisation also conducts performance appraisal which focuses on improving the performance of employees. It aims to emphasise their capabilities and individual talents that should contribute to the entire performance of the organisation. Performance management also aims to provide the means through which the staff can provide better results in such a way that the customers will be benefitted in the end (Armstrong 1). (b) An HR development opportunity that is readily available is cross-cultural training. Cross-cultural training is a must in our organisation because most of the managers and employees are sent abroad or to other countries for job assignment. Some managers are also sent as ‘troubleshooters’, or when there is a problem in another branch that needs particular attention and expertise by one of the managers. Regular training, which is known as cross-cultural training (CCT) for managers and employees is conducted periodically, but there are times when the situation demands a special training. A situation may occur when a branch calls up and needs an immediate manager or personnel, or a problem may have come up that needs quick attention. An on-the-spot training has to be conducted when there is no manager available who is acquainted with the culture of the country in need of a manager. The outgoing manager has to provide the necessary CCT for the incoming manager. Trainings are systematic, regular and conducted in line with the organisation’s objectives, and designed with respect to the country of destination. There is no regular period, or time frame, when a manager or employee has to be sent abroad, for there are various situations when a manager, or department head or employee, is needed in foreign countries. A manager or key personnel is sent abroad when: a. A branch has just been opened in another country b. A manager has just resigned or retired from his job c. Another branch of another country needs the expertise of a manager or employee, and d. There are obvious situations of expansion for our organisation. HR opportunities include career expansion and the chance to know different cultures in different countries. Training and development opportunities are also provided for qualified managers and key personnel. But even those who are just assigned within the departments, one can have the chance of career improvement. 3. Outline the new learning and development initiative. Drawing on appropriate data, validate the initiative and identify the functional capabilities and professional competencies that the learning and development initiative is designed to achieve. There are many questions employees have to face on the subject of training and development in this particular organisation. First, there is a regular training, and this is a part of organisational objectives – to conduct training for new employees for the organisation. The management has seen this as a strategic and effective introduction of knowledge and learning for the employees and manager. There are also trainings being conducted for regular employees, or those employees who need additional knowledge in connection with their departmental assignment within the organisation. This is a part of the continuing learning and lifelong education that the organisation has been implementing ever since its inception and operation. A new learning initiative that our organisation has implemented is known as mobile learning. Mobile learning, or m-learning, which is conducted with the use of mobile phones or handheld computers like Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) provides the managers and employees easy access for e-learning wherein a physical training place is not necessary. The traditional method of teaching and learning requires a teacher/educator and a student or learner to be in a physical classroom, and this is done using lectures, books or handouts. The technology-supported learning provides education supported by web pages, computer-assisted learning packages or virtual learning environment. This is known as elearning. This is the revolutionary trend of learning, the impact of technology on teaching and learning. Mobile learning, or m-learning, which is conducted with the use of mobile phones or handheld computers like Personal Digital Assistants or PDAs, is gaining ground. This is interesting to many educators because of the way it is being imparted to the learners: education with no situated classroom, ignoring distance and time. The learners can now have access to learning and education and to the vast amount of knowledge without much time and effort on both educators and learners. (Trinder 9) The term ‘mobile’ is becoming popular with the emergence of multiple hand-held technologies. Mobile Internet service is popular all throughout the world with internet connection. There are many positive results in the application of technology in education particularly mobile education. Mobile learning is a tool which can aid in the introduction of cross-cultural training to managers and employees of multinational corporations. Cross cultural training that we conduct periodically, and in some instances when situations demand, provide functional capabilities and learning initiatives that managers and tourist guides need in their various assignments abroad. Cultural factors influence the manager’s work and decision-making process (Cray and Mallory 71). For instance, the dissemination of information and its interpretation by individuals in a particular place are influenced by cultural factors. This was demonstrated in a study by Ali (qtd. in Cray and Mallory 71) on Arab executives, which revealed that their decision-making styles were influenced by their culture and the Muslim experience. Cross-cultural training, also known as pre-departure training, helps expatriates by enhancing their adjustment awareness (Black and Mendenhall, qtd. in Puck et al. 2183). Companies that send their managers to cross-cultural training choose which programme or courses their managers should have. Tarique and Caligiuri (qtd. in Celaya and Swift 231) stated that CCT programmes should include methods in which expatriates’ knowledge of the hosts country’s culture is enhanced. There are various kinds of cross-cultural training, and this can be required of managers, professionals, even students and American peace-corps volunteers who need to study other cultures before they are dispatched for assignment. (Pusch 13) 4. Explain how the new learning and development initiative will fit/align with the organisation’s business strategy (ies). Link back to information provided by you in Questions 1 and 2 and, if appropriate, other HR strategies and practices. Cross cultural training is an important part of the organisation’s programme of development for managers and employees. But before we conduct training, we have a team of experts that conduct needs assessment. Needs assessment will look at the need for further training or when the situation demands for further CCT. Another learning initiative that the management has adapted is learning from experienced professionals. This is conducted within the premises of the company wherein learning and understanding is easily passed on, and information is obtained from experienced staff and the manager who will be assigned abroad can learn in the process. Experienced staff can provide a clear view of what would soon happen in the country of destination for the expatriate; they can present advice, framed within the context of the organisation’s objectives. Drawbacks include the limited or narrow experience that speakers may have had, and the fact that they will generally perceive things from their own point of view. The study of Celaya and Swift (240) on US managers assigned to Mexican cultures found that meetings with experienced international staff were the most commonly experienced type of training. The second most common type was lecture training. Team group training, modeling, and assignments to microcultures had not been experienced by any respondent. They also found that training cannot fully develop intercultural understanding for everyone, and that there are other factors other than training that influence US managers’ understanding of Mexican culture. Some other ways of CCTs include lecturing or orienting the manager about the host culture and assuming that the manager could cope with the new culture. A culture-specific training assumes that the manager is trained and prepared for the new culture. Another is self-awareness which assumes that understanding and accepting oneself can also be a way of measuring how he/she accepts another of different culture. The cultural awareness model assumes that in order to cope and be easily adjusted to another culture, one has to learn the behavioral characteristics of that culture. (Ajami et al. 330) 5. Provide a plan for implementing and evaluating the learning and development initiative. At present, there are three managerial vacancies and ten regular employee-training that is being assessed. Possible individuals to fill in the three managerial vacancies have been identified and they will soon undergo training. These three managers are experienced managers. They have undergone basic CCT, but they still have to undergo short-term training on cultural integration as demanded in their jobs. They will go to three separate countries of destination which have distinct cultures. The ten employees are regular employees who need updates in their learning skills in their job. They will undergo refresher seminar and special skills in line with the organisation’s objectives of continuing education and lifelong learning for employees and staff. Training will include different methods and strategies in acquiring knowledge, including product knowledge and an appreciation of the company, its history and philosophies. For expatriates, language training may be required and familiarity with business etiquette. Initial on-the-job training should be conducted with an experienced expatriate, or what they call immersion. Training in the language, lifestyle and culture of the people of the country of destination should include the employees’ spouse and children to reduce early burnout. Other features of the training programme – work organization and report writing – include establishing good habits among the trainees in areas which, because of day-to-day pressures, may be neglected. Methods of training includes lecture, films or videos, role playing, case studies, in-the-field training. The lecture method is useful in giving information and providing a frame of reference to aid the learning process. This should be supported by the use of visual aids, for example professionally produced overhead projectors and other Information Technology materials. Other methods include role-playing that allows the trainees into the stage of being consciously able to perform a skill. The trainee can learn by his or her own successes and failures in a buyer-seller situation. Feedback is provided by other group members, the expert manager or resource person and by audio-visual means. (Jobber and Lancaster 39) The objective of training and development focuses on the design and implementation of training systems to successfully impact organisational performance. The process begins with identifying the business strategy, and the strategic learning imperatives (strategic training and development goals) to support the strategy are also identified. The strategic learning imperatives are then translated into specific training and development activities. These may include formal and informal training. The final step involves evaluating whether training helped contribute to the goals of the organisation using appropriate metrics. Training should be carefully planned, designed, and evaluated in support of organisational goals and objectives. Skills training may be pinpointed when there is not enough skill on the part of the personnel or even field people. Questions to be answered when conducting needs analysis for any proposed training: What is the business necessity for the proposed training? Specifically identify the goals and how the offering will help to achieve the goals. Describe objective measurements that will indicate whether the training has been successful. Has the company conducted training in this area in the past? If so, what were the results and why? Is the organisational deficiency that the training seeks to address really due to lack of skills and knowledge or some deeper problem? (Smith & Mazin 65) As a form of evaluation, the management conducts periodic performance assessment. This is in line with the organisation’s performance management standards – to improve the talents and capabilities of managers and employees and to determine the effectiveness of the training. Performance management strategy focuses on what is involved in managing the organisation. This is managing within the context of the business. The organisation has to let every employee know that performance management strategy concerns everyone in the business – not just managers. (Armstrong 2) Managers are not the only ones accountable for their performance, but responsibility is shared between managers and team members. The strategy should be to involve everyone in the team, and that everyone is jointly accountable for the results; if something goes wrong, all should be blamed for the fiasco. Performance management also involves communication, this time between the supervisor and the employee. Both have the reciprocal need to communicate what needs to be done in order to establish a clear understanding for the employee’s job function, on how the employee can contribute to the success of the organisation’s objective, and how to do the job so well to make the entire process of work a success. (Bacal 3) Performance management is concerned with improvement, employee development, satisfying the needs and wants of the customer, and also satisfying the stakeholders’ expectations. References Ajami, Riad et al. International Business Theory and Practice 2nd Edition. United States of America: M. E. Sharpe, Inc. 330. Print. Armstrong, Michael. Strategic Human Resource Management: A Guide to Action. London: Kogan Page Limited, 2000. Print. Bacal, Robert. Performance Management. United States of America: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1999. Print. Celaya, Leandra and Jonathan Swift. Pre-departure Cultural Training: US Managers in Mexico. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal. Vol. 13 No. 3, 2006, pp. 230-243. DOI: 10.1108/13527600610683372. Web. 30 March 2011. Cray, David and Mallory, George. Making Sense of Managing Culture. London: International London Business Press Inc., 1998. Print. Jobber, David and Lancaster, George. Selling and Sales Management, Sixth Edition, England: Pearson Education Limited, 2003. 63. Print. Keaveny, Timothy. “Developing and Maintaining Human Resource.” Training and Development Journal, July 1983. EBSCO Publishing. Web. 30 March 2011. Kubr, Milan, Prokopenko, Joseph and International Labour Office (3rd Ed.),1989. Diagnosing Management Training and Development Needs: Concepts and Techniques. International Labour Organization. ISBN 9221063992, 9789221063995, 1989. Print. Puck, Jonas, Kittler, Markus, and Christopher Wright. Does It Really Work? Re-assessing the Impact of Pre-departure Cross-Cultural Training on Expatriate Adjustment. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 19, No. 12, December 2008, 2182-2197. Web. 29 March 2011. Pusch, Margaret. Intercultural training in historical perspective. Handbook of Intercultural Training, Third Edition. Eds. Dan Landis, Janet Bennett, and Milton Bennett. London, United Kingdom: Sage Publications Ltd., 2004. 13. Print. Smith, Shawn and Mazin, Rebecca. The HR answer book: an indispensable guide for managers and human resources professionals. New York: AMACOM Div. American Management Association, 2004. Print. Trinder, Jon. Mobile Technologies and Systems. Mobile Learning: A Handbook for Educators and Trainers. New York: Routledge, 2005. 9. Print. Read More