Training and Staff Development for Knowledge Workers - Assignment Example

Training and staff development for knowledge workers Introduction Organizations are vying with each other to take a leaf out of Michael Porters’ ideology of the competitive advantage or the strategy to do business processes better than competitors. (Porter,1990). After the revolution in manufacturing, we are faced with the typhoon of Information Technology. It’s considered absolutely necessary to know, not only your product/service, but also your consumer, his preferences and interests. Information required to run a business in the 21st century has reached explosive proportions. It’s a matter of survival to develop better systems for the management and use of information. The use of electronic devices (telephones, fax, computers) started early to play a major role on how the data was to be retrieved and sent. However, now what is required is finding new ways of filing and storing data, of processing it and making informed decisions based on it. Electronic data management largely facilitates all this. However, it is not enough just to retain or manage all the available information. It is required that an integrative approach be made to maintain and leverage the present and future value of all the knowledge assets – both human and automated. (Newman & Conrad, 1999). For this, purpose, it is imperative that Knowledge Management, as opposed to only information management, be implemented in the organization. Knowledge Management requires a range of practices that lead to the identification of knowledge needs of the organization, creation or acquisition of knowledge, and transfer and distribution of knowledge to the users. (Allee,1997). Effective Knowledge Management requires pursuing a broad range of knowledge transfer activities to ascertain that valuable knowledge is captured, organized and structured, deployed widely, used and leveraged. The impetus is on making important knowledge flow rapidly, in proper quantities, in well-represented and effective ways, and to all valuable destinations. For any organization that is looking to expand the use of Internet and IT to facilitate its selling and purchasing activities, it becomes imperative that it is able to identify the knowledge requirements of its individual employees. The next crucial step is to provide training and developmental opportunities to the staff. The following report will focus on the training and development strategy of the knowledge staff at XYZ. It will highlight the issues and the main challenges that might be faced by the implementation of the above strategy. It will also present a rationale on why the training and development strategy is an important area (for the effective management of corporate information and knowledge) and thus needs the management’s attention. The report will also cover how XYZ can formulate a plan to evaluate the training and development needs of the staff. The Importance of Training and Staff Development for Knowledge Workers at XYZ XYZ has ambitious plans for its future business development. It is already involved in activities like research and development of new products, production, sales, marketing, and distribution of its products. The diversity of operations that are carried out at XYZ makes it imperative that the organization make use of Information Systems and Information Technology greatly. Looking forward to implement e-commerce for both its selling and purchasing operation, XYZ requires both technology and skilled staff to be successful. Since times immemorial, businesses have been striving to better manage their processes, to become more efficient, and to reach out more to their customers. The latter part of the last century saw a many-fold increase in the data and information generated during the course of business. Managing information and knowledge sources, so as to make deliberate and rational decisions, is now a matter of competition. Today, only those businesses survive who are able to manage data on their products, markets and customers, and their knowledge resources better than their competitors. It has been realized now that capital, natural resources or labour are not the basic or the primary resources of an organization. Instead, it is knowledge, and the knowledge workers that play a significant role in the organization’s success. (Drucker, 1993). In XYZ, an organization that is involved in a diverse array of operations, the significance of knowledge workers increases manifolds. This is because, XYZ is an integrated company that does its own research and development, production and selling and marketing – thus requiring seamless linkages between its varied processes. These linkages can only be effectively maintained if the staff is adequately trained. It is also good to assume that all the employees are knowledge workers – this is because in the present day organizations, the amount of information that individual employees have to deal with is vast. (Cortada, 1998). At XYZ, the scope of providing appropriate training and development to the staff is high as not only the variety of functions that are performed are high, but also the need to integrate the business processes of XYZ is also high. It is therefore required that the staff needs for training be assessed and a strategic plan be prepared for scheduling the training and development needs of different employees of XYZ. Assessing the Training and Staff Development Needs of Knowledge Workers at XYZ The proposed use of new technology (e-commerce) at XYZ demands that the management does a thorough analysis of the scope, and the importance and penetration of IT as specifically required by the organization. Once the above points are clear, a search for the system tools, vendors, and implementation service providers is undertaken. (John, D. 1975).Once the hardware and software requirements have been determined and the architecture developed, comes the most crucial phase – the training of the end users. In order to formulate a training and development program for the knowledge workers of XYZ, the first and the most important step to follow is to conduct a need analysis. XYZ’s employees can be divided into three types of knowledge domains – those who are involved in the generation and creation of knowledge, those who are involved in the transfer or sharing of knowledge, and those who are engaged in the utilization of the knowledge. Though there is no absolute seclusion or segregation of different types of knowledge functions that employees perform. However, this distinction is made on the basis of the primary function that a worker is engaged in. On the basis of this segregation, it will become easy to delineate the training needs and training programs for different groups of employees. The first category of knowledge workers at XYZ is the research and development professionals, who are continuously involved in the creation and generation of knowledge. These professionals share knowledge with other departments of the organization, and they are also the end users of knowledge generated and forwarded by other employees. However, primarily, the research scientists are engaged in the creation of knowledge. The Purchasing Personnel and the Sales and Marketing employees, are largely involved with the utilization of knowledge, and with sharing of knowledge with other departments like that of production and accounts. The production engineers use the information and knowledge generated by the research department, and shared from the marketing/sales and the purchase departments. The Personnel Management Staff is engaged in the transfer of knowledge through training, assessment, appraisal and by implementing the general HRM policies. The administrative staff and the proposed ecommerce end operators will be largely involved with the utilization of the knowledge, and to some extent with the sharing of knowledge with other departments within XYZ. Once a thorough analysis has been made about the nature of jobs performed by different workers at XYZ, the next step is to formulate a broad framework for imparting training and development plans for the organization. However, before a plan is formalized, it is required that a mindset of creating a learning organization be imbibed both at the top management level as well as at the employee level. Planning For Training and Staff Development of Knowledge Workers at XYZ The focus of training the knowledge workers should be shifted from a training plan aimed at meeting the future needs and skills of the employees that might ensue due to their routine promotional or job rotation. Instead, the training and development activities should be incorporated to anticipate the changing requirements and challenges of future – as the current environment is highly dynamic. (Malhotra, 2000). The efforts to train and develop the Knowledge workers at XYZ should therefore be integrated with the over all strategic planning of the organization. This means that training and development of knowledge workers should not be considered as a one time isolated activity that helps to enhance individual level skills. Instead training and development should be regarded as a continuous process – one that is aimed at creating a learning organization where knowledge is used to enhance both the individual skills and the organizational capacities. This is a challenge for XYZ as until now, the organization was treating the training functions in isolation. As such, a commitment from the senior managers and the board is required so that the learning and development objectives be made an integral part of the routine organizational processes. The training strategies should be aligned with XYZ’s philosophy and long-term vision. Since XYZ is aiming at becoming an ecommerce enabled organization, any training plan and strategy should incorporate the above objective. In addition to this, a thorough need analysis of the current processes that are being performed by the organization, has to be done. This is again a challenging activity and needs the support of the employees and the commitment of the senior management. It is also important to discuss and arrive at a suitable approach that should be taken for the actual implementation of the training. It is recommended that an in-house training program be developed and administered, taking into account the specific needs of the different employees. In-house training is also suitable as it does not require external trainers – and hence maintains the confidentiality of the organizations’ business processes and knowledge assets. It is also desirable as both the need analysis and the training schedule can be meshed in with the routine daily work of XYZ. Since XYZ has a workforce involved in a diverse set of functions, the training requirements too have to be adapted to the differing requirements of the employees. Based upon the need analysis that is proposed to be undertaken, the training methods can be selected for different classes of employees. These may be a mix of structured on-the-job-training, Classroom-based training, Mentoring, performance counseling and career path development training. For the knowledge workers, though in some cases the structured and classroom training may be needed (as when actual processes and techniques need to be learnt or updated), it is recommended that unstructured or partially structured training methods like mentoring, counseling and quality circles be used. Using the above methods ensures that learning is continuous and it is dynamic or integrated with the changing needs of the organization and the employees. Howver, in order to translate the training into a continuous learning experience, it is desirable that training be made both formal and informal. It can include a plan on departmental sharing where the workers from different departments are rotated regularly, and also where they are given more opportunities to interact with each other. In addition to the above, study tours and townhall sessions can also be organized. Such interactive sessions will be helpful in making the employees develop a tendency of learning and self-development. This will lead to a culture change within the organization – a culture that has development and training integrated with the all the aspects of an employees job. (Abadesco, 2004). There is also a need to involve the employees in the training efforts – to make them responsible for assessing their own needs and to use e-learning to benefit themselves. Any plan aimed at developing the above strategy will also have to take into consideration the budget, the availability of physical facilities, and the training delivery resources. There are several issues that complicate this seemingly simple training process. Glaring among them is the very actual fear of downsizing and losing loss of jobs. This impedes the workers in keeping an open mind to the change; they fear becoming redundant. Also, it’s always not very easy for people to adapt to new ways of doing things that, according to them, have been done quite well without the new tech. It becomes essential that even before concrete plans are made for going the electronic way, people be sold to the idea that it is going to work out the best for them. In addition to this, a full fledged and systematic training program should be executed to initiate the staff into the new technology. (Bloor, D, 1983). Organizations spend millions annually in recruiting, training and maintaining a workforce and spend nearly 40 – 60% of their budgets on people related costs including salary and wage benefits, training and personnel administration. (Hamerman, Paul, 2004). This confirms the importance of the training and development of the employees. Conclusion & Recommendations XYZ is in a competitive market that is facing the effects of Globalization and foreign players. Thus, there is an immediate need for XYZ to restructure and streamline its knowledge resources so that the best utilization of these resources can be made. The customers, both domestic and international, are now more aware and have better access to competitors products. The use of information technology both by the customers and by the competitors is also an indication for XYZ to move ahead with its own plans of adopting e-commerce in its purchasing and selling operations. The above challenges require that XYZ come up with an effective strategy to strengthen its knowledge resources – especially its employees skills and productivity. It is proposed that training and development for the knowledge workers should be made a continuous agenda for all the employees. Thus, there is a need to imbibe a strategic perspective to planning for training. The training needs of the employees can be assessed and inputs taken from the employees themselves to formulate a training framework. An in-house training program is suggested as this will insure that the integrity of the knowledge assets is maintained and that training and learning is carried out as an integrated activity within the organization. Based on the need analysis, a formal and informal training schedule plan can be enacted and administered. By having a strategic perspective on the training and development needs of the employees, and by integrating their training with their jobs, XYZ can hope to gain a strategic advantage in terms of a learning environment and a better managed knowledge assets. References 1. Porter, M. E. (1990). The competitive Advantage of Nations, London:Macmillan. 2. Newman, B. & K. W. Conrad. 1999. A Framework For Characterizing Knowledge Management Methods, Practices, and Technologies. The Knowledge Management Forum: WA 3. Allee. V. 1997. The Knowledge Evolution: Expanding Organizational Intelligence. Butterworth-Heinemann. 4. Drucker, 1994. Post Capitalist Society. HarperCollins Publishers Inc.: USA. 5. Cotada, J.W. (1998). Rise of the Knowledge Worker. Butterworth and Heinemann http://www.worldpaper.com: Information Society Index Ranking 6. John, D. (1975). Business in the Age of Information. Harvard Business Review. 7. Malhotra, Y. 2000. From Information Management to Knowledge Management: Beyond the Hi-Tech Hidebound Systems. In K. Srikanth & M.E.D.Koeings (Eds.) Knowledge Management for Information Professional. Medford, N.J.: Information Today Inc. 37-61. 8. Abadesco, E. V. Jr. 2004. ‘Report of the APO Survey on In-Company Training Strategies for Knowledge Workers’. Training Knowledge Workers. 9. Bloor, D, 1983. D. A Social Theory Of Knowledge. ISBN 033300165. 10. Hamerman, Paul and Jessica Harrington, 2004, in “HR’s Role in Sarbanes-Oxely Compliance”, pg. 1, Forrester Research, available online at http://www.kronos.com/About/HR_Role_Sarbanes_Oxley.pdf, accessed on 15th May 2006. Read More