Impact of Employee Training and Development on Company Productivity - Research Proposal Example

Impact of Employee Training and Development on Company Productivity My understanding of the assignment is it will serve as a guide in writing the whole paper. Hence, I have broken down the following outline into the 5 relevant sections of a dissertation. If you also need help in writing the entire paper, I think we can arrange through the Administration for us to work together. Please send me a message that you did grant my request regarding the reversion to the original timeframe such that there will be no dispute on whether the paper is late or not. Thank you, I appreciate it. The paper is much longer than the 4 pages initially requested. Impact of Employee Training and Development On Company Productivity [Course] [University] Submitted by: [Name] Submitted to: [Professor] Submitted on: [Date of submission] Table of Contents Abstract 4 Introduction 5 Problem Statement 6 Review of Related Literature 7 Methodology 10 Results 11 Conclusion and Recommendations 12 References 13 Abstract This section of the dissertation will be completed last which means right after the conclusion and recommendations section. The abstract is essentially a one-page summary of the entire dissertation incorporating the research problem, key findings and concepts, and main conclusion and recommendations. Introduction Human resource is often one of the major contributors in an organization's costs. Hence, it is imperative that these costs result to the creation of value to the firm at all times. It is therefore necessary that a company's human resources are properly equipped with the skills and knowledge to function as they are supposed to in attaining the organizational goals and objectives. Human resource training and development, therefore, is a continuous process and can be a source of an organization's competitive advantage. This importance of human resource training and development is the one of the main reasons why the researcher choose the topic. Moreover, as an aspiring human resource manager, the researcher believes that the knowledge to be learned during the research process will be invaluable to her career in human resource management. Furthermore, given the increasing diversity of the workforce, designing an effective but efficient human resource training and development process has become a key success factor. Interestingly, a human resource manager nowadays has to be adept in changing expectations from one context to another, from one location to another, from one country to another. This is due to the proliferation of multinational corporations and expatriate managers who are tasked to manage human resources from differing cultural background and work behaviors. Moreover, the global manager must also navigate the tricky relationship of culture, work place behavior and compensation preferences between these cultural contexts. By definition human resource training is a systematic activity in the acquisition of knowledge, skills and competencies needed to perform a job according to standards. On the other hand, human resource development is the process of changing an organization's workforce in order to achieve, maintain and enhance competitive advantage. According to Church, Margiloff and Corruzzi (1995) "[regardless] of [the] changes in an organization's environment, mission or structure, employee satisfaction and quality of [work life] remain significant concerns for most organizational change and development efforts" (p. 3). This means that these other factors have to be considered no matter what into human resource training and development. Lastly, the importance of human resource training and development has become undeniable that David Pollitt (2007) observe that employees now do recognize that the learning, training and development strategies of an organization is key to its success (p. 130). Problem Statement Human resource training and development is a costly activity. Hence, its results as regards the company's bottom line, specifically its productivity, must be worth the expense. Hence, in exploring the impact of employee training and development on productivity, the researcher has formulated the following three research questions. 1. What are the specific impacts of human resource training and development on employee productivity 2. What are the values of these effects on the company's net income and value creation 3. What are the contribution of the human resource training and development in maintaining and enhancing organizational competitive advantage The three research questions formulated above all revolves around the premise that yes, human resource training and development positively impacts an organization's productivity and hence, its financial sustainability and viability. In identifying the research question, the researcher's main objective is to breakdown the research topic to manageable levels. Moreover, the research questions, individually, has to be answerable by themselves. In other words, a research paper can be designed around each research question. Review of Related Literature Fortunately, there is a large cache of literature that a human resource manager can peruse in designing an effective and efficient human resource training and development process for his organization. For example, Hays (2007) integrates ancient wisdom such as Zen Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism in to organizational wisdom and the lessons these disciples can impart for an effective organization and change development. Basically, Hays (2007) opines that "[organizational] wisdom transcends organizational learning in its commitment to doing the right thing over doing things right" (p. 78). This design needs to take into account the different functional groups of the organization. This recognizes that each functions has different skill and knowledge demands. Furthermore, the design of the training and development course for middle managers would be fundamentally different from those of production employees, for example (Thompson, Purdy & Summers 2008). Wetzel and Buch's (2000) five step process can be used during the "diagnostic and intervention phases of organization development on structural elements of the organization" (p. 10). The organization's strategic choice and environmental factors also affect the direction of the firm's human resource training and development process. Truly, the strategic choices that a firm makes and the environmental determinism views of organizational adaptations are further proof that organizations do not operate in a vacuum and that more often than not; their actions are determined and significantly affected by external factors. However, Gibbons (1992) emphasized that one of the key success factors in organizational change is "the ability of the leader to identify and initiate change" (p. 18). Given a very dynamic business environment, an organization's ability to adopt with its environment determines whether the products and services it provides to its consumers will still be relevant tomorrow. Hence, successful change implementation is necessary and this ability has to be embedded to the entire human resource through the company's training and development strategies. Thus, one of the objectives of training and development processes is to make the workforce more flexible as regards change management (Ryan, Williams, Charles & Waterhouse 2008; Randall, Cox & Griffins 2007). Change management aims to implement and build change-capable organizational structure to enable to more efficiently and effectively implement its business strategy and maintain its competitive position (King & Wright 2007). In other words, we can say that organizational development is characterized by the strengthening of organizations' capacities to cope with lasting changes (Lalonde 2007, p. 17). Given the importance of training and development and its interconnectedness with other relevant human resource management concepts, it is also necessary that the different leadership concepts in view of human resource training and development be discussed. Some of these concepts include that of Marx, Weber, Taylor, Maslow, Lewin, Deming and Juran (Williams 2005). Thus it is important for a human resource management practitioner to identify what specific system works for the organization given a specific situation. Sisaye (2005) identify three types of organizational development and management control systems in order to apply organizational systems perspectives. These three types are normative, coercive and remunerative-instrumental or utilitarian and can potentially affect the operating performance of team. The researcher concluded that there has been a shift from an individual to team based management control systems in the implementation of organizational development implementation. What is interesting in her conclusion is that it appears that each of the three types of systems work most efficiently and effectively in completely different scenarios. This means that when one system is used where it is not the best system, then the optimal result of the organizational development would not be achieve. Hence the choice of what system to use is also a key decision factor. Frost and Egi (1994) present a parallel between the "roles of shamans in their communities and the roles which organizational change and development consultants can play in guiding organizational transformations" (p. 7). This concept has a funny twist to it, but it does make sense. A shaman foresees the future and then recommends 'medicinal' or 'herbal' remedies while an organizational change and development consultant also tries to see what the future brings and recommends changes in the organization in order for the firm to cope with those changes. At the end of the day, training and development must furnish these 'shamans' the necessary skills and knowledge to adopt with the changes they see of the future. A discussion of the different concepts and practices in organization development and how they contribute to the success of the organization is necessary (McKendall 1993). According to Van de Ven and Scott Poole (1995), it is important that the organization identify its current life cycle such that an effective training and development processes can be identified. Methodology To answer the research questions, the researcher has identified the following specific questions: 1. What is the research problem 2. Why is it important 3. What needs to be solved 4. How could the researcher solve it 5. What would the researcher's data look like 6. What would the researcher's findings look like Hence, to be able to answer the above questions, a survey of human resource managers, specifically training and development managers, would be conducted. The survey questionnaire would be designed to gather data which will help the researcher answer the research questions. From the data gathered in the survey, statistical tools will be used to interpret the results. Results This section of the paper will present the data gathered from the survey. However, the most important part of this section is the analysis of the data gathered and interpretation of this data as regards the three identified research problems. Conclusion and Recommendations Conclusions and Recommendations- For this paper, this will be your summary of what you expect to find from your research and how this might be used to inform your teaching or others in the future. Consider this as a recommendation to your principal, school board, or others that might be influenced by the findings of your study. You may also use this section to include recommendations for future studies perhaps on a larger scale or with a different sample population. References Belcastro, F. (2002). Electronic technology and its use with rural gifted students. Roeper Review, 25(1), 14-16. Church, A. Margiloff, A. & Corruzzi, C. 1995, 'Using surveys for change: An applied example in a pharmaceuticals organization', Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 3-11. Frost, P. & Egri, C. 1994, 'The shamanic perspective on organizational change and development', Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 7-23. Gibbons, P. 1992, 'Impacts of Organizational Evolution on Leadership Roles and Behaviors', Human Relations, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 1-18. Hays, J. 2007, 'Dynamics of Organizational Wisdom', Business Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 77-122. King, S. & Wright, M. 2007, 'Building Internal Change Management Capability at Constellation Energy', Organization Development Journal, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 57-62. Lalonde, C. 2007, 'Crisis Management and Organizational Development: Towards the Conception of a Learning Model in Crisis Management', Organization Development Journal, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 17-26. McKendall, M. 1993, 'The tyranny of change: Organizational development revisited' Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 93-104. Pollitt, D. 2007, 'Toiletries company scents sweet perfection as training helps to change organizational culture', Training & Management Development Methods, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 129-133. Randall, R., Cox, T. & Griffiths, A. 2007, 'Participants' accounts of a stress management intervention', Human Relations, vol. 60, no. 8, pp. 1181-1209. Ryan, N., Williams, T., Charles, M. & Waterhouse, J. 2008, 'Top-down organizational change in an Australian Government agency', The International Journal of Public Sector Management, vol. 21, no. 1, p. 26. Sisaye, S. 2005, 'Management control systems and organizational development: New directions for managing work teams', Leadership & Organization Development Journal, vol. 26, no. 1/2, pp. 51-61. Thompson, T., Purdy, J. & Summers, D. 2008, 'A Five factor framework for coaching middle managers', Organization Development Journal, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 63-71. Wetzel, D. & Buch, K. 2000, 'Using a structural model to diagnose organizations and develop congruent interventions', Organization Development Journal, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 9-19. Williams, B. 2005, 'MODELS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT', Futurics, vol. 29, no. 3/4, pp. 1-22. Van de Ven, A., & Scott Poole, M. 1995, 'Explaining development and change in organizations', The Academy of Management Review, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 510-539. Read More