How Can E-learning Play a Strategic Role in Fast-Growing Global Companies - Essay Example

HOW CAN E-LEARNING PLAY STRATEGIC ROLE IN FAST-GROWING GLOBAL COMPANIES? A PROJECT FOR DIPLOMA IN TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT INTRODUCTION Before now, Electronic method of teaching and Learning method has been used in various ways by organizations to provide knowledge and skills to their human resources of all categories. Some of the methods have been through videos, films, the television and the radio [audio]. Through these means college courses, long distance teaching, workshops and seminars have been conducted to different audiences from one part of the world to another with great successes. Today, things have become a lot better through the introduction of the Internet technology. Things have been made a lot easier with several training organizations – colleges, universities, firms, training and human resource consultancy organizations now having their own web sites; through their web sites the services they provide to individuals and organizations can be easily downloaded and/or accessed The Internet technology can be said to be one of the best things that has happened to information and communication in terms of education, training and learning. It is doubtful if there is any thing under the sun that cannot be taught and learnt through the use of the Internet technology. Most parts of the world are connected to the Internet and both children and adults have easy access to it. Also both the educated and the illiterate brows the Internet all over the world for one information, business or the other. The good news is that one does not have to buy his own PC and connect to the Internet before he can make use of it. There are many Cyber Cafes where one can buy time and make use of the facility. A good number of the people who make use of the Internet do not necessarily have their own Internet facility, but make use of Cyber Cafes. Businessmen and women, importers and exporters, scholars and others make use of the Internet via Cyber Cafes because not everyone can afford to set up an internet facility in his home or office. In this way, a great number of the people who take part in e-learning and training through the Internet do so by means of the facility provided by private owned cyber cafes. There are several cyber cafes located in most communities both in the cities and the rural areas; this makes e-learning easy for those who use them as it only entails just walking over to the next building or street for that facility. This is unlike the case of video, audio or film, where one must have a television set, vcd, radio or films of his own as an individual or as an organization before one can play them and learn. Here also not everyone can afford these facilities and they are not usually available for hiring or renting. So the best facility to use for e-learning and training for now is the Internet and individuals and organizations are taking advantage of it and getting results. Talking about e-learning as a tool how it can benefit the organizations that have adopted it, a lot of things have to be put into consideration as it concerns the individual who is the target beneficiary. For instance, according to Kolb’s learning styles, the following categories of learners have some attitudes or behaviors peculiar to them which will form the basis of what type of learning method each individual will find suitable for his purpose. [1] OBSERVERS: This category of learners is said to focus on factual information. They learn by looking at and thinking about events that take place in real life situation. For a person like this, how would he benefit from e-learning, if for instance s/he were blind? [2] THINKERS: This category of people believes in the theories and like to read them. Such people according to Kolb need to get practical and use a ‘good dose of common sense’. This category of people can do well with e-learning. [3] DECIDERS: This category like having theoretical concept and models as their basis and working with them. They need a bit of creativity and flexibility to solve problems in real life. They need some concrete practical situations to know how successful they are using the theories and rules they have learnt, according to Kolb. [4] DOERS: This category learn by trial and error, making mistakes and discovering things for themselves. They have the tendency to adjust well to unexpected situations. They take risks. They get answers by intuition. Kolb advises them to be a bit more critical and find out why an answer is correct. The e-learning tool best suits this category of people as well. According to Kolb, “Most class-based teaching is best geared to the learning style of the ‘decider’. ‘Appliers’ have an easy time of it in the educational system, but if they are required to do more independent learning and research, they need structured assignments and a lot of guidance and supervision. ‘Observers’ benefit greatly from cooperation and exchanging ideas. In the class-based system they have t take a lot initiatives themselves in order to get the teacher to mention tangible examples and find elements, which engage their personal interest. In a system in which people work more independently, they find it difficult if the work is primarily done individually. They prefer to work together with others. In a class-based system, ‘thinkers experience difficulties if too much learning is ‘pre-cooked’. They would blossom in an ‘independent-study approach’. They need a push to get to work in real life. ‘Doers’ are troublesome people in a normal class-based system, but they flourish in a more open system where they have the freedom to work independently. They do, however, need supervision in order to understand the theory.” Kolb concluded by saying that most people have a combination of the several learning styles, and advises that individuals could discover the style[s] that best suits them and adapt them. From investigation, organizations locally here make use of e-learning method. Because of the importance of the courses to the organizations, the staffs for whom the courses are always intended take active part in the causes. Some of the reasons given for the active participation in the courses, seminars and workshops include the following: [1] Fear of losing their jobs if they did not [2] The courses did not have any cost implication on the individual employee [the employers usually pay for those courses] [3] It adds to their knowledge and skills [4] It improves their chances of promotion [5] It adds value to their curriculum vitae For those who participated, but who would not do so if they had the choice, the following reasons were given for their apathy:- [1] They were already advanced in career age [45 and above] and have no motivation for further knowledge and/or skills acquisition. [2] Some were either hard in hearing, impaired in vision, or deaf and dumb [3] Some were seeking for ‘greener pastures’ elsewhere For those who did not participate in spite of the risk to lose their jobs and/or incentives, the following were their reasons: [1] Lack of motivation to remain with present organization and therefore would not mind losing their jobs. [2] Already due for retirement and had no use for such training, knowledge and skills. From investigation, it was also observed that a good number of others who take e-learning as a tool for knowledge and skill acquisition are the relatively younger people who are still seeking admission into the higher institutions, but who for one reason or the other have not yet been offered admission. In some societies, getting admission into the colleges and universities are very difficult these days because of the few openings available compared to the large number of candidates waiting to be admitted. Apart from that, there is the quota system being used to grant admission to candidates based on the geographical location from which a candidate originates from, in addition to the academic qualification and performance of candidate in pre-admission examinations conducted by the Federal Ministries of Education, every year. Due to frustration and long waiting for their turn/luck to be admitted, parents help to arrange e-learning programs for their children and wards to keep them busy and away from vices associated with idleness. This category of people make up to 50% of the whole lot that use the e-learning method. Some of the courses offered by the youths include economics, principles of marketing, principles of accounting, business administration, information technology, web site writing, GMAT, TOEFL, etc. Looking at the above scenario, we can see that different things motivate or de-motivate people in deciding whether or not to embrace e-learning as a good tool to acquire skills and knowledge. This category of e-learners belong to the learning style graded as ‘Observers’ because of their level of understanding, class-based situation; togetherness, interaction and sharing of ideas suit them. They also need supervision. According to Kolb, some people have more than a single learning style. Once they are identified and adopted, learning could become easier. From the above report, the following is the summary of discovery: Those who participate actively in the e-learning program in their organizations are those who are still interested in their careers and want to develop themselves more to enhance their career advancement. They are highly motivated because of their immediate and long term expectations in their careers. Another factor that makes them to take active part is the incentives attached to it by their employers and also the fact that the courses/seminars/workshops are usually fully paid by their organizations. They see it equally as a form of adding quality and weight to their CVs. The second group of people are those who are indifferent to whatever the outcome of the training. They are not bothered with whatever value it might add to their CVs. Their reason is that they have lost the desire to continue their career in their present company, so believe they could make a good career with another employer. For this group of people, though young, they are not motivated to participate and care less about the consequence of their refusal to do so [loss of job], since whether they are sacked or not, they have made up their mind to leave. The third category are those nearing their retirement age and as such are no longer motivated to learn new skills and/or knowledge. This category see it as money wrongly invested or a waste by their employers to include them, since they would soon leave the organization because of age, and stand no chance of being employed elsewhere. The fourth category is made up of those who have not yet become working class or career people. They are youths who are still waiting to be admitted into the high institution to further their education. These young ones take e-learning as a means to keep busy and keep their brains and minds at alert, pending when they gain admission. Ironically, this latter group makes more use of e-learning than the rest groups. DATA ANALYSIS ON E-LEARNING FACTOR CATEGORY 1 CATEGORY 2 CATEGORY 3 CATEGORY 4 TOTAL OBTAINABLE Personal development 17 2 1 10 30 Career Advancement 25 5 - - 30 Knowledge acquisition 25 5 - 10 40 Total 67% 14% 4% 24% 100% From the above analysis using Herzberg’s motivation factors, we can see that career and knowledge acquisition [youths] rank highest, followed by personal development. Frederick Herzberg’s theory has it that the following constitute the hygiene factors which when not available makes an employee to be dissatisfied: Company policy, supervision, inter-personal relations, working conditions and salary. Following the hygiene factors, these are what bring satisfaction to the categories listed; meaning their availability will not make a worker satisfied, but their absence causes him dissatisfaction. The high-ranking category may not necessarily be satisfied, but can do their jobs all the same without grumbling, but when they are not their, there will be complaint and dissatisfaction On the other hand, using the Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, those who are at the twilight of their working careers, may safely be regarded as those who have reached their highest level in their careers, i.e., self-actualization. At that point, there is nothing to pursue again, as he has become all that he can ever become. Motivation is therefore producing some diminishing returns. ABRAHAM MASLOW’S HIERARCY OF NEEDS Steps Type of Needs Descriptions 5 Self actualization To reach one’s full potential and become all that one has to be. 4 Self esteem Self-respect, the respect other people show, self-recognition. 3 Love and Belongingness To escape loneliness, love and be loved, gain a sense of belonging 2 Safety Security, including job security, stability, protection 1 Physiological Shelter, food, water, family The above table shows where each of the above categories can be located on the hierarchy of needs table as postulated by Abraham Maslow. It is assumed that those at the twilight of their careers who are at the verge of being retired are those ranked at step 5 in this table. Now looking at any organization that adopts e-learning for their workforce, a situation where a good percentage of this workforce is made up of older employees, the investment in training by such an organization will be more or less a wasted investment. However, for an organization to enjoy the benefit of e-learning, people close to retirement age should not be included in their training programs. Rather younger employees who have good potential and are the future of the organization should be encouraged to participate in the e-learning program. In this case, they have to look at Kolb’s learning styles and choose the style that suits each person or group of persons within an organization. Furthermore, looking at Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs again, it will be important to find out how a disgruntled worker can be motivated for the purpose of retaining him in the organization. This is true, if the worker concerned is a high performer and has the potential to grow within the. Douglas McGregor’s two factor system will suggest the use of job enrichment, challenging responsibilities, and the use of a worker’s initiative as a motivational factor. Some employees leave an organization if they feel that they are being under-utilized. When this happens, they look elsewhere for opportunity to realize their potential through expressing themselves better. SURVEY OF REGIONAL OFFICES In addition to the above analyses, further survey of regional offices revealed the following. Two different groups were interviewed and labeled as High Achieving Group [HA] and Low Achieving Group [LA]. The high achieving group consisted of 25 learners and the low achieving group 24 learners. From the survey, 68 per cent of the HA group use the e-learning tool more than twice every week. 32 Per cent of this group used it at least once a week. Some of the advantages they have over the low achieving group include the following: [1] Management support [2] Learning incentives [3] Office space [4] Technical support [5] Access to the e-learning tool from their homes and offices. The Low Achieving [LA] Group has the following result: [1] 10 per cent used the tool once a week [2] 35 per cent used the tool once every two weeks [3] 55 per cent used it once a month The disadvantages observed in this group include the following: [1] Minimum access to the tool from home and work [2] Lack of PC and internet access at home [3] No office space [4] No computer lab [5] Minimum computer literacy [6] Minimum management support and access. Out of the 100 questionnaires sent out to random e-learning users, only 77 per cent responded from nine countries. 20 per cent of this used the tool once a week, 10 per cent used it once every two weeks and 70 per cent used it once a month. This group of users had the following complaints: [1] Minimum technical support as a result of differences in zone between the USA and Europe-Middle East and the Far East. [2] The main technical support team was based in Kuwait where weekends are on Thursday and Friday, unlike the US where it is Saturday and Sunday. [3] Low Bandwidth and connectivity – the system ran slower and audio functions were deteriorated. From the above, it is observed that the regional Offices had less technical support and the time zones were not favorable. SUGGESTED SOLUTION The support function should be decentralized for the e-learning Installation of regional libraries to minimize the technical problems MOTIVATION: [1] High Achievers: They had access to computers at all times Many of them had laptops They had all the incentives to learn [2] Low Achievers: They had minimum opportunity to learn as listed under disadvantages above. They lacked healthy learning environment A further look at the above, based on Kolb’s Learning Styles, the survey showed that the participants in the e-learning tool preferred working in group where they could interact and share ideas and be challenged. This group falls under Kolb’s ‘Observers’. Observers’ benefit greatly from cooperation and exchanging ideas. In the class-based system they have t take a lot initiatives themselves in order to get the teacher to mention tangible examples and find elements, which engage their personal interest. In a system in which people work more independently, they find it difficult if the work is primarily done individually. They prefer to work together with others. Based on the above, one can say therefore that the success of any organization using e-learning strategy will depend on the type or category of employees they have in their stable. Another area I will quickly like to point out is the case of handicapped employees. There employees at various levels from the lowest wrung of a company’s hierarchical ladder to the highest who though could benefit from e-learning method, but who cannot due to their situation – disabled. If for instance a company’s marketing manager is blind, any e-training on marketing strategy, for example that will require the use of visual facilities will be of no benefit to him. The same is the case if a staff is deaf and/or dumb and audio and/or visual instruments are used. The fact that employers of labor have such people in their fold should not be overlooked when planning for e-learning. A strategy that will carry everyone along must be provided, e.g. hearing device to aid hearing by those hard in hearing, brail for those with visual problem, and so on. An aspect of training which is of paramount importance to any learning organization is the issue of result of that training – how does the training affect or impact on the immediate and/or future fortunes of the organization? According to Donald Kirkpatrick, the goals and objectives of companies that invest in the training of their human resources will include the following: [1] To prevent mistakes [2] To prevent defects [3] To prevent wastes If this is the case, how then can the result of training be assessed or evaluated with regard to success or failure? According to above authority, there are five points at which organizations might measure the result, these are: [1] Before training [2] During training [3] After training [4] Re-entry into work place [5] Upon exiting the work place The elements of Kirkpatrick’s framework are defined as: [1] Reaction: “How well the trainee liked a particular training program.” Reactions are typically measured at the end of training, the instructor, according to Kirkpatrick, can also measure them during training informally. [2] Learning: In terms of principles, facts and techniques that were understood and absorbed by the conferee. Kirkpatrick believes that in order to properly assess the learning, and pick out what knowledge and/or skill resulted from the training, the trainee’s entering knowledge and skill levels must also be known or measured. [3] Behavior: Changes in on-the-job behavior. [4] Result: This can be measured in terms of cost reduction, turnover and absenteeism reduction, grievances reduction, increase in quality and quantity of production and improved moral. According to the article prepared for a 1992 American Society of Training Directors Tool Kit on Donald Kirkpatrick’s theory on training evaluation, edited by Karen Medsker and Don Roberts, training evaluation is described as determining its value, to find out its strengths or worth. But they continued by saying that “Value is relative – that is, what is of great value to one person is of a little or no value to another. I want to refer us back to my analysis of those who participated in e-learning and what it meant to them and those who do not participate and how they value it. This statement by that article goes to confirm my points. Medsker and Roberts went further to say that in evaluating training, it is important to know one’s audience – the person or persons for whom the determination of value is to be made. They gave such people as: [1] The trainees [2] Their managers [3] The trainers and their managers [4] The executives of the organizations wherein the training is taking place. [5] Members of the training profession [6] Members of the larger community in which the organization is imbedded. In conclusion, they said that, to properly evaluate a training requires one to think through the purposes of the training, the purpose of the evaluation, the audience, the result of the evaluation, the points or spans of points at which measurements will be taken, the time perspective to be employed and the overall framework to be utilized. In concluding, I will say that in my own opinion, the expectation of the result of the training of employees by any organization is to be on the positive side. The result of every training must justify the amount expended on it. If the purpose of training is to prevent mistakes in the work place, it is only proper for such objective to be achieved following appropriate training program to that effect. Applying the Kolb’s learning style which suits each training package will encourage all stakeholders in the e-learning tool and strategy. The same goes for other trainings. Anything other than positive result, whether it is the result of poor training conducted by trainers or the inability of trainees to assimilate, it all amounts to the same – waste of money, time, man and executive hours of the sponsoring organization, which should have been better used on other equally important things or projects. For instance, looking at the e-learning tool usage rate for all the stakeholders in an organization, the following results can be used as a yardstick to measure the benefit of e-learning to a typical e-learning organization: E-LEARNING USAGE RATE E-Learning Course name Expected participation Percentage participation Remark Management 100% 11% A minus 89% which is on the poor side Leadership 100% 12% A minus 88% [too poor] Team Building 100% 3% A minus 97% [too poor] Technical & Functional 100% 44% A fair percentage attendance Health & Safety 100% 35% A minus 65% [too poor] Customer Service 100 22% A minus 78% [too poor] Organization Orientation 100% 78% A compulsory course scoring a high mark expectedly Quality Management 100% 27% A minus 73% [too poor] From this analysis it can be observed that most of thelearners prefer the online version of the company’s orientation course, instead of attending a full day class. It is also noticed that most of them [97%] avoided taking the Team Building Course as an E-learning course. Most learners prefer shorter time of 2 hours online version to the 4 hour orientation session which they regard as time consuming. REFERENCES: Frederick Herzberg, Mausner, Badn Snyderman, B [1959] The Motivation At Work, Kolb DA [1984] Experiential Learning: Experience as the source of learning and development, D L Kirkpatrick [1967] ‘Evaluation in Training’, in Craig and Bittel [eds] Training and Development Handbook, Abraham Maslow Karen Medsker and Don Roberts Buckley, R and Caple, J [1995] The Theory and Practice of Training, John Wiley: New York, McGraw- Hill: Mullins, L [2002] Management and Organizational Behavior [6th edn], Prentice Hall. Read More