Conduct of Learning and Personal Development Programs - Term Paper Example

Executive Summary Learning and development is a very component in any organisation as it helps to improve knowledge, skills and tries to shape the behaviour and attitude of the people towards their work. This research paper will deal with the learning and development strategy in the organisation and the learning and development models at work. The various element and the features of the learning and development strategy along with the activities will be discussed in detail in the paper. The two different models of learning like Honey and Mumford as well as Kolb’s model will also be analysed. The paper also aims to discuss the various constituents for successful learning and development strategy. Table of Contents Executive Summary 1 Introduction 3 Section 1- Learning and Development Strategy in Organisation 4 Question A 4 Elements and Features of Learning and Development Strategy 4 Constituents of Learning and Development In Order To Be Successful 5 Question B 7 Significance and Role of Learning and Development Activities 7 Case Study Exercises 7 Training by Role Playing 8 Situation Simulation 8 Corporate University 9 Management Coaching 9 Section 2 – Learning Styles Model at Work 10 Conclusion 12 References 13 Introduction Learning is a continuous process that leads to development. It is a process of understanding through which the modification in the attitude and the behaviour takes place. Through learning and development strategies, the competencies and the behaviours of the individual as well as the team can be enhanced and the goals of the organisation can be achieved. For the learning and development strategy to be successful, it is important for the organisation to foster an environment that provides the trainee with ample scope to learn and develop his skills, knowledge that is necessary to perform the job effectively. Adaption to the changes is very important for the employees in the organisation. If they can adapt to the unanticipated changes then the learning and development is said to be successful. Section 1- Learning and Development Strategy in Organisation Question A Elements and Features of Learning and Development Strategy The term human resource development can be said as a coordinated use of the training and the development, career development as well as the organisational development for the improvement of the individual and the group and to increase the effectiveness of the organisation. The learning and development strategy uses the various interventions and the techniques in order to improve the performance of the people in the organisation (Swart & Et. Al., 2005). Learning and development is not any course or any event, but it is a continuous process that requires commitment from all the concerned parties. Whenever changes occur it is important for the learners and the organisation to remain agile. If the organisation as well as the learner is able to adapt to the changes then that can be considered as the biggest gift of learning. Learning and development is the process of acquiring the information and it is a quantitative increase in the knowledge of the learner. It means to store the information in such a way that it can be reproduced as and when required. It tends to acquire the facts, methods and skills in an attempt to retain and use the information when necessary (Armstrong. 2000). It can be said that the learning and development strategy must be both business led and people led. It must be business led in the sense that it must be designed to support the achievement of the objectives of the business with the promotion of the human capital advantage. It must be people led which means that it must be able to identify the needs of the people to grow and develop. Both learning and development have been a lifelong process, however, development takes the individual through the journey of higher stages. During the process of learning the learner tends to understand which helps to bring certain kind of modification in the behaviour and attitude via the addition to the skills, knowledge and values. Although learning has been an individualised process, however general patterns of learning and unlearning can be sought via creative experiences, experimentation, observations and reflection and through abstract thinking and conceptualization. There have been different stages of the learning process. First of all, it is important to gather the knowledge via the factual information. Then the learner tends to understand and internalize the factual information which is the second stage. In the third stage, the learner tries to apply the gained knowledge in the day to day problems in his personal as well as professional life. Analysis is the fourth stage and final stage aims at integrating the various inferences drawn from multiple experiences into a coherent mixture of all underlying occurrence. On the other hand the development process takes place only when there have been greater changes into the behaviour and attitude of the individual. Therefore, the person must be in a stage where he can continuously learn new things. The effective learning and development programme in order to be successful must have the following features like strategy driven, return on investment, ownership, methodologies and continuous learning process (BIM, 2010). For the learning and development to be successful, it must comprise of the elements like learning and development philosophy, objectives, priorities, resources required for the learning and development, success criteria of learning and development and the effectiveness of the learning and development that needs to be measured and evaluated. Constituents of Learning and Development In Order To Be Successful Motivation has been one of the important constituents for learning and development. There must be certain intention to learn, so that learning can take place in any organisation. If an employee is motivated only then he will be able to pay attention to what is being said. Reinforcement has been another important factor for the success of the learning and development. A person would like to learn only if his work is rewarded. Therefore, it is very important for the trainer to reward the desired behaviour. Feedback is also one of the important constituents for the success of the training and development. The learner learns best only if immediate feedback is provided after the training. If the learner is going off the track then the trainer must put him right on the track which will help him to rectify the errors as soon as possible. The learning and development programme is perceived to be effective if it is continued for a longer period of time. Question B Significance and Role of Learning and Development Activities Case Study Exercises The case study method is a very important method that has been used by the organisation as one of the training methods and activities. It is defined as an investigation and the study of the persons’ behaviour that is related to the activity of finding the solution to the problem. It can be said that within the case study method a person under the study is treated as a unique or individual case in himself. The method is carried out in order to serve the following two purposes. They are diagnosis and treatment of the behavioural problems and to provide better guidance as well as counselling (Arora & Pahuja, 2010). It can be defined as a written or verbal account of the situation that requires analysis or solution. These case studies are given to the learners that consist of the problem which he needs to analyze and present the recommendations (Meted, 1997). In most of the cases the case studies are considered as irrelevant by the trainees even if the study is based on the fact. Therefore, it is the duty of the trainer to avoid this kind of dangers that occurs by making sure that the participants provide full comment. Justification of the reasoning needs to be challenged by the trainer. Training by Role Playing Role play helps to build the right habit in a systematic manner. It has to be done in a low-stress environment that makes it easier to learn. The play has to be performed at the place of job. It has been used in a variety of ways. It is generally enacted by the small group of people while the learner observes it. A serious discussion over the matter is carried out. The method is almost similar to the demonstration while the learner learns via observation. In this method the discussion is stimulated on some kind of complex issues. At certain point of time, the role play is also used to practice certain kind of skills. It is the renewal of the past experiences that have already occurred. Here the learners enact an issue which they are familiar with. The main importance of the role play is that it is an energizing technique and mainly focuses on the problems that are real by nature. It helps the illiterate to express his feelings. Moreover, it doesn’t require any advance preparation (John Hopkins Center for Clinical Global Health Education, 2004). Situation Simulation The technique has been used widely by the organisation as a method of training. It is not only used as an important method of training but it also helps to identify the management training and development needs in an organisation. It is to be noted that even if the method is not used with the intention to identify the needs of training, the attentive trainer derives valuable information on aspects like management skills, knowledge, and shortcomings in a situation that is very close to the actual practice. It is the combination of the case study method and the role playing in order to obtain maximum amount of the realism in training. The trainees are provided with situations that resembles the situations similar to their work environment (Kubr & Prokopenko, 1989). Corporate University Corporate universities are the teaching departments designed to develop the individuals to meet the needs of the corporate houses. It has been found that the colleges or the schools are not producing the type of candidate or product that is needed by the businesses. Therefore, corporate universities have some more important missions to make sure that changes occur in the behaviour and attitude and there is progress at the level of the corporate culture (Allen, 2002). The corporate universities are very important method of training. They add value, try to bring change within an individual and contribute to the overall growth and development of the organisation. It is to be noted that the corporate universities must be attached to the business and managed in a productive and efficient manner (Phillips, 2004). The corporate university is an educational body that is a tool designed to help the parent organisation in gaining the objectives by conducting such activities that helps to improve the knowledge of the individual (Allen, 2010). Management Coaching Coach is the person who lets his client to gain specific skill and knowledge and develop certain abilities. The work of coaches is similar to the counsellors as well as mentors. He offers advices, opinions and guidance and a specific matter to the trainee. Coaching is very important for the execution of the business (Northcutt, 2009). Section 2 – Learning Styles Model at Work David Kolb stated that the learning occurs when an experience is grasped and is transformed. According to Kolb, there are four basic learning modes like concrete experience, abstract conceptualization, reflective observation and active experimentation. His contribution was in the creation of instrument called learning style inventory (LSI) that helped to identify those strong preferences. At cognitive experience, an experience is sensed which is transformed through reflection leading to the development of the ideas extended into the world after taking actions. Therefore, according to him learning holds both outcomes and the process. This model has been very useful for the management development and the human resource development. This model was criticized by many but it improved in its later version. The diagram below describes the Kolb’s learning cycle. (Kirk, 2007). Honey and Mumford has created two models instead of grand theory. They have identified these four styles of learning which are activist, theorist, reflectors and pragmatist. It is to be noted that none of the learning styles mentioned above are exclusive by nature. (Nwlink, 2008). However, the model has been developed differently from that of the Kolb’s original theories. There are practical differences from Kolb’s in their “planning the next step stage” when compared to Kolb’s active experimentation. According to Kolb, action takes place without any planning because of thoughtful learning process. Another difference was that Kolb’s original theory was based on the proposition that there exist polar opposites but in reality it was not so. Third difference is that Honey and Mumford regard their learning cycle as applicable to all kind of learning activity whereas the Kolb’s model specified it as an experiential learning cycle. Mumford and Honey learning inventory proposed activities to choose and the case was just the opposite for Kolb’s model in which the learning style inventory uses only single word (Mumford & Gold, 2004). Conclusion Learning is the process of increasing the capabilities so that actions can be taken. There has been a difference between the learning and development where learning is concerned with the increase in the knowledge and development is concerned with the state of being or functioning. For a learning to be effective it is necessary to cultivate an environment where people are encouraged to take risk and experiments and mistakes are tolerated. The two learning styles that have been discussed above namely the Kolb’s model and the Mumford and Honey are basically used for the purpose of the designing and conduct of learning and personal development programs. References Allen, M., 2010. The Next Generation of Corporate Universities: 2010 and Beyond. Definition of Corporate Universities. [Online] Available at: http://innovationsinelearning.gmu.edu/Presentations%202010/NextGeneration_Allen.pdf [Accessed November 30, 2010]. Allen, M., 2002. The Corporate University Handbook: Designing, Managing, and Growing a Successful Program. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Armstrong, M., 2000. Strategic Human Resource Management: A Guide to Action. Kogan Page Publishers. Arora, M. G. & Pahuja, N. P., 2010. Psychology of Learning & Development. Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd. BIM, 2010. Learning and Development. BIM. [Online] Available at: http://www.bim.edu/src/supportfiles/57.pdf [Accessed November 30, 2010]. John Hopkins Center for Clinical Global Health Education, 2004. Teaching Techniques. Role Playing. [Online] Available at: http://www.ccghe.jhmi.edu/assets/CCGHE/Documents/S1-Teaching_Techniques.pdf [Accessed November 30, 2010]. Kubr, M. & Prokopenko, J., 1989. Diagnosing Management Training and Development Needs: Concepts and Techniques. International Labour Organisation. Kirk, K., 2007. A Diagram of Kolb's Cycle of Experiential Learning. SERC. [Online] Available at: http://serc.carleton.edu/details/images/9499.html [Accessed November 30, 2010]. Mumford, A. & Gold, J., 2004. Management Development: Strategies for Action. CIPD Publishing. Meted, 1997. Training Methods. Case Study. [Online] Available at: http://www.meted.ucar.edu/resource/soo/ntcmeth.htm [Accessed November 30, 2010]. Nwlink, 2008. Honey and Mumford's Learning Styles Questionnaire. Introduction. [Online] Available at: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/styles/honey_mumford.html [Accessed November 30, 2010]. Northcutt, S., 2009. Leadership Laboratory. Coaching to Improve Performance. [Online] Available at: http://www.sans.edu/resources/leadershiplab/leadership_coaching.php [Accessed November 30, 2010]. Phillips, J. J., 2004. Twelve Success Factors for Corporate Universities. Final Thought. [Online] Available at: http://media.roiinstitute.net/articles/pdf/2007/12/28/Twelve_Success_Factors_for_Corporate_Universities.pdf [Accessed November 30, 2010]. Swart, J. & Et. Al., 2005. Human Resource Development: Strategy and Tactics. Butterworth-Heinemann. Read More