Promoting Organisational Learning - Case Study Example

Assessment Tool (for feedback) In training processes, feedback is central to successful learning and development of employees. Without effective feedback, employees would not be aware of their progress and achievements. Feedback is important for many reasons. It directs, motivates, and rewards employees. It is the basis for development and career planning, and it contributes to building effective interpersonal relationships. Ramaprasad (1983 cited Shachelford 2004) defined feedback as “information about the gap between the actual level and the reference level of a system parameter which is used to alter the gap in some way (57). Goal setting is integral to the feedback process. Feedback works best when goals are set in advance. The goals provide a benchmark or standard of comparison for evaluating the meaning of the feedback. Also, goals should be set or revised in response to feedback. An Assessment Tool for Immediate Feedback Immediate feedback is an effective tool because it follows the answer of immediately and helps to improve trainees’ performance. Immediate feedback can be positive or negative. Immediate feedback can be based on co-operative discussion at the beginning of the lectures which appears similar to dialogue. Co-operative discussion and dialogue involve working together through conversation but co-operative discussion involves less commitment to joint goals. In co-operative discussion the style is formal and controlled. The rainier either manages the occasion or takes overall responsibility (Shachelford 2004). Trainer-to-student feedback is characterized by one-way communication. The trainer is seen as the expert and provides information to the student about their work, to clarify goals, to identify mistakes or provide advice. In the examples, feedback is sometimes used to help develop understanding and take thinking forward. Trainer -to-student feedback takes place in classrooms under the control of the teacher. Positive feedback is motivating for people who have a promotion focus (meaning they want to succeed) but results in no extra effort for people who have a prevention focus (meaning they want to avoid failure). Negative feedback: In the course of learning a new job or task, people are likely to experience failure. People usually react to negative feedback by decreasing their goals, discounting, or rejecting the feedback. These are self-protection mechanisms. Corrective feedback helps to evaluate employees’ performance and correct their actions, if necessary. In order to overcome one-way dependence task instructions need to ensure “resource interdependence or goal interdependence” (Barrington, Reid, 1999 34). In this view of feedback, the correction function has been seen as probably the most important aspect. In this view, feedback is seen to have three elements - the desired goal, evidence about present position, and some understanding of a way to close the gap between the two (Shachelford 2004). Short tests and multiple-choice tests can be also used on this stage. The most effective way is to test employees’ performance using software programs like an automated tutor. Trainees select only from pre-defined answers. Students engaged with given activities by typing text-based answers and receiving a response from the interactive system. An automated tutor analyzes the trainees’ input and provides feedback with respect to specific errors made. This type of assessment allows trainers to save time and provide immediate feedback for both employees and trainers. A further enhancement of this interactive course support system included trainee modeling, which tracked ongoing performance, kept a record and adjusted the system decisions accordingly. For example, the level of feedback needed for the trainee is determined by the student model, and the difficulty of subsequent exercises is selected by the trainee model in response to previous performance (Barrington, Reid, 1999). Final Assessment The structure and content of the final assessment is the most important part of the training program because it shows the effectiveness of training and determine if participants have passed or failed the program. The main assessment tools involve: written work, oral work and practical work. The questions on written papers vary in the extent to which the form and content of the employees’ answer is prescribed by the trainer. The question may require a single word to be provided by the employee. This might be based on the recall of a single piece of factual information which limits the range of possible answers, frequently to one. If a recognition test is used, by giving two or three incorrect and one correct answer complete objectivity in marking is assured. Recognition tests need not be limited to factual information. True/false statements can be used, with conditions attached as necessary, so that the employee’ understanding of question is being tested even though their answer may take the form of ticks in boxes. More extended questions of this type have similarities with structured questions. In this case the answers are provided by the candidate, instead of being provided by the examiner and recognized by the candidate. With a finely structured question the employee is receiving detailed guidance about the answer required and has the opportunity to accumulate marks as he or she works through the question. The written part of the final assessment can involve computer-based programs which help to save time and provide objective feedback and assessment of skills and knowledge level of employees (Barrington, Reid, 1999). Oral assessment is sometimes omitted in training programs or joined with practical part of assessment. The importance of listening and speaking skills has long been recognized in management. A practical part consists of real life situations (cultural communication, quality management, team management and communication, etc) which help to assess communication and management skills and knowledge of the participants. In an era when large numbers of adults are engaged in work which involves communicating by the spoken rather than the written word, and the skills of negotiation and problem-solving are more widely needed, it is essential that such skills are encouraged. Attention is drawn, however, to the problem of moderation if the skills are to be tested in context and to the consequent resource implications. In view of the importance of these skills in management it would clearly be in the general interest, as well as that of the trainees, for such components to be included in these examinations as a matter of priority. The results of such examinations could determine employment opportunities and promotion decisions based on scores and the level of skills obtained during the program (Barrington, Reid, 1999). Effectiveness of the Training Content and Its Applications on the Job The assessment objectives in management and leadership contain distinctions between the skill of remembering, in the form of recall or recognition, and those of understanding and application. The importance of understanding and application is stressed in all three areas, both by the nature of the assessment objectives and the weightings used in the training and examinations. There is also emphasis on skills not traditionally associated with the examination of practical and investigational skills and the use of material in forms other than printed text and oral communication (Shachelford, 2004). The initial step of defining the content domain provides an alternative to traditional approaches of specifying tasks or requisite knowledge, skills, and abilities. Additionally, key concepts can be elicited and represented both for domain experts and novices. This information may serve several purposes. Expert solutions can be compared to determine whether there is one or many paradigms for understanding and solving problems on the job. If expert solutions vary widely, perhaps learners should be encouraged to build their own idiosyncratic knowledge structures rather than trying to provide a single "best" model through instruction. As the most important the content of the training program should cover the main skills and knowledge level determined by the job characteristics or new organizational environment. Expert solutions can also be compared to novice solutions to determine appropriate training content. “Employees need the training program to be properly coordinated and arranged. Good coordination ensures that trainees are not distracted by events (such as an uncomfortable room or poorly organized materials) that could interfere with learn” (Wentland 2003, 56). For example, if expert models contained interrelated concepts related to problem diagnosis, but novice models did not, then training could emphasize diagnostic cues during problem solving. The quality of individual knowledge representations (assessed by either closeness or coherence) could then be used during person analysis to identify who should be trained When establishing performance standards for training, it is useful to consider several things. (1) An information-processing perspective of the trainee provides a theoretical background appropriate for how the individual will construct a mental model of the task. (2) The type of information being learned by the trainee will determine the relative importance of skin-, rule-, or knowledge-based cognitive control. (3) Understanding mental models and cognitive control strategies can lead to a concrete way of establishing effective behavioral strategies for use in training novices. Another way of saying this is that if experts tend to follow a specific path in a network of behaviors, deviations from that path on the part of novices can serve as a metric to measure trainee performance against. For situations in which teams are trained, it would be especially useful model team performance utilizing the same methodology employed for individual performance. References 1. Barrington, H., Reid, M.A. (1999). Training Interventions: Promoting Organisational Learning. Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development. 2. Frayer, C.A. (1991). Reducing Employee Absenteeism Through Self-Management Training: A Research-Based Analysis and Guide. Quorum Books. 3. Shachelford, B. (2004). Project Management Training (ASTD Trainers Workshop). American Society for Training and Development. 4. Wentland, D. (2003). The Strategic Training of Employees Model: Balancing Organizational Constraints and Training Content. SAM Advanced Management Journal, 68 (1), 56. Read More