Learning and Development Strategies in Organizations - Coursework Example

Human Resource Management: Learning and Development Strategies in Organizations Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Introduction 3 Section 1 3 Section 2 8 Conclusion 9 References 10 Summary Organizations, in the present competitive world, are not only striving hard to survive in the industry but are aiming to become a leader wherein the human resource of the company has to play a major role; which is why, most of the organizations formulate different strategies and employee welfare schemes to retain the best talent in the industry. Learning and development has to change the way it operates by developing content in collaboration with workplace subject matter experts; supporting current practice and recruiting staff with good general grounding in L&D and specialist skills in particular areas. The new learning and development should be involved with the work using multiple styles of delivering the content and designing curriculum to determine whether the courses are actually required. Action learning encourages the cultivation of distinct leadership qualities in business practitioners whereas mentoring is the process of using specially selected and trained individuals to provide guidance pragmatic advice and continuing support in order to help the persons in increasing their competence in carrying out a specified job. The paper also explains in brief about the learning styles of Kolb and Honey & Mumford which are almost similar in their approach in providing training to the employees. Introduction Organizations, in the present competitive world, are not only striving hard to survive in the industry but are aiming to become a leader wherein the human resource of the company has to play a major role; which is why, most of the organizations formulate different strategies and employee welfare schemes to retain the best talent in the industry. According to Denisi and Griffin (2005) human resource management refers to the comprehensive set of managerial activities and tasks concerned with developing and maintaining a qualified workforce i.e. human resources, in ways that contribute to organizational effectiveness. Carroll and McCrackin (1998) mentioned that many organizations are getting into competency act, selecting and developing employees against standards of performance needed for both present and future business. It is further stated that selection, employee development, assessment and workforce planning can all be linked to a common set of competencies. That is why the present paper focuses on the learning and development strategy for employees in modern organizations, analyzing the role and significance of various learning and development strategies and comparing the learning styles of Kolb and Honey & Mumford. Section 1 A). Learning and Development Strategy in Modern Organization Learning and development was widely described as “training and development”, “employee development” and “human resource development”. Though L&D covers everything from training to development of an employee, Harrison (2005) mentions that ‘Learning’ involves three process which is to develop by bringing out all that is contained in; to educate and to train the employees in particular skill. Previously, training was a process with almost no connection to the daily operations of the rest of the organization, which needs to be changed. Learning and Development was typically not part of the daily thrust of work and the role of training was “building capability” by giving employees “just in case” knowledge and skills for use at some point in the future, if such situation arises (Ohanian, 2010). According to Gupta (2009) continuous learning is essential for any organization to survive and develop in continuously changing business environment. Further Armstrong (2008) mentioned that employees should be given opportunities for learning and development which may enable them to advance their careers. Learning and development is essential so that the employees are aware of knowledge and skills to carry out each job in a team. Armstrong (2008) has mentioned various learning methods like self managed learning, continuous learning, induction, mentoring, etc. but Ohanian (2010) states that the amount of information people need to carry out their jobs has altered and the demands are ever changing. Learning and development has to change the way it operates by developing content in collaboration with workplace subject matter experts; supporting current practice and recruiting staff with good general grounding in L&D and specialist skills in particular areas. The new learning and development should be involved with the work using multiple styles of delivering the content and designing curriculum to determine whether the courses are actually required. It is further pertinent to mention that learning and development has to change along with the changing business environment so as to develop the skills and knowledge of employees working in the organization. B). Learning and Development Activities This section analyzes five different learning styles that are used in the organizations at work. 1) Action learning activities Action learning has become a popular, increasingly institutionalized, aspect of management programs, countering criticisms that business school training is sometimes too theoretical for real world value. Action learning encourages the cultivation of distinct leadership qualities in business practitioners. Holton and Baldwin (2003) further mentioned that action learning takes actual work as the vehicle for learning wherein participants in an action learning program work in small groups to take action on compelling, meaningful challenges. It is further stated by Kolb and Mumford (Holton and Baldwin, 2003) that the learning involves a cyclical process of taking action, reflecting on that action, drawing conclusions and taking subsequent action based on the conclusions (Rahim, Golembiewski and Mackenzie, 2002). It is further stated by Rahim, Golembiewski and Mackenzie, (2002) that action learning stands a direct challenge to fads, packaged solutions to problems and to those forces which inhibit managers in being proactive about their own learning. According to McGill and Beaty (2001) action learning helps people to make a difference by stimulating an intrinsic orientation. Action learning is a process which encourages personal responsibility for learning and development of skill in constructing personal knowledge. Federal Aviation Administration used the learning as part of its two year development plan for middle managers to practice working with real world problems. Their methodology involved three teams meeting over a 6 month period and at the end, the teams would meet their sponsors and reported their results after which the suggestions were largely followed by senior managers. Similarly General Electric (GE) formed action learning teams to work on organizational problems which were real, relevant and required decisions to resolve the issues (www.humtech.com). 2) Employee Mentoring Employee induction or orientation is the beginning of the training and development process of new employees. Mentoring is a further process of employee development that involves less – experienced employees aligning themselves with more senior, experienced employees to learn skills and get the knowledge of about required skills (Olsen and Zhao, 2008). According to Armstrong (2008) mentoring is the process of using specially selected and trained individuals to provide guidance, pragmatic advice and continuing support in order to help the persons in increasing their competence in carrying out a specified job. Further Komblum (2007) mentioned that employee mentoring programs are a popular approach to preventing alienation in the organizations. The mentoring program is mainly used in businesses, education, health, etc. to promote employee growth through collective participation from the employee and an experienced employee to gain the knowledge and skills required for growth at workplace (Orpen, 1997). It was found during a study by the Institute of Management involving 1500 UK managers that mentoring is one the top two most powerful leadership development tools used in organizations. Other studies reveal that 71% of Fortune 500 and private companies use mentoring in their organization whereas 77% of US companies surveyed in 2000 stated that mentoring improved both retention and performance of employees (Management Mentors). At Intel, as part of employee mentoring program, mentees select a skill related goal and the mentee is matched with a person with a higher level of the skill to help them, through web based tool. Mentoring relationships lasts for nearly six to nine months and it is assumed that the employees who are progressing within the organization have taken part in the mentoring programme. Similarly IKEA, a retail giant, in order to address the diversity issue, switched to mentoring programme with 50 employees divided in two groups after three day training session. The program helped the mentees to address personal goals such as improving communication skills (Cranwell-Ward, et. al, 2004). 3. Group / Departmental Exercise Group learning or exercise involves two main kinds of processes – learning processes and the processes of working with others (Race, 2000). According to Forsyth (2009) people join groups to solve many different kinds of problems like seeking new skills and outlooks, insight into their own characteristics or a new repertoire of behaviors they can use to improve their relationships with others. This learning method facilitates a groups communication, problem solving and decision making processes. The learning style should be used to facilitate communication making it faster and clearer, bringing together multiple perspectives, facilitate and accelerate group problem solving and decision making, encourage collective learning, and bring together geographically dispersed team members or stakeholders whose input is needed for decision making or problem solving. A healthcare organization, Innova Health System implemented group exercise through Groupware technologies to create training that would help build strong management union relationship. Through the exercise, labor and management representatives identified examples of successful relationships (www.humtech.com). 4. Modern Apprenticeships An apprentice is someone who learns a skill by watching an expert and then practicing with their guidance. This is also known as sitting by Nellie which remains a valuable way of learning at work. This kind of learning style is best preferred when employee is well prepared, the person being observed is willing and prepared and there is time for discussion and reflection on what is being learned (Lucas, 2005). According to Spielhofer and Sims (2004) modern apprenticeships were introduced in to strengthen the work based learning route for young people and to make a contribution to address the nation’s deficit in intermediate level skills. Most of the non graduate’s staff operated in various roles like secretarial and clerical staff, IT support staff, customer service staff, etc. and modern apprenticeships were used to develop skills of the employees. Most of the HR managers identified the benefits of Modern Apprenticeships in improving the skills of their workforce as measured against national standards, producing more rounded employees, motivation and retention of staff, etc. Wakefield College in collaboration with the Chemical Industries Associations, developed a modern apprenticeship scheme basically designed for 16 – 17 years, integrated core skills, and covered most occupation in the industry (Hill, 1995). 5. Situation Simulation According to Jonassen (2010) the heart of strategic performance solving environments is the simulation. Simulation training is mainly for novices or experienced practitioners and the primary goal of such training is to assess the situation and record the responses to that situations. The primary method is to expose trainees to assess situations in simulations. Saiyadan (2009) mentioned that learning takes place when individuals try to improve their job performance by actually doing something about the day to day job problems by creating a hypothetical or real situation and action learning is one component of simulation learning. This type of learning helps in providing real time training to the employees so that they can gain skills and hands on practice which may not be possible in theoretical training. Section 2 David Kolb argued that the learning process is not the same for all people. Kolb formulated experiential learning and theorized that individuals learning style is based on the specific persons preferred modes of learning and proposed four basic modes of experiential learning which include concrete experience, abstract conceptualization, reflective observation and active experimentation (Werner and DeSimone, 2008). Honey and Mumford modified Kolb’s learning style as mentioned above became four learning styles viz ‘activist’, ‘reflector’, ‘theorist’, and pragmatist’ respectively (Woodall and Winstanley, 1998) Kolb’s learning style is based on number of principles which makes it mandatory for the learner to be involved in an active exploration of the experience and provides the employee for further motivation in an organization. Honey and Mumford’s learning style promotes the idea of using learning opportunities to develop personal effectiveness. Kolb’s theory emphasizes on the involvement of employee in the learning through active participation by feeling and watching, watching and thinking, doing and thinking and then doing and feeling whereas Mumford’s learning style is description of attitudes and behavior which determine an individual’s preferred way of learning. The theories of Kolb are similar to the styles of Honey and Mumford which is mentioned below: Activist = Accommodating Reflector = Diverging Theorist = Assimilating Pragmatist = Converging Honey and Mumford’s learning styles is a product of combinations of the learning cycle stages wherein employee needs to have an experience (activists), reviewing the experience (reflectors), concluding from the experience (theorists) and finally planning the next steps (pragmatists). Nair (n.d.) advocated strong similarity between the two learning styles providing opportunities for employee growth. Conclusion Learning and Development is essential in present business environment in view of the increasing competition in most of the industry. Employee retention and motivation are the two important factors that are being addressed by the companies to retain their best talent and promote their career through various learning and development schemes. The learning styles mentioned in the paper would be useful and effective in order to promote the employee’s career and increase the companies productivity. References 1. Ohanian, A.A (2010) How Learning & Development must change: Three challenges, Learning Solutions Magazine, http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/ 2. Carroll, A and McCrackin J (1998) The Competent Use of Competency Based Strategies for Selection and Development, Performance Improvement Quarterly, 11 (3) pp.45-63 3. Denisi A.S. and Griffin R.W. (2005) Human Resource Management, 2nd Ed. Dreamtech Press, New Delhi. 4. Gupta, A (2009) Babur and Humayun: Modern Learning Organization, Lulu.Inc, USA 5. Harrison, R (2005) Learning and Development, CIPD Publishing, London. 6. Armstrong, M (2008) How to Manage People, Kogan Page, London. 7. Action Learning, Organizational Learning Strategies, www.humtech.com 8. Holton E.F. and Baldwin T.T. (2003) Improving learning transfer in organizations, John Wiley and Sons, US 9. Rahim, M.A., Golembiewski, R. and Mackenzie, K.D. (2002) Current Topics in Management, Transaction Publishers, US 10. McGill, I and Beaty L (2001) Action Learning: A Guide for professional, management and educational development, Routledge, US 11. Jane Cranwell-Ward, Patricia Bossons, Sue Gover and Henley Management College (2004) Mentoring: a Henley review of best practice, Palgrave Macmillan, New York 12. Orpen, C (1997) The effects of formal mentoring on employee work motivation, organizational commitment and job performance, The Learning Organization, 4(2) 53-60 13. Olsen M and Zhao, J (2008) Handbook of Hospitality Strategic Management, Butterworth-Heinemann, US 14. Komblum W (2007) Sociology in a Changing World, Ed 8, Cengage Learning, US 15. Management Mentors. Presentation on Best Practices in Mentoring: Attracting, Developing & Retaining Your Talent, www.management-mentors.com 16. Race, P. (2000) 500 Tips of Group Learning, Routledge, UK 17. Forsyth, D.R. (2009) Group Dynamics, Cengage Learning, US 18. Groupware, Organizational Learning Strategies, www.humtech.com 19. Hill, P. (1995) The Development of chemical sector modern apprenticeship in process operations and engineering, Education + Training, 37 (8), pp 21-25 20. Spielhofer T and Sims D (2004) Modern Apprenticeships: Hitting the target? Education + Training, 46 (3) pp. 112-118 21. Lucas, B (2005) Discover your hidden talents, Continuum International Publishing Group, National Education Press, UK 22. Jonassen D.H. (2010) Learning to solve problems: A handbook for designing problem solving learning environments, Taylor & Francis,US 23. Saiyadain (2009) Human Resources Management, Tata McGraw Hill, India 24. Nair, H. (n.d) Kolb Learning Styles http://xa.yimg.com/ 25. Werner J.M. and DeSimone R.L. (2008) Human Resource Development, Cengage Learning, US 26. Woodall J and Winstanley D (1998) Management Development: Strategy and Practice, Wiley – Blackwell, US Read More