Organizational Change, the Concept of Training and Development - Essay Example

Organizational Change Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Inserts Organizational Change Every organziation undergoes changes and the situations relating to it. These changes may refer to the change in organizational structure, methods and procedures, and even the change in hierarchy or the occurrence of organizational reengineering or restructuring. Employees are the people who are ultimately affected and impacted by these changes either positively or negatively. They may resist and refuse to adapt to changes; conversely, the employees may accept changes as a part of their organziation and job description. This paper will discuss the significance of the training and development concepts and terms of an intervention applied as a result of the organizational change. It elaborates upon the importance of the concept along with an overview regarding the need of training and development in the organziation. Moreover, the application stages and outcomes of the entire process will also be provided. Training and Development The concept of training and development (T&D) is an essential element in every organziation irrespective of its nature or scale of service provision. This concept entails three major functions: training, education, and development (London, 1989, p. 121). Training: The training activity is centered upon and evaluated against the job which is held by an individual at present. Development: This activity usually focuses upon the activities that the organization employing the individual, or that the individual is part of, may partake in the future, and is almost impossible to evaluate. An ideal form of training is connected to the business performance and goals directly. Generally, it is a part of the company-wide objectives and focuses mainly on setting the tangible objectives and standards for the employees and workers within an organization. Moreover, it makes up a significant part of the Companys policy (Jacobs & Jones, 1995, p. 56). Training and development are the important components in an organziation. They are used for improving the performance of the individual, and this is ultimately mirrored in the increase in production and improvement of quality at the lowest cost, with less effort, and in the shortest time. The training and development methods keep the individuals updated with technological and organizational developments. Application Stages The application stages of the training and development process implemented as an intervention to change in the organizations is as follows: Need Assessment Needs assessment is a process to identify and meet the needs, or "gaps" between current conditions and conditions targeted. It is often used to improve the individuals or education and training programs, organizations, or communities. Thus, every officer in charge of the work needs to formulate and implement a continuous training which makes the employees fit and functional, especially if any negative indicators regarding the change acceptance or performance and productivity decline have arose in the workplace (Noe, 1999, p. 89). Design and Delivery The training and development program will be designed and delivered in an expert manner in order to ensure the best results. The more these principles are used in learning, the more likely that the training is effective. These are the principles of participation, repetition, relevance, transfer, feedback. The training programs can prove to be the best intervention strategies for the employees. They not only equip them with the ability to cope up with the organizational changes, but also make them learn various new things regarding their jobs and the organziation. Teambuilding The teams are groups created within the organizational structure to achieve a goal or a specific task requiring coordination and interaction and integration between team members. Team members are considered responsible for achieving these goals, as empowerment for the team in decision making, and the team in the end is a means to achieve harmonious teamwork through individuals as a homogeneous unit. This is often known as group when talking about the dynamics of the group, but when it comes to practical applications, team is used. Evaluation Teambuilding is a process which helps the members in not just supporting the point of view regarding a status of the agreement, but it also provides support and encouragement to the team member in case of disagreement. It confront to the undesirable behavior from a member of the team when it starts to prevent others from monitoring their ideas of their contributions (LaFasto & Larson, 2001). A team is build to let its members play their right to express an opinion, especially if some members of the group are less confident in them or reluctant or when there is no chance left for others to express an opinion. The teambuilding also helps in mediation. When the discussions become prolonged to the extent that it stops members to listen or respond to each other needs or attitude, the team spirit breaks the mediation deadlock and pushes the debate forward. In the process of solving change management issues and dealing with such problems, the team building activities play an important part. They act as intervention and perform different roles in enabling the organization deal with the resistance to changes. The team members believe that conflict and disagreements occur in the active groups and are successful where they are prolonged by the people. The teams leaders, thus, deal with the conflict through frank discussion, and many members agree to the decisions, while some do not agree, therefore, affecting the friendly relations between members (Hackman & Johnson, 2009). During any resistance or conflict, the discussions should focus on what is happening now and the members should avoid provoking past differences or member behavior during previous conflicts. Change management should be the subject of the team as a whole. The team building would facilitate the involvement of all the members in handling the resistance and solving any issues that arise in accepting change in the organziation. Career Planning and Development Career planning is defined as a subsystem of personnel management that aims to enrich and harmonize freely with institutional interests in a common race. It focuses on a process by which employees receive support in the planning and development of their individual careers, based on their potential and performance. Considering an operational tool for Human Resources Management, career planning not only takes into account the potential and the preferences of the employees, but the organizational needs too. When the administration of the company encourages career planning, employees set career goals and actively work to obtain them. These goals motivate employees to progress in their training, in their academic or technical training and other activities. Career Stages The career can be roughly divided into several stages. Preparatory Stage It is associated with receiving a higher, secondary or vocational education. In this framework, the foundations of the future are developed through an expert and leader. Though teh career here does not begin in its true sense, but this is only the initiation. The actual beginning of teh career is from the time of enrollment in the graduate staff of the organization. Adaptation Stage It is on the entry of young professionals in the world of work, learning a new profession, and finding his place in the team. The middle of this phase may coincide with the beginning of a career manager, for whom the career is almost started in the initial stages. The new demands and requisites of the job are followed and adapted to. Stabilization Phase It pertains to teh stabilization and consistence of career in an individuals life. The person becomes a professional and tries to reach to the level of self-actualization. Consolidation Phase Individuals, who are willing and able to pursue teh position of a manager or executive, continue further to attain self actualization. The individual, who has a decisive character, continues the career with an anticipation and expectation to reach up further on the ladder of professionalism. Maturity This stage suggests that people focus on the transfer of their knowledge, experience, and wisdom to others. They train their juniors and younger people in profession, through their own knowledge and passion. Final stage At this stage, the individual has retired from the career. It marks teh end of the entire professional life on a person. For some people, retirement is desirable to implement as soon as possible from the moment of their legal right to it. For others, it is a requirement that arises as late as possible. For example, in Japan, it is the norm that the senior executives retire when they are approaching the age of 80 (Popescu Neveanu, 2003). Professional advancement in the organization may be in accordance with such principles as efficiency, competence and capabilities, diligence, ability to organize the formal aspect of the case, please leadership, seniority, and general abilities. The idea of career development attracts people. Employees undergo a series of increasingly responsible positions, developing their skills, and as a result are at the highest position. This satisfies their human desire for status, power and money and at the same time the need for the organization to promote people to the higher echelons of management. The obstacles to the implementation of this process are obvious. The organization must provide the employee corresponding sequence positions, and they should be flexible, moving it from office to office in a timely manner. They should also have the means to assess the readiness of employee promotion and decision-making, which of the posts would be the most appropriate in terms of development of employee skills. Most organizations do not have such flexibility. Addressing issues of career, the management must first create a realistic idea of what can be achieved in your organization, and to make this clear to its staff. This is done so that when planning activities for career development are undertaken, the employees would not be cut off from the real-life situation. Total Quality Management The aim of the Total Quality Management process is to achieve continuous improvement of quality for a better understanding and control of the entire system (product or service design, suppliers, materials, distribution, information, etc.) So that the product received by consumers to constantly correct conditions for use (zero defects in quality), and improve internal processes so as to produce defect-free goods to the first, involving the removal of waste to reduce costs, improving all internal processes and procedures, attention to customers and suppliers, delivery times and after sales services (Cua, McKone, & Schroeder, 2001). Quality management involves all sectors, and it is so important to produce the item that consumers want, without failures and lower cost, deliver them in a timely manner, the care of the customers, bill without errors, and not produce contamination. Just as it is important that the quality of inputs and overall aim is to reduce the number of suppliers (reach one per line input) for the purpose of ensuring the quality (avoiding the costs of verification of quantity and quality), the just-time and the amount required, so is it also important to the quality of labor (manpower without sufficient knowledge or unsuitable for the task will involve costs for lack of productivity, high turnover and training costs) (Ahire, 1997). This quality of workmanship as well as quality of supplies or materials affects both the quality of products, such as costs and productivity levels. References Ahire, S. L. (1997). Management Science- Total Quality Management interfaces: An integrative framework. Interfaces, 27(6), 91-105. Cua, K. O., McKone, K. E., Schroeder, R. G. (2001). Relationships between implementation of TQM, JIT, and TPM and manufacturing performance. Journal of Operations Management, 19(6), 675-694. Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (2009). Leadership: A Communication Perspective (5th ed.). Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc.. ISBN 978-1-57766-579. Jacobs, R. L., & Jones, M. J. (1995). Structured on-the-job training: unleashing employee expertise in the workplace. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. LaFasto, F. M. J., & Larson, C. (2001). When Teams Work Best. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. London, M. (1989). Managing the training enterprise: high-quality, cost-effective employee training in organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Noe, R. A. (1999). Employee training and development. Boston: Irwin/McGraw-Hill. Popescu Neveanu, A. (2003). Planning and career management in organizations. Journal of Organizational Psychology, 3(4). Wilson, H. (1960). Employee training and development. Deerfield, Ill.: Administrative Research Associates. Read More