Contemporary Issues in Human Resource Development - Assignment Example

Running Head: HRD Questions Your name Course name Professors’ name Date Introduction The first part is a definition of learning and explanation of the three domains of learning including cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains. The paper then proceeds to elaborate learning in behavioural terms before giving a vivid account of how adult learning differ from children. These differences have a great impact on HRD program such that trainers should be aware of the fact adult learners value their independence and past experiences. The final part of the essay discusses how training and development differ from HRD and the recent trends in HRD. a. ‘Learning’ Formally, learning is defined as a relatively permanent change in behaviour prompted by personal interaction with environment (Gupta, 26). Changes in behaviour occur in both animals and human beings. A creature wishing to survive in an environment ought to change behaviour with a view of adapting to different situations. The other facet of learning is its permanent nature, which means that behaviour is flexible and not genetically pre-established in terms of function. Domains of Learning Cognitive domain This domain is based on knowledge and development of intellectual skills. It revolves around recall, procedural patterns, and concepts that serve development of intellectual abilities and skills. The domain has six levels starting with knowledge at the bottom. Achievement of knowledge level enables an individual to recall data or information. The key words used at this basic level are define, identify or describe. At the second level is comprehension, which enables a learner to understand meaning and interpretation of instructions (Gupta, 28). An example of key word used here is explain, which requires a learner to use own words. The third level is application where a learner uses a concept in a different situation. These levels then progresses to the forth stage, analysis, where concepts are broken into parts to enhance understanding. The fifth level is synthesis that entails building a pattern from parts. Evaluation is the final stage where judgements are made about ideas. Affective domain This illustrates the manner in which individual person handles things emotionally. It therefore entails feelings, values, appreciation, motivation, and attitude. Awareness, distinction, and integration are the three levels in this domain. Verbs used in this category are limited to display, exhibit, and accept. Psychomotor domain This is based on physical movement, coordination and utilising psychomotor skills. These areas require practice. The speed, precision, distance, and procedures serves to measure development of psychomotor skills. Starting from simple to complex, the domain has the following categories: perception, set, guided response, mechanism, complex overt response, adaptation, and origination. b. Defining learning in Behavioural Terms Learning is said to have taken place when a person displays behaviour that is related to the new learning. The environment plays a critical role in controlling learning. This means that learners respond to environmental stimuli and the response is reinforced positively or negatively. From the reinforcement, a learner can either continue displaying behaviour or not. A person’s behaviour is a product of conditioning and reaction is the consequence of stimuli rather than conscious action. The consequence can be controlled by either rewarding or punishing behaviour. In the process of training an individual, learning is controlled by manipulating stimuli subjected to trainees. It is upon the trainer to choose the kind of reinforcement that supports a required behaviour. Learner usually depends on the trainer in order to demonstrate a correct response to stimuli. Feedback is also essential when using behavioural approach to learning. This would motivate learners to respond in a specific manner and subsequently know which behaviour to continue or rather stop. One specific difficulty faced when using behavioural approach to learning is trainee attention and enthusiasm. Personal growth and development of a learner is ignored since a trainer takes the role of a disciplinarian. It is also difficult to convince learners to learn philosophical aspects of training since behavioural approach sees the wish to learn as a function of external variable. Deficiency of reinforcement may not make learners to understand the value of behavioural training thus miss to develop required attitude. Question 2 How adults learn differently from children Adult learning is considered a social activity where an individual participates in social and cultural networks of practices. Learning is therefore considered a community of practice where a group of individuals work together for some period. This approach is particularly applicable in a workplace where learning is shared collectively. The view of learning as social keeps the learner focused on community practices. Adult learning is perceived to be a continuous lifelong activity that is necessary for social and economic wellbeing. This learning is not limited to formal or informal education but extend to communities and workgroups. This fact can be linked to the idea that adult learning is work based as opposed to child learning which is conducted in class or rather learning environment. The basis of adult learning is on the fact that learning is an important human activity that goes beyond formal schooling. According to Mayson (78), adult learners move in and out of formal learning depending on needs and circumstance of individual person. To learn, adults are driven by reasons for their involvement in learning. This is because adults engage in cost-benefit analysis before engaging themselves in learning. It is therefore the duty of a trainer to convince adults on the benefits of learning a particular thing. This is different from children who must go to school to discover benefits of learning. The other factor that illustrates difference in learning between adults and children is the self-concept in learners. Unlike children, adults are autonomous, responsible, and self-directed hence should be treated as independent learners. Trainers are obliged to recognise adult learners as autonomous and independent to avoid alienation. As opposed to children, adult learning is “life centred” which means that they engage in learning with a vision of solving a problem. Furthermore, motivation that is sourced intrinsically e.g. job satisfaction, self-esteem, and improved quality lives are essential in enhancing adult learning. One element that inhibits adult motivation to learn is lack of opportunities and poor adult learning experiences that leads to student’s low self-esteem. Implications of the Differences for the Design of HRD Program It is vital to understand what makes human resources valuable and how firms can contribute to growth and development (Billet, 315). Competitive advantage can be achieved with a firm’s ability to influence knowledge through complex webs of social, technical, financial, and human resource. As aforementioned, adults’ learning in a workplace is complex and takes different facets. It assumes the form of discovering what people know, how they know it, and how they use it in solving problems. Adult’s innovative skills are vital in improving an individual and firm’s productivity. In order for an HRD program to succeed, it should focus on adult learning concepts such as lifelong learning, communities of practices, and work based learning. HRD program should therefore shift focus from procedures to emphasize on enriching work, exploring opportunities, and improving mutual learning for all members in an organization. The capacity of an organization to be competitive lies on the ability of an employee to learn, collaborate, and apply new knowledge to solve problems. Adult learning further recognises location of employees in independent networks. To realise success of both the organization and employee, HRD personnel are obliged to consider their employees as adult learners who are autonomous and self-directed. By recognising unique learning and developmental needs of employees, an organization would be able to enhance its intellectual capital. Question 3 How Training and Development Differ from HRD The principle objective of training and development is to avail skilled and willing workforce to an organization (John, 4). Additionally, training and development aims at meeting four major objectives including individual, organizational, societal, and functional objectives. With respect to an individual, training and development centres on helping employees achieve personal goals, which then enhance contributions made by a person to an organization. Moreover, training and development has the functional objective of bringing out effectiveness of a department in meeting organizational needs. Training and development also has an obligation to the society by cultivating good ethics. Training is effectively done via induction, on-job-training, behaviour modelling, and distance-learning (Smith, 166). The methods serve to equip an individual with skills and knowledge required to execute specific activities. On the other hand, Human Resource Development is an integral process in an organization with organized learning activities that aims at improving organizational and personal growth and performance. HRD includes three specific areas of training and development, career development, and organization development (Smith, 166). It is now evident that training and development is a subset of human resource development. HRD focus on developing the most superior workforce such that personal and organizational goals are accomplished. Trends Affecting HRD Since HRD emphasis is on improving performance at individual, organizational, group, and inter-organizational levels, it is usually affected by the trends in work, organizations, and the global economy. Some of these trends are outlined as follows: workforce diversity cross-cultural issues the learning organization technology in work and learning Increasing number of older worker Informal learning Spirituality in workplace Overtime, technology is becoming crucial in human resource development. The internet, intranets, multimedia, distance learning, and electronic performance support systems are vital technologies that educators must be acquitted (Marquardt, 56). The second trend is aging workforce, which forces professionals in human resource development and technology to adjust strategies used in training, motivation and workplace arranges. Changes in demography, global market, and tolerance for differences are increasing diversity in the work environment. Human resource development personnel face the difficulty of understanding and utilising human potentials in a diverse population. Organizations that fail to manage diversity will not utilise fully potential of workers. In this case, organizations are obliged to instil into employees skills that facilitate operation in multicultural environment. Globalization has allowed infiltration of different cultures across national boundaries consequently affecting development of training needs. One specific issue related to culture is communication, which leads to misunderstanding educational needs. Employees usually fail in international assignment owing to gaps in culture. Human resources development should therefore focus on utilising expatriates to train employees on communication (Shim, 13). Conclusion Contrary to children, adult learners also have a broad range of experience, both social and work experience. These experiences can be exploited well when used within a group discussions, experiential learning, and case studies. This is in agreement with the fact that adult learners value their self-identity that has been built through experiences. Additionally, adult’s developmental needs in terms of timings should be considered since adults attach much importance to learning new things. Works Cited Billet, Stephen. Workplace Participatory Practices: Conceptualising Workplace as Learning Environment. Journal of Workplace Learning 16. 6 (2004): 312-324. Gupta. Badrilal. Management Competency Based Learning. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company, 2007. John, Wilson. Human Resource Development: Learning &Training for Individuals & Organizations. London: Kogan Page, 2005. Marquardt, Michael. Cyberlearning: New Possibilities for HRD. Training and Development, 50.11 (1996): 56-57. Mayson, Susan. Contemporary Issues in Human Resource Development. Mason, Ohio: South- Western Cengage Learning, 2009. Shim, In-Sun. & Paprock, Kenneth. A Study Focusing on American Expatriates' Learning in Host Countries. International Journal of Training and Development, 6.1 (2002): 13-24. Smith, Andrew. Training and Development in Australia. 2nd Edition. Sydney: Butterworths, 1998. Read More