Development and Learning in Organizations - Literature review Example

Training Intervention Introduction Managing the human resource of a firm is highly imperative to the organizational success. The firm needs to ensurethat its employees are equipped with the necessary human capital to generate value for the organization and lead to organizational success. This can be achieved by designing several training programs for the employee so that they can effectively learn the required knowledge and develop the necessary skills (Wentland, 2007). The training programs are mostly designed by keeping in mind the theories of the learning process. This in turn allows the organization that the knowledge has been successfully imparted on the candidates. The training programs often bear a certain degree of costs to the company, however in order to ensure the higher productivity of the employees, it is a necessary investment (Bratton and Gold, 2010). This paper is focused on the contextual, organisational and theoretical factors that influence the design and implementation of a chosen training intervention, which is an induction program. The paper will include the learning development theories which have been utilized and the evaluation methods that allow the organization to monitor the learning progress of the candidates. Theories on Training The training programs are designed by the organizations by following certain steps to ensure that all the desired outcomes are covered by the training program. The training cycle model suggests that the planning process starts with the analysis of the Training Needs Analysis followed by Design, Development, Deliver and Evaluate (Smith, 2003). The HR department needs to ensure that the training programs are aligned to the needs of the organization. The firm analyses the need for developing the skills of the employees and designs the training program according to the identified needs. The need recognition is quite vital for ensuring that the training programs are designed as per the requirement of the organising. The HR department needs to have a clear insight of the human capital deficit that needs to be fulfilled by the training program (Biles and Holmberg, 2007). The Designing stage is followed by the Developing stage where the actual development of the training program takes place. The organization needs to prepare itself for the training programs by developing study materials, lecture notes, handouts, make time slots and assigning trainers, etc. The next stage is the delivery stage, where the organization ensures that the knowledge dissemination is taking place. In this stage the candidates stays in contact with the training program and they learn and develop new skills and knowledge which are required for their allocated roles and responsibilities. The final stage is the Evaluation stage. This stage is imperative to make sure whether or not the training program has successfully imparted the required knowledge and helped to develop new skills in the employees (Smith, 2003). Designing and Implementation of Induction as a training intervention In order for a training program to be successful, it needs to be based on the learning theories, which address the psychological factors of the candidates who participate in the training program. The process of induction is a dedicated training program that an organization provides for the new joiners, so that they can have the required skills and knowledge to start of their professional journey with the organization. The purpose of an induction program is not to make a candidate expert in a particular field, but it ensures that he has the necessary knowledge about his job role and bears the initial skills to start his career with the organization. The Induction programs are usually conducted over a span of a week, where the training program is divided into several phases in a chronological order (Rayburn, 1993). Based on the training cycle, the Induction program can be divided into different phases. The initiation phase involves the need recognition for the organization in terms of individual development of the new joiners. The need of the organization is to identify the existing knowledge and skills of the candidates and find out the knowledge gap between their required and existing skills and knowledge base. This can be done by evaluating their educational and professional background, which will give an overall insight regarding the current skill level of the employees (Price, 2011). After this stage the organization needs to prepare for the Induction program (development stage). This stage involves setting up the required infrastructure to support the training program and gathering the necessary resources as well. The organization needs to find an appropriate space that can accommodate the desired number of candidate in the batch. It also needs to allocate training faculties who will interact with the candidates and will offer a face to face training. Selection of faculties is quite vital for ensuring proper dissemination of knowledge and development of skills. Apart from having a good knowledge base and work expertise, the faculties should also need to have good communication skills. The communication skills of the trainers are crucial for them to be able to connect with the candidates. Moreover, the organization should also prepare the necessary study materials that will be distributed to the candidates. These study materials can be in either physical hard copy or in electronic format such as pdf (Smith, 2003). The development stage also includes creating a schedule for the training program. The entire process of induction usually lasts for a week. Over this span of time, the different topics or courses are allocated on different time slots. This stage is followed by the delivery stage where the candidates come in close contact with the induction program and over its span of time the knowledge is being disseminated. This delivery stage is the outcome of the previous two stages, need recognition and development. The success of the delivery stage is dependent on the success of the first two stages, as the proper need recognition and preparation is vital for the proper dissemination of knowledge (Harrison, 2011). In the delivery stage, the organization faces several barriers while conducting the training program. These barriers may include candidates’ lack of interest, difficult for some candidates to access to the place of training, poor learning environment, etc. The candidates may perceive that the training given at the induction program is not relevant and may choose to ignore them. Moreover, they may also think that the process of delivery is inadequate and unattractive, which at often times creates boredom among the candidates which as a result causes poor knowledge delivery. The place and time of the training may be inappropriate for some candidates, which as a result may cause absenteeism. Furthermore, the environment in which the training is being conducted may not have a proper learning environment. It may be too noisy or may have improper lighting conditions, etc (Smith, 2003). Apart from these barriers, there can be some audience centric barriers, such as prior negative experience and incompatible cultural background, etc. The organization needs to ensure that these barriers are removed as much as possible and create an attractive environment where the candidates find it interesting to engage themselves in the process of training (Wentland, 2007). The final stage of the training cycle is the evaluation where the organization ensures that the implantation of the training program is successful. In this stage, the candidates are asked to give tests that can be either verbal or written. Depending on the test results, the trainers can ensure whether or not the induction program has yielded the desired results (Smith, 2003). Critical Assessment of the Induction Program The stages of the induction program have been designed in such a way so that it can facilitate a seamless learning experience for the candidates. According to the Kolb’s learning cycle, the entire learning process can be divided into four stages which have been properly covered in the Induction program. The four stages are Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualization and Active Experimentation (Vince, 1998). The concrete Experience: The concrete experience stage is where the candidates are exposed to a new experience. In an induction program this is mostly achieved by face to face communication which is often facilitated by slideshow presentations or video presentation. These act as the new experience that candidates are exposed to. Reflective Observation: The reflective observation is the second stage of the learning cycle where the candidates think about the new experience that they have been exposed to. This stage helps them to internalize the discussed topic. In the induction process, the trainers often give a certain amount of time gap between one topic and the other. This time is necessary for the candidates to reflect over the “concrete experience” (Kolb and Kolb, 2012). Abstract Conceptualization: In this stage the candidates are able to generate new ideas or make modifications to the existing ones. In the induction program, this stage is often facilitated by the role playing sessions or puzzle solving session, where the candidates are compelled to generate new ideas to contribute in those sessions. It also gives them a clear insight of their learning process, that whether or not their idea generation is done properly (Vince, 1998). Active Experimentation: This is the final stage of the learning cycle that allows the candidates to apply the gathered knowledge and skills. It acts as the evaluation stage that ensures that whether or not the learning has taken place in a desired fashion. The test taken by the trainers facilitates this final stage where the candidates are asked to apply what they have been taught (Vince, 1998). The Kolb’s learning cycle clearly justifies the effectiveness of the Induction programs and how it is justified by the theoretical model of learning. In a psychological perspective, Honey and Mumford (1992) stated that the learning styles vary across different individuals and is directly linked to the personality types. This as a result indicates that different people learn differently based on their psychological background. This theory formulated four different types of learners based on their learning styles which are Activists, Theorists, Pragmatists and Reflectors. Since, a group of individuals appearing for an induction program may consist of all the four types of individuals, so the program design has been done in such a way that it can cater to all types of learners. Activists: The Activists are the ones who prefer learning by doing and bear an open minded approach. Activities like brainstorming puzzle solving, role playing and group discussions are quite effective in imparting knowledge and develop skills in them. This is why the trainers in the induction programs include these activities to help them learn better (Bjorkman and Stahl, 2010). Theorists: Secondly, the theorists are the one who prefer to learn by a theoretical approach. Learning by using statistical data, theoretical models, etc helps them to learn better. Therefore, the induction programs also use slide show presentations to offers theories and models on which the topic is based on. It also helps the candidates to create a generalized “thumb rule” that can be implemented in a real world scenario (Honey and Mumford, 1992). Pragmatists: The individuals who belong to this category of learners prefer to learn by understanding the relevance of the learning in the real world and how it will help them in achieving their goals. In an induction program, the trainers often show video presentation on how the knowledge imparted to the candidates can be used in the real world. Moreover, the trainers conducting the training program are experienced in their respective sectors which allow them to share their experience that includes their success and failure stories (Honey and Mumford, 1992). Reflectors: These individuals prefer to learn by observing. Therefore, in order to facilitate their learning, the trainers often provides time gaps in between sessions so that they can gather their thoughts and reflect upon a discussed topic (Honey and Mumford, 1992). Thus it can be stated that the Induction programs have been so designed that it follows the theoretical understanding of the learning process. This in turn increases the training program’s effectiveness. Organizational Perspective From the perspective of the Organizational profitability, the training programs play a vital role. In order to ensure that its work force possess the required level of knowledge and skill sets, the organizations offer the training programs so that the desired level of human capital can be achieved. The HR department is mostly responsible to oversee the training process. Training programs often comes with several barriers that need to be managed by the authority. It is vital to have a clear insight about the current status of the organization before conducting a training program (Wentland, 2007). The GROW model helps an organization to identify the current status and how to achieve the desired result. There are four stages in the GROW model which are Goal, Reality, Options and Will. The “Goal” indicates the organizational objectives in terms of developing its human capital (Dembkowski and Eldridge, 2003). The objective indentifies the future goals of the firm, which in this case is to develop a batch of well skilled and knowledgeable employees who are capable of adding value to the organization. The next stage is the “Reality” which gives a clear insight of the current status of the firm. The HR department communicates with the higher authority regarding the necessary human resources and their required skills. This stage is concurrent with the need recognition stage of the training cycle. It helps to identify the level of human capital deficit of the organization and also to identify the resulting effects. The third stage is the “Options” where the organization identifies the ways in which the desired objectives can be achieved. In this case, different forms of training programs can surface out as probable options, such as online training, mentorship, etc. Out of these options, the authority chooses the best possible options in terms of value and effort. The final stage is the “Will”, in this stage the organization is faced with the challenge of willing to face the upcoming barriers to conduct the training programs. This stage leads to the preparation, delivery and evaluation stages of the learning cycle (Perera and Silva, 2013). The training programs often come with certain ethical issues and issues regarding diversity among the candidates. The trainers are often faced with ethical dilemma when they need to teach about certain marketing strategies which are quite effective but are often considered to be fruitful. This mostly occurs during training for the candidate regarding sales techniques. There are several unethical selling processes that are lucrative for the company but are unethical, such as manipulation of data, over emphasis of benefits and hiding the drawbacks, etc. The trainers should use their sense of judgement and ensure that during process the good image of the organizational practices are not getting hampered (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). In terms of diversity, the trainer often faces certain challenges. It is quite natural that in a group of individuals appearing for a training program, there will be candidates from different cultural backgrounds and may belong to different psychological profile (Bratton and Gold, 2010). This as a result makes it harder for the trainers to focus on a single training method. In these situations the trainers need to get a clear idea of the cultural background of the candidates by interacting with them and try to deliver the training accordingly. Moreover, in some cases if there are a majority of the candidate belonging to the same profile, then they automatically form a group, thereby making the rest of the candidates left out. The trainer must ensure that all the candidates attending the training programs are properly addressed. By overcoming the challenges, the organization will be able to get the desired result out of their training programs (Adler and Clark, 1991). Reference List Adler, P. S. and Clark, K. B., 1991. Behind the learning curve: A sketch of the learning process. Management Science, 37(3), pp. 267-281. Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrongs handbook of human resource management practice. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Biles, G. E. and Holmberg, S. R., 2007. Strategic Human Resource Planning. 3rd ed. New Jersey: Thomas Horton and Daughters. Bjorkman, I. and Stahl, G., 2010. Handbook of Research in International Human Resource Management. 6th ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2010. Human Resource Management: theory and practice. 4th ed. Germany: Grin Verlag. Dembkowski, S. and Eldridge, F., 2003. Beyond GROW: A new coaching model. The international journal of mentoring and coaching, 1(1), p. 21. Harrison, R., 2011. Learning and development. Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal, 26(1) pp. 35-42. Honey, P. and Mumford, A., 1992. The manual of learning styles. United Kingdom: Maidenhead. Kolb, A. Y. and Kolb, D. A., 2012. Experiential learning theory. In Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. pp. 1215-1219. Perera, H. S. C. and Silva, W. H. E., 2013. Human Capital And Organizational Success: An Empirical Investigation In Post-Graduate Educational Institutions In India. In Proceedings of International Conference on Business Management.2. Price, A., 2011. Human resource management. Boston: Cengage Learning. Rayburn, W. L., 1993. Organizational induction rituals and their impact on individual values. 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