Training and Development


            Training according to Sims (2002) is an attempt to facilitate learning on job-related knowledge, skills and behaviours. It also helps the employees to correct and improve their performance deficiencies. Development on the other hand, aims to equip the employees with the required skills to perform their present and future jobs.


Career development is an organized, planned effort comprised of structured activities or processes that result in a mutual career plotting effort between employees and the organization. Within this system, the employee is responsible for career planning and the organization is responsible for career management (Eggland and Giley 1998 p.48). Career development is an ongoing, formalized effort by an organization that focuses on developing and enriching the organization’s human resources in light of both the employees’ and organization’s needs. According to Cross (1983), six integrative activities can be adopted in order to have an effective career management program. These are the following:


1. Forecasting future organizational needs


2. Utilizing performance appraisals


3. Job announcements and posting


4. Career pathing for employees


5. Training development


6. Development of consistent compensation practices


  


Management: The Role of the Organization


            In training and development, it is an accepted norm that the organization takes an active role in managing employee training and development within the organization. Training and developing human resources is key to organizational success. Learning is the key to successful training and development and to the organization’s continued survival. The organization must make sure that equal training and development opportunities are available for every employee and that these are communicated to them. Career Management refers to specific human resource activities, such as job placement, performance appraisal, counseling, training, and education. According to Adams and Morrison (1991), career management is a set of programs that represent the organization’s requirements (p.34). Career management emphasizes the recognition and response to the changing interests and needs of employees as they grow and mature within the organization. Career management takes the organization’s point of view in putting together job ladders, career paths, rotation programs, and planned learning activities to improve the supply of talent among current employees (Clardy 1996).


 


Planning: The Role of the Employee


            It is a norm that the organization provides training and development opportunities for every employee. In return, the employee must take responsibility for his or her own career and development needs. The employee must plan for his or her training and development goals. Career Planning is a process of setting up employee career objectives and developing activities that will achieve them. According to Sim’s (2002a), career planning is the process by which an individual formulates career goals and develops a plan for reaching those goals.


Outcomes of Career Planning


1. Broad Life Planning


            In broad life planning, interests, abilities, experiences, aptitudes, and values are analyzed, resulting in improved self-concept and projected self as related to careers. The HRD practitioners can help formulate this process by providing employees with career information and by utilizing appropriate evaluation instruments and personality assessment tools.


2. Development Planning


            Developmental planning focuses on a realistic evaluation of future career options and opportunities and the creation of activities that will prepare individuals for future jobs and future career decisions. There is a natural relationship here between the employee and the organization; both work collaboratively in the successful identification and realization of career development. At this point the HRD practitioner intervenes as change agent, actively designing development activities and providing necessary career information to help employees make career decisions.


3. Performance Planning


            Performance planning centers around the identification of specific job demand goals and priorities and the reward expectations of current job assignments. Specific training needs, performance activities, priorities, and explanations, as well as financial compensation, are identified, and the result is successful completion of stated objectives and goals. In this stage of career planning, the employee must rely primarily on the organization for effective performance planning, which becomes an HRD activity. However, some HRD practitioners lack the skill, and employees as well as organizations must then assume responsibilities that are inappropriate. The result is inadequate long-range life planning and serious shortages of qualified human resources within the organization.


 


The Role of Government


            The government’s primary role in training and developing employees, is making sure that every employee is entitled to equal training and development opportunities. In order to make sure that every employee is entitled to training and development, most governments have equal opportunity policies. Equal Opportunity calls for individuals having access to training and development programs in a nondiscriminatory fashion. Equal opportunity regulations and anti-discrimination laws apply to the training and development process. Organizational training programs may be required for promotions, job bidding, or for salary increases. Under any of these situations, the organization is responsible for ensuring that training selection criteria are related to the job. Equal training opportunities must be accessible for all employees.


            The employer must ensure that employees have access to training and development programs in a nondiscriminatory fashion. Equal opportunity regulations and anti-discrimination laws apply to the training and development process. Determining whether a training program has unfavorable impact is a primary means of deciding if a process id discriminatory. If relatively few women and minorities are given training opportunities, it would appear that there is discrimination in terms of development offered to different groups of employees. Organizational training programs may be required for promotions, job bidding, or for salary increases. Under any of these scenarios, it is the responsibility of the employer to ensure that training selection criteria are related to the job. Equal training opportunities must exist for all employees (Sims, 2002).


 


Human Resource Development


            The fundamental belief for Human Resource Management and Human Resource Development is that the people working in an organization are its greatest asset for achieving objectives. HRM is a coherent and holistic approach to the management of people that requires and develops organizational structures and systems, individual attitudes and behaviour. Human Resource Development (HRD) commonly refers to training or development of skills and is regarded as part of HRM (www.livelihoods.org).Human Resources Management involves the establishment and execution of policies, programs, and procedures that influence the performance, capabilities and loyalty of the employees of an organization. Through these policies and procedures, individuals are attracted, retained, motivated, and developed to perform the work of the organization. It is through these policies and procedures that the organization seeks to mold and shape the actions of its employees to operate successfully, comply with various public policies, provide satisfactory quality of employment, and improve its position in the marketplace through strengthened ability to compete and serve (Clardy 1996).


            Human Resources Development (HRD) is a part of HRM. While HRM deals with the overall management of human resources (people), HRD deals with learning, training and development of the human resources with the aim of improving the each employee’s skills and capability and the organization’s performance.


            Human Resources Development according to Eggland and Gilley (1998) can be defined as the introduction of organized activities designed to foster increased knowledge, skills, and competencies and improved behavior. HRD refers to learning and to the activities that bring about desired change (p.5). Human Resources Development is a part of HRM that deals with the training and development of the organization’s people. According to Sims (2002), HRD coordinates the organization’s efforts to provide training and development experiences for its employees. Employee training can be defined as a planned attempt to facilitate employee learning of job related knowledge, skills, and behaviours or helping them correct deficiencies in their performance. Development is an effort to provide employees with the skills needed for both present and future jobs (p.165).


HRD is a series of programs and activities, direct and indirect, instructional and/or individual that positively affects the development of individual and the productivity and profit of the organization (Smith 1988).


            According to Donaldson and Scannel (2000), training is an attempt to transfer skills and knowledge to trainees in such a way that the trainees accept and use those skills in the performance of their jobs while learning is a lifelong process in which experience leads to changes within the individual. Learning is a change in behaviour resulting from experience. Learning is the act of acquiring knowledge or skill. It is a mental activity by which skills, habits, ideas, attitudes, and ideals are acquired, retained, and utilized, resulting in the progressive adaptation and modification of behaviour. Human Resources Management facilitates learning through experience and training. Watkins (1989) defined HRD as the filed of study and practice responsible for fostering of long-term, work related learning capacity at the individual, group, and organizational levels. As such, it includes but is not limited to training, career development, and organizational development. Nadler and Wiggs (1986) defined HRD as a comprehensive learning system that releases the organization’s human potential; a system that is both experience and experiential, on-the-job experiences that are keyed to the organization’s reason for survival. HRD is concerned with issues of individual, group and organizational learning and performance. It encompasses actions that vary form the everyday tasks of supporting learning and development through training and development through training, to the complex and at times impossible task of making change happen. HRD according to Chalofsky (1992) is the study and practice of increasing learning capacity of individuals and groups, collectives, and organizations through the development and application of learning-based interventions for optimizing human and organizational growth and effectiveness.


 


Individual Development


            Individual development focuses on the importance of personal growth and development through learning programs and activities. Employees are able to develop knowledge, competencies, skills and appropriate behaviours for current jobs. Individual development includes communication, interpersonal skills, and other areas of personal development in addition to training. Learning occurs in both formal and informal settings, while training usually occurs on the job. Individual development activities include all types of learning programs and training activities.


According to Gilley and Maycunich (2000), learning brings about learner growth and development both personally and professionally. As a result, individual and organizational renewal capability increases, as does performance capacity.


 


Performance Aspect of HRD


            Development of employees refers to increasing the knowledge, skills, and competencies of employees, which enhances their performance capacity and capability. Development also refers to increasing an organization’s efficiency, improving its effectiveness, enhancing its renewal capacity, and improving its competitive practices (Gilley & Maycunich 2000). According to McLagan (1989) HRD is the integration of training and development, and organization development to improve individual, group, and organizational effectiveness. HRD is a process of developing and unleashing human expertise through organizational development and personal training and development for improving performance (Swanson, 1995). It is an organizational learning experience sponsored by an employer for the purpose of improving work performance while emphasizing the betterment of the human conditions through the integration of organizational goals and individual needs.


            HRD aims to improve and enhance both the employees’ and the organizations performance and capabilities. Increasing the employees’ performance and enhancing their skills and capabilities will result to a better performing organization.


 


HRD aims to improve individual performance and enhance organizational capability. Performance improvement is achieved if the employees achieve increased knowledge, skills, and competencies and improved behaviour.


 


Case Study: General Electric (GE)


GE is a services, technology and manufacturing company operating in more than 100 countries and employs 313,000 people worldwide. Thomas Edison established Edison Electric Light Company in 1878. Edison’s company later formed a merger with Thomson-Houston Electric Company in 1882, giving birth to General Electric Company. GE is among the largest and most diversified industrial corporations in the world (Blacconiere and Hopkins, 2002).


            One major challenge to the HRD process of General Electric surfaced when the company was in a period of massive downsizing and delayering. Downsizing and Delayering mean that many employees need to be trained to take on expanded responsibilities as organizations have created internal environments of ‘doing more with less’. HRD must be an out growth of the organization’s overall strategy. Today, training must be tailored to fit the organization’s strategy and structure. When strategy changes, training and development have to change and equip employees with the Knowledge, Skills and Abilities necessary to meet new demands. 


When Jack Welch took over GE, he started to abolish most of the bureaucratic structure of the company. He stripped out layer after layer of management and making nearly a quarter of GE’s workforce redundant in a matter of a few years. Welch wanted a much leaner and flexible organization which concentrated on its core strengths and markets and could respond quickly to new events. Welch delayering of the organizational hierarchy has caused tension and unrest among the managers and employees. Delayering has negative effects on employee motivation. Because of delayering many employees and managers lost their jobs. The initial result was chaotic. The employees were suspicious of Welch’s strategies. Motivation is an important factor in human resource development. Because HRD aims to develop, train and educate employees to fulfill their present jobs and be prepared for future assignments, the lack of motivation affects the success of the training programs.


In order to counter the negative effects of downsizing and delayering, the top management led by the CEO showed the managers and employees that it is dedicated to employee development and career advancement. Several strategies were implemented to ensure that the employees are properly trained and given opportunities for development and career advancement. According to Witzel (2003), GE invested heavily on employee training. By 1998 the training center had trained over 15,000 managers. Welch set up an in-house management training center in New York and personally oversaw its development. He put in personal appearance during almost every programme and spoke to the managers involved. By some estimates, GE spends half a billion dollars a year on training, making it one of the largest investors in management in the USA (308). The top management shows dedication to training and development. This has countered the employee insecurity that was produced by delayering. The employees are given opportunities to upgrade their skills and knowledge. Let us look at the various strategies that GE employed to ensure human resource development.


 


 


References


 


Blacconiere, W and Hoprkins, P 2002, General Electric: Investment  Accounting             and Consolidations. Issues in Accounting Education, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 315+.


 


Chalofsky, N 1992, ‘A Unifying Definition for the Human Resource Development Profession’, Human Resource Development Quarterly, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 175-182.


 


Clardy, A 1996, Managing Human Resources: Exercises, Experiments, and Applications Workbook, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ.


 


Donaldson, L & Scannell, E 2000, Human Development: The New Trainer’s Guide, Perseus Books, Cambridge, MA.


 


Eggland, S & Gilley, J 1998, Principles of Human Resource Development, Addison Wesley, Reading MA.


 


Nadler, L & Wiggs, G 1986, Managing Human Resource Development: A Practical Guide. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.


 


Sims, R 2002, Organizational Success through Effective Human Resources Management, Quorum Books, Westport CT.


 


Smith, R 1988, Human Resource Development: An Overview. Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Washington, DC.


 


Witzel, M 2003, Fifty Key Figures in Management, Routledge, New York.


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 



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