HRM for MBA Students

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HRM for MBA Students

• Lecture 5
• Developing people

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Learning outcomes

• Understanding the definitions of training and
  learning
• Knowing how to undertake a training needs
  analysis and its purpose
• An appreciation of the necessity to identify
  learning objectives
• Understanding the importance of learning theory
  and the principles of learning
• An appreciation of the main learning and
  development methods used in organisations
• Understanding the Kirkpatrick model of training
  evaluation
• Understanding the concepts of single- and
  double-loop learning
• Knowing what is meant by the term learning
  organisation

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Training

• is defined as
• a set of planned activities on the part of an
  organisation to increase job knowledge and
  skills, or to modify attitudes and social
  behaviour, to achieve specific ends which are
  related to a particular job or role.

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Learning

• is defined as
• a relatively permanent change in knowledge,
  skills, attitudes or behaviour that comes through
  experience.
• Learning happens inside the person whereas
  training is something that is given to a person
  it is a planned experience that is expected to
  lead to learning.

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Learning interventions under PM and HRM
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Learning interventions and activities in HRM
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Key learning principles

• The principle of distributed practice ie
  breaking the learning experience up into
  manageable chunks for the learner
• Reinforcing the learning by praising the learner
  for correct responses
• Training individuals to perform entire task units
  as a whole
• Giving results of the training performance to the
  learners
• Providing opportunities for practising the skills
  developed during training

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Kolbs learning cycle

• 1 Concrete experience
• 2 Observations and reflection
• Formation of abstract concepts and
• generalisations
• 4 Testing the implications of the concepts in
  new situations
• The learning experience runs in sequence
  from 1 through to 4

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Learning styles and the Kolb cycle

• Activists tend to learn best from the
  experience stage they prefer to take action eg
  hands-on learning or role-playing
• Reflectors tend to learn most from the second
  stage observation and reflection
• For Theorists learning is most effective at the
  third, abstract conceptualisation stage
• Pragmatists learn best from trying out the new
  skill or knowledge in actual work situations, so
  they benefit most from the fourth stage of the
  Kolb cycle

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Transfer of learning

• To increase the probability of learning transfer
• maximise the similarity between the learning
  situation and the job situation
• provide as much experience as possible with the
  task being taught
• provide for a variety of examples when teaching
  concepts or skills
• label or identify important features of a task
• make sure the general principles are understood
• make sure that the learned behaviours and ideas
  are rewarded in the job situation
• design the learning content so that the learners
  can see its applicability

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Some Common Learning and Development Methods

• Action Learning
• originally introduced for management development
  but now widely used at all organisational levels.
  
• groups of people work together to find practical
  solutions to real work problems.
• Instructors act as facilitators,
• Blended learning
• a combination of multiple approaches to learning.
• typically a combination of technology-based
  materials and face-to-face sessions

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Some common learning and development methods

• Case studies
• detailed examinations of real-life situations
  written up and presented for educational purposes
  
• students typically work in groups to analyse each
  case and answer set tasks
• Coaching
• a non-directive form of development, which
  focuses on improving performance and developing
  individuals skills and giving feedback on a
  persons performance
• should be delivered by trained personnel, who are
  usually drawn from outside the organisation

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Some common learning and development methods
(cont.)

• Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
• a continuous process of personal growth, to
  improve the capability of people at work and
  realise their full potential
• achieved by developing a range of knowledge,
  skills and experience which go beyond initial
  training or qualification, and which maintain and
  develop professional competence
• many professional bodies such as the CIPD now
  insist on CPD as a condition of continued
  membership

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Some common learning and development methods
(cont.)

• Corporate universities
• more than just in-company training departments,
  they have been defined as
• a centralised strategic umbrella for the
  education and development of employees ... that
  is the chief vehicle for disseminating an
  organisations culture and fostering the
  development of not only job skills but also such
  core workplace skills as learning-to-learn,
  leadership, creative thinking and
  problem-solving.
• Meister (1998)

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Some common learning and development methods
(cont.)

• E-learning
• learning that is delivered, enabled or mediated
  using electronic technology for the explicit
  purpose of learning and development in
  organisations
• Instruction
• a highly structured teaching method used to teach
  specific skills
• the format typically comprises a physical
  demonstration followed by supervised practice of
  the skills concerned

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Some common learning and development methods
(cont.)

• Lecture
• a structured talk, longer and more formal than a
  presentation, normally accompanied by visual aids
  and handouts of key points
• may be combined with audience participation in
  discussion, a question-and-answer session and/or
  group exercises/activities
• Mentoring
• similar to coaching although the mentor is
  usually an experienced senior member of staff,
  but not the persons line manager
• the emphasis in mentoring is less focused on the
  persons current job or role than in coaching,
  but more on their future development and career
  within the organisation

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Some common learning and development methods
(cont.)

• Outdoor training
• team exercises involving physical and mental
  tasks in challenging external environments
• very popular in corporate team-building
• believed by advocates to teach leadership and
  team- and self-development skills in addition to
  teamworking
• Role-playing
• the enactment of roles in a structured context
• very useful in practising inter-personal skills

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Some common learning and development methods
(cont.)

• Self-development
• is concerned with helping people to understand
  their own personal learning and development
  processes and by doing so to assume greater
  control of, and responsibility for, their own
  development
• an emphasis on longer-term development as
  distinct from specific study or learning
• a stress on setting ones own goals and methods
  for achieving development
• this approach can be applied to groups where
  participants are encouraged to support each other
  
• self-development is frequently, but not
  exclusively, applied to managers and professionals

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Some common learning and development methods
(cont.)

• Simulations/business games
• group exercises or case studies, usually
  computerised, in which the students are asked to
  make certain choices and then deal with
  consequences of their decisions
• usually run in competitive syndicates of students

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Formal learning interventions

• A four-stage process
• 1 Identifying the development need
• 2 Designing the development activity
• 3 Undertaking the development activity
• 4 Evaluating the development intervention
• This process is sometimes called the training
  cycle

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Needs analysis

• provides a set of learning objectives for the
  development programme
• these objectives might include adding knowledge,
  developing specific skills or helping to form
  specific attitudes eg towards customers or
  clients
• The learning objectives
• guide us as to what learning principles and
  training methods should be used.
• secondly, provide a means for assessing
  afterwards whether the learning intervention has
  been successful

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Evaluating a learning intervention

• Kirkpatricks model a four-stage process
• Trainee reactions
• Learning reactions
• Learning behaviour/behavioural change
• Results/performance

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Informal learning

• The learning an individual acquires
• from the experiences of doing the job
• from working in the organisation
• from thinking and reflecting on the work
• The US Bureau of Labor (1996) found that people
  learned 70 of what they know about their jobs
  informally through processes that were not
  structured or sponsored by their employing
  organisation

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A learning organisation

• An organisation which facilitates
• the learning of all of its members and thereby
  continuously transforms itself.
• (Pedler, Boydell and Burgoyne)

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Tacit and explicit knowledge

• Tacit knowledge
• personal, context-specific, and therefore hard to
  formalise and communicate
• Explicit knowledge
• can be transmitted in formal, systematic language
  (eg written down)
• We can know more than we can tell
• Polanyi (1966, p.4)

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Management development

• The entire structured process by which managers
  learn and improve their skills for their
  employing organisations.
• CIPD Factsheet on Management Development
  (February, 2007)

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Most common formal methods for management
development

• external courses
• seminars and conferences
• in-company training to develop individual skills
• in-company training to develop organisational
  skills
• pursuing external formal qualifications (such as
  MBAs)

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Most common informal methods for management
development

• in-company job rotation
• job observation
• on-the-job training
• mentoring
• coaching

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Conditions for successful management development

• It is recognised by the organisation as a
  strategic business activity
• Management development programmes recognise the
  nature of managerial work
• Programmes are tailored to fit the needs of the
  individual managers on them
• Education, training, selection, career planning,
  reward systems and managerial evaluation are
  recognised as all being part of a connected
  system
• Evaluation is itself a vital part of the system
  of development