MN7181-People and Organisations

Learning and Development

Learning & development along known as training and development is a function with organizational activity focused to enhance the job performance of employees (Tracey, 1992).

Learning / Training is considered as the learning process helping employees bridge the gap between the current level of performance to reach expected performance level.
Development would be the process of enhancing employee proficiency for career development and future opportunities (Hunt & Michael, 1983).

It is often perceived that the main benefit in the process of learning is the addition of credentials or qualifications. (Aguinis & Kraiger, 2009)However, the concept of learning and development goes beyond this & makes the process alone significant. Trainings in an organizational context will be more focused on working on the weakness of an individual to perform better in his job role. This comes with a drive, passion and motivation as it enables one to improve themselves as individuals both personally and professionally. With the right training and development programs, employees perform better which helps boost revenue and organizational growth.

A group of people who work together in an organizational context and they collective enhance each other’s capacities & skills is refers to as a learning organization (Senge, 1990). The process of organization learning consists of learning individually and it shifts from the traditional organization concept to a more learning and development oriented culture where employees think more creatively and critically.

A learning organization has certain characteristics as stated below that has been elaborated by the creator of this model Dr. Peter Senge.

·         System thinking

This characteristic reflects the observational process of an entire system instead of maintaining focus on issues individually. The management understand the consequences of all the actions and the correlation each action has on the other. With this understanding, managers become proactive and when face with an issue enables them to look at the cause of an issue in order to rectify (Marquardt, 1996)

·         Personal mastery

Personal mastery takes place when the leader has set the vision clear with goals aligned to it. These are realistic and it drive the employees towards the vision. However, employees could believe they lack the competencies to achieve their goals and it will hold them back from realizing their vision.

·         Mental models

A team needs to understand the purpose of the business which is the vision. This understating will help in adopting to the changes of the organization which will be made time to time in order to achieve the vision. (Gilley & Maycunich, n.d.)

·         Shared vision

Through a shared vision an organization can keep all of its employees inform and education which align the interest of all members keeping the focus in one direction to achieve the vision.

·         Team learning

Team work and learning within a team encourages learning through mistakes and developing skills from the colleagues.

Benefits of a learning culture

·         Efficiency gains

·         Increased productivity and Increased profit

·         Decreased employee turnover, as employee satisfaction levels rise and loyalty and commitment can be increased

·         Raising the bar by creating a continuous improvement mindset, shared ownership for projects and shared accountability for results

·         Developing leaders at all levels, which helps with succession planning

·         Creating a culture of inquiry, adaptive capacity, and knowledge sharing (vs. knowledge hoarding)

·         Enhanced ability for individuals and teams to embrace and adapt to change.

 References 

Aguinis, H. & Kraiger, K., 2009. Benefits of Training and Development for Individuals and Teams, Organizations, and Society. Annual Review of Psychology.

Gilley, J. & Maycunich, A., n.d. Beyond The Learning Organization: Creating a Culture ofContinuous Growth and Development Through State-of-the-Art Human Resource Practicies. s.l.:s.n.

Hunt , D. M. & Michael, C., 1983. Mentorship: A Career Training and Development Tool. Academy of Management Review, 08(03).

Marquardt, M., 1996. 16 Steps to Becoming a Learning Organization. s.l.:s.n.

Senge, P. M., 1990. The Fifth Discipline. s.l.:s.n.

Tracey, W. R., 1992. Designing Training and Development Systems. 3 ed. s.l.:s.n.