Chapter 5 Training, Talent Management, and Career Development Chapter Overview Training is a process whereby people acquire capabilities to perform jobs. This chapter examines training and HR, training and organizational strategy, training for global strategies, planning for training, training needs assessment, training design, training delivery, and training evaluation. The chapter first examines training and HR including the various training categories (required/regular, job/technical, developmental/career training, and interpersonal/ problem-solving) and legal issues related to training. Next, the chapter explores the relationship between organizational strategy and training. This discussion includes strategic training and organizational competitiveness aspects of training such as knowledge management, training as a revenue source, performance consulting and integrating performance with training. Then training and global strategies are explored including global assignment training and intercultural competence training. Planning for training is explored next and includes orientation, planning for new employees, and evaluating orientation. The rest of the chapter is devoted to the four phases in the training process. The relevant phases or components of effective training programs consist of: Assessment Design Delivery Evaluation Each of these is described in some detail. Training needs assessment includes three types of organization analyses—organizational, job/task, and individual—and establishing training objectives and priorities. Training design addresses learner characteristics, instructional strategies, and transfer of training. Training delivery covers internal training; external training; combination training such as cooperative training; and e-learning/on-line training. Evaluation of training describes four levels of evaluation (reaction, learning, behavior, and results), training evaluation metrics—cost-benefit analyses, returns on investment (ROI), and benchmarking)—and three forms of evaluation design: Post-measure Pre/post-measure Pre-/post-measure with a control group Chapter Outline Businesses must change if they are to survive because the environment in which they compete changes. For this reason, employee training is an ongoing process for most organizations. In the United States more than $126 billion is spent on training annually, or more than $1,000 per employee on average. Training is the process whereby people acquire capabilities to perform jobs. It provides employees with specific, identifiable knowledge and skills for use in their present jobs. Organizational training may include “hard” skills, such as teaching sales representatives how to use the intranet resources, showing a branch manager how to review an income statement, or helping a machinist apprentice how to set up a drill press. “Soft” skills are critical in many instances and can be taught as well. These skills may include communicating, mentoring, managing a meeting, and working as part of a team. I. Training and Human Resources Common training topics include, among others, safety, customer service, computer skills, quality initiatives, dealing with sexual harassment, and communication. Benefits of well-done training for individuals include enhanced skills, greater ability to adapt and innovate, better self-management, and performance improvement. For organizations, training can bring improvements in effectiveness and productivity, more profitability and reduced costs, improved quality, and increased human capital. II. Organizational Strategy and Training Training represents a significant expenditure for most employers. However, it is too often viewed tactically rather than strategically, which means that training is seen as a short-term activity rather than one that has longer-term effects on organizational success. Training also can affect organizational competitiveness by aiding in the retention of employees. One reason why many individuals stay or leave organizations is the availability of career training and development opportunities. A. Training as a Revenue Source and Other Positive Outcomes Some organizations have identified that training can be a source of business revenue, as well as other positive outcomes. For instance, Microsoft, Ceridian, and other technology firms bundle customer training with products and services they sell. Some manufacturers of industrial equipment offer customers training on machine upgrades and new features. Customers of many of these firms pay for additional training either by course, by participant, or as part of equipment or software purchases. Not only are the costs of the trainers’ salaries, travel, and other expenses covered, but the suppliers also make a profit on the training through the fees paid by customers. As a side benefit, customer satisfaction and loyalty increase if customers know how to use the products and services purchased. B. Sales Training Organizational competitiveness in many industries hinges on the success of the sales function. Innovative products or services require well-prepared professional sales people to inform the appropriate audience. A key element in sales force success is often the training opportunities available. Simulations, Web conferences, e-learning, self-paced learning, and virtual coaching can all be used to leverage sales training. Sales training can cover a wide variety of skills call execution, presentation skills, negotiation skills, strategy development, and other skills that lend themselves well to simulation of the sales situation. C. Global Competitiveness and Training For a global firm, the most brilliant strategies ever devised will not serve to improve competitiveness unless the company has well-trained employees throughout the world to carry them out. A global look at training is important as firms establish and expand operations worldwide. For U.S. employers, the challenge has increased because of the decline in specialized skilled and technical workers. III. Planning for Training Planning includes looking at the big picture in which the training takes place, as well as specifics for the design of a particular training effort. For example, the needs for skills have changed over time and soft skills like adaptability, problem solving, and professionalism have increased in value in some firms. Planning that recognizes and includes changes such as these may make for a more effective training program. Training plans allow organizations to identify what is needed for employee performance before training begins so that fit between training and strategic issues is secured. Effective training efforts consider the following questions: Is there really a need for the training? Who needs to be trained? Who will do the training? What form will the training take? How will knowledge be transferred to the job? How will the training be evaluated? A. Planning for New Employees: Orientation/Onboarding A good example of one kind of training that requires planning is orientation. Also called onboarding, orientation is the most important and widely conducted type of regular training done for new employees. Orientation, which is the planned introduction of new employees to their jobs, coworkers, and the organization, is offered by most employers. It requires cooperation between individuals in the HR unit and operating managers and supervisors. In a small organization without an HR department, the new employee’s supervisor or manager usually assumes most of the responsibility for orientation. In large organizations, managers and supervisors, as well as the HR department, often work as a team to orient new employees. Unfortunately, without good planning, new employee orientation sessions can come across as boring, irrelevant, and a waste of time to both new employees and their department supervisors and managers. But orientation which can also be thought of as “institutionalized socialization tactics,” can be very effective—if done well. Among the decisions to be made during planning new employee orientation are what to present and when to present it. Too much information on the first day leads to perceptions of ineffective onboarding. Several shorter sessions over a longer period of time, bringing in information as it is needed, are more effective. Effective orientation achieves several key purposes: Establishes a favorable employee impression of the organization and the job. Provides organization and job information. Enhances interpersonal acceptance by coworkers. Accelerates socialization and integration of the new employee into the organization. Ensures that employee performance and productivity begin more quickly. B. Electronic Orientation Resources One way of expanding the efficiency of orientation is to use electronic resources. Many employers place general employee orientation information on company intranets or corporate websites. New employees log on and go through much of the general material on organizational history, structure, products and services, mission, and other background, instead of sitting in a classroom where the information is delivered in person or by videotape. Specific questions and concerns can be addressed by HR staff and others after employees have reviewed the Web-based information. There are four phases of a systematic approach includes—assessment, design, delivery, and evaluation. Using such a process reduces the likelihood that unplanned, uncoordinated, and haphazard training efforts will occur. IV. Training Needs Assessment Assessing organizational training needs is the diagnostic phase of a training plan. This assessment considers issues related to employee and organizational performance to determine if training can help. Needs assessment measures the competencies of a company, a group, or an individual as they relate to what is required. It is necessary to find out what is happening and what should be happening before deciding if training will help, and if so what kind of training is needed. A. Analysis of Training Needs The first step in assessing training needs is analyzing what training might be necessary. Training needs can be diagnosed by analyzing organizational outcomes and looking at future organizational needs. A part of planning for training is the identification of the KSAs that will be needed now and in the future as both jobs and the organization change. Both internal and external forces will influence training and must be considered when doing organizational analysis. Organizational analysis comes from various measures of organizational performance. Departments or areas with high turnover, customer complaints, high grievance rates, high absenteeism, low performance, and other deficiencies can be pinpointed. Following the identification of problems, objectives can be developed if training is a solution. Job/Task Analysis A second level of analyzing training needs is to review the jobs involved and the tasks performed. By comparing the requirements of jobs with the KSAs of employees, training needs can be identified. Another way to pinpoint training gaps in the job or task being done is to survey employees and have them anonymously evaluate the current skill levels of themselves and their peers. This not only identifies job needs but also heightens employees’ awareness of their own learning needs. The third means of diagnosing training needs focuses on individuals and how they perform their jobs. The most common approach for making individual analysis is to use performance appraisal data. In some instances, a good HR information system can be used to identify individuals who require training in specific areas to be eligible for promotion. To assess training needs through the performance appraisal process, a supervisor first determines an employee’s performance strengths and inadequacies in a formal review. Then the supervisor can design training to help the employee overcome the weaknesses and enhance the strengths. B. Establishing Training Objectives and Priorities Once training requirements have been identified using needs analyses, training objectives and priorities can be established by a “gap analysis,” which indicates the distance between where an organization is with its employee capabilities and where it needs to be. Training objectives and priorities are then determined to close the gap. The success of training should be measured in terms of the objectives that were set for it. Useful objectives are measurable. Objectives check internalization, that is, whether the person really learned the training content and is able to use the training. V. Training Design Once training objectives have been determined, training design can start. Whether job-specific or broader in nature, training must be designed to address the specific objectives. Effective training design considers the learners and instructional strategies as well as how best to get the training from class to the job site. A. Learner Characteristics For training to be successful, learners must be ready and able to learn. Learner readiness means that individuals have the ability to learn. However, individuals also must have the motivation to learn, have high confidence, see value in learning, and have a learning style that fits the training. Training design also sometimes address special issues presented by adult learning. Certainly, the training design must consider that all the trainees are adults, but adults come with widely varying learning styles, experiences, and personal goals. For example, training older adults in technology may require greater attention to explaining the need for changes and enhancing the older trainees’ confidence and abilities when learning new technologies. In contrast, younger adults are more likely to be familiar with new technology because of their earlier exposure to computers and technology, but less able to work alone to learn skills. B. Instructional Strategies An important part of designing training is to select the right mix of strategies to fit learner characteristics. Practice/feedback, overlearning, behavioral modeling, error-based examples, and reinforcement/immediate confirmation are some of the prominent strategies available in designing the training experience. Practice/Feedback For some training, it is important that learners practice what they have learned and get feedback on how they have done so they can improve. Active practice occurs when trainees perform job-related tasks and duties during training. It is more effective than simply reading or passively listening. Overlearning is repeated practice even after a learner has mastered the performance. It may be best used to instill “muscle memory” for a physical activity to reduce the amount of thinking necessary and make responses automatic. But overlearning also produces improvement in learner retention. Even with overlearning, refreshers are still sometimes necessary to maintain proficiency. Behavioral Modeling The most elementary way in which people learn and one of the best is through behavioral modeling, which involves copying someone else’s behavior. It can aid in the transfer of skills and the usage of those skills by those who are trained. Error-Based Examples The error-based examples method involves sharing with learners what can go wrong when they do not use the training properly. Error-based examples have been incorporated in military, firefighting, police, and aviation training and have wide potential uses in other situations. Reinforcement The concept of reinforcement is based on the law of effect, which states that people tend to repeat responses that give them a positive reward and to avoid actions associated with negative consequences. Positively reinforcing correct learned responses while providing negative consequences at some point for wrong responses can change behavior. C. Training Transfer Trainers should design training for the best possible transfer from the classroom to the job. Transfer occurs when trainees actually use on the job what knowledge and information they learned in training. The amount of training that effectively gets transferred to the job is estimated to be relatively low, especially given all the time and money spent on training. Not all employees apply training to their jobs immediately after training. Offering trainees an overview of the training content and how it links to what he or she does seems to help with short-term and longer-term training transfer. Another helpful approach is to ensure that the training mirrors the job context as much as possible. Supervisor support of the training, feedback from the supervisor, and supervisor involvement in training are powerful influences in transfer. Opportunity to use the training is also important. To be trained on something but never to have the opportunity to use it limits transfer. Learners need the opportunity to use new skills on the job if the skills are to remain. VI. Training Delivery Once training has been designed, the actual delivery of training can begin. Regardless of the type of training done, many approaches and methods can be used to deliver it. The growth of training technology continues to expand the available choices. Whatever the approach used, a variety of considerations must be balanced when selecting training-delivery methods. The common variables considered are the following: Urgency of training Subject matter Number of trainees Individual versus team Self-paced versus guided Training resources/costs E-learning versus traditional learning Geographic locations involved Time allotted Completion timeline One internal source of instruction is informal training, which occurs through interactions and feedback among employees. Much of what employees know about their jobs they learn informally from asking questions and getting advice from other employees and their supervisors, rather than from formal training programs. The most common type of training at all levels in an organization is on-the-job training (OJT) because it is flexible and relevant to what employees do. Well-planned and well-executed OJT can be very effective. In contrast with informal training, which often occurs spontaneously, OJT should be planned. The supervisor or manager conducting the training must be able to both teach and show the employees what to do. However, OJT has some problems. Those doing the training may have no experience in training, no time to do it, or no desire to participate in it. Under such conditions, learners essentially are on their own, and training likely will not be effective. Another problem is that OJT can disrupt regular work. Unfortunately, OJT can amount to no training at all sometimes, especially if the trainers simply allow the trainees to learn the job on their own. Bad habits or incorrect information from the supervisor or manager can also be transferred to the trainees. Cross training occurs when people are trained to do more than one job—theirs and someone else’s. For the employer, the advantages of cross training are flexibility and development. Even though cross training is attractive to the employer, it is not always appreciated by employees, who may feel that it requires them to do more work for the same pay. To counteract such responses and to make it more appealing to employees, learning “bonuses” can be awarded for successfully completing cross training. In some organizations, the culture may be such that people seek cross-training assignments to grow or prepare for a promotion, but that is not the case in all organizations. Unions typically are not in favor of cross training because it threatens job jurisdiction and broadens jobs. A. Cooperative/Apprentice Training Cooperative training approaches mix classroom training and on-the-job experiences. This training can take several forms. One form, generally referred to as school-to-work transition, helps individuals move into jobs while still in school or upon completion of formal schooling. Such efforts may be arranged with high schools, community colleges, or some universities. Another form of cooperative training used by employers, trade unions, and government agencies is apprentice training. An apprenticeship program provides an employee with on-the-job experience under the guidance of a skilled and certified worker. Certain requirements for training, equipment, time length, and proficiency levels may be monitored by a unit of the U.S. Department of Labor. A form of cooperative training called internship usually combines job training with classroom instruction from schools, colleges, and universities. Internships benefit both employers and interns. Interns get real-world exposure, a line on their résumés, and a chance to closely examine a possible employer. Employers get a cost-effective source of labor and a chance to see the intern work before making a final hiring decision. VII. E-Learning: Online Training E-learning is use of a Web-based technology to conduct training online. E-learning is popular with employers. The major reasons are cost savings and access to more employees. Training conducted with some kind of learning technology is likely to continue to increase. A. Advantages and Disadvantages of E-Learning The rapid growth of e-learning makes the Internet or an intranet a viable means for delivering training content. But e-learning has both advantages and disadvantages that must be considered. In addition to being concerned about employee access to e-learning and the desire to use it, some employers worry that trainees will use e-learning to complete courses quickly but will not retain and use much of what they have learned on the job. VIII. Training Evaluation Evaluation of training compares the post-training results to the pre-training objectives of managers, trainers, and trainees. Because training is both time consuming and costly, it should be evaluated. A. Measuring Training Cost-benefit analysis and return-on-investment (ROI) analysis are commonly used to measure training results, as are various benchmarking approaches. Training results can be evaluated through cost-benefit analysis, which is comparison of costs and benefits associated with the training. Training is often expected to produce an ROI. Still, too often, training is justified because someone liked it, rather than on the basis of resource accountability. ROI simply divides the return produced because of the training by the cost (or investment) of the training. In addition to evaluating training internally, some organizations use benchmark measures to compare it with training done in other organizations. To do benchmarking, HR professionals gather data on training in their organization and compare them with data on training at other organizations in the same industry and in companies of a similar size. Comparison data are available through the American Society for Training and Development and its Benchmarking Service. This service has training-related data from more than 1,000 participating employers who complete detailed questionnaires annually. Training can also be benchmarked against data from the American Productivity & Quality Center and the Saratoga Institute. IX. Talent Management and Development Talent management is the process of identifying the most important jobs in a company that provide a long-term advantage, and then developing employees so that they can effectively work in these jobs. Companies can reduce risks and increase the rewards of talent management by adopting an approach that relies on: The development of current employees and hiring outside talent The creation of talent pools and training for broad competencies in employees The use of short-term talent forecasts that are likely more reliable Establishing a balance between employees’ and companies’ ownership of career development A. Scope of Talent Management As talent management has evolved, a variety of tools and approaches have also developed. Target Jobs The first issue is to identify the types of jobs that will be the focus of talent management efforts. In some organizations, talent management focuses on the CEO and other executive jobs, rather than focusing more broadly. Other organizations target senior management, mid-level managers, and other key jobs. However, those groups only represent about one-third of the total workforce, which raises the question of whether talent management efforts would be more useful if they were more widely implemented within the workforce. High-Potential Individuals Some organizations focus talent management efforts primarily on “high-potential” individuals, often referred to as high-pos. Attracting, retaining, and developing high-pos have become the main emphases for some talent management efforts. Firms may classify individuals as being in the top 10% and limit the people who can participate in intensive talent management efforts to that group. Other organizations view talent management more broadly. Competency Models Competency models show knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) for various jobs. Competency models help to identify existing talent and gaps in needed talent. Some companies maintain libraries of competency models. These libraries create a clear path for talent planning. Competency models might be created for executives, managers, supervisors, salespeople, technical professionals, and others key jobs. Talent pools are a way to reduce the risk that the company may not need a certain specialty after developing it. The idea is to avoid developing for a narrow specialized job and instead develop a group or pool of talented people with broad general competencies that could fit a wide range of jobs. Once developed, they can be allocated to specific vacancies. Career tracks are a series of steps that one follows to become ready to move up. Assessment most often involves tests of one sort or another. Tests for IQ, personality, aptitude, and other factors can be used. A portfolio of tests and other assessments to help predict a person’s potential for a job is called an “assessment center”. Development Risk Sharing In developing talent, the employer always runs the risk in developing talent that an employee who has been developed will choose to leave with the valuable skills gained. A way to reduce this risk is to have promising employees volunteer for development on their own time. Executive MBA programs that can be attended on evenings or weekends, extra projects outside a person’s current assignment, volunteer projects with nonprofit organizations, and other paths can be used. The employer might contribute through tuition reimbursement or some selected time away from the job, but the risk is at least partly shared by the employee because they have invested some of their time in the process. X. Succession Planning The basis for dealing successfully with staffing changes such as retirements, transfers, promotions, and turnover is succession planning. Succession planning encourages an organization to prepare for the inevitable movements of personnel that create holes in the hierarchy that need to be filled by other qualified individuals. Bench strength and the leadership pipeline are metaphors for ways to prevent the void by having replacements ready. All the work involved in the succession planning process should result in two products: Potential emergency replacements for critical positions Other successors who will be ready with some additional development The development necessary should be made clear to the people involved, along with a plan for achieving the development. Often HR has the primary responsibility for succession planning organization-wide. However, for CEO and senior management succession efforts, top executives and board members often have major involvement. In this case, HR often performs the following actions: Functioning as an objective voice and increasing effectiveness of the program Interpreting data collected about employees who might fill future positions Being available for job candidates who seek counseling Enhancing the development opportunities in the firm Helping track and evaluate individual development efforts A. “Make-or-Buy” Talent? Employers face a “make-or-buy” choice—develop (“make”) competitive human resources, or hire (“buy”) individuals who are already developed from somewhere else. There are a number of advantages and disadvantages associated with each particular approach. Buy talent: (+) Company can tap into new knowledge/perspectives (+) Obtain needed skills that will help the company (-) Can be a costly strategy (-) Risk associated with hiring unproven employees Make talent: (+) Companies can provide employees required competencies and advancement opportunities (+) Highly cost effective (+)Employees already known (-) Limited ability to secure new knowledge/perspectives (-) May take longer B. Common Succession Planning Mistakes Focusing only on CEO and top management succession is one of the most common mistakes made. Other mistakes include the following: Starting too late, when openings are already occurring Not linking well to strategic plans Allowing the CEO to direct the planning and make all succession decisions Looking only internally for succession candidates XI. Careers and Career Planning A career is the series of work-related positions a person occupies throughout life. People pursue careers to satisfy their individual needs. Careers are an important part of talent management, but individuals and organizations view careers in distinctly different ways. Changes in employer approaches to planning for replacement managers based upon a less predictable business environment have put much of the responsibility for a career on the shoulders of individual employees. However, companies also need to take some responsibility in the career planning process by helping employees make good decisions and by providing positive work opportunities. When a company attempts to manage careers internally, there may be a typical career path that is identified for employees. The old model of a career in which a person worked up the ladder in one organization is becoming rarer, and in a few industries changing jobs and companies every few years is becoming more common. A. Organization-Centered Career Planning Career planning for the organization focuses on identifying career paths that provide for the logical progression of people between jobs in an organization. Individuals follow these paths as they advance in organizations. To communicate with employees about opportunities and help with planning, employers frequently use career workshops, a career “center,” newsletter, and career counseling. Individual managers often play the role of coach and counselor in their direct contact with individual employees and within an HR-designed career management system. B. Individual-Centered Career Planning Organizational changes have altered career plans for many people. Individuals have had to face “career transitions”—in other words they have had to find new jobs. These transitions have identified the importance of individual-centered career planning, which focuses on an individual’s responsibility for a career rather than on organizational needs. For individuals to successfully manage their own careers, they should be able to perform several activities. Three key ones are as follows: Self-assessment—individuals need to think about what interests them, what they do not like, what they do well, and their strengths and weaknesses. Feedback on reality—employees need feedback on how well they are doing, how their bosses see their capabilities, and where they fit in organizational plans for the future. Setting of career goals—deciding on a desired path, setting some timetables, and writing down these items all set the stage for a person to pursue the career of choice. C. Organizational Entry and Exit “Entry shock” is especially difficult for younger new hires who find the work world very different from the world of school. Entry shock includes the following concerns: Supervisors—the boss–employee relationship is different from the student–teacher relationship. Feedback—in school, feedback is frequent and measurable, but that is not true of most jobs. Time—school has short (quarter/semester) time cycles, whereas time horizons are longer at work. The work—problems are more tightly defined at school; at work, the logistical and political aspects of solving work problems are less certain. The process of retirement can be seen in many ways. For instance, retirement represents a decision-making situation whereby an individual makes a choice to leave the workplace to pursue personal interests. Retirement can also be understood as an adjustment away from the demands of the workplace to greater psychological well-being achieved outside the job. Some areas of adjustment faced by many retirees include self-direction, a need to belong, satisfying achievement needs, finding personal space, and setting meaningful goals. To help address concerns over these issues, as well as anxieties about finances, some employers offer preretirement planning seminars for employees. XII. Developing Human Resources Development represents efforts to improve employees’ abilities to handle a variety of assignments and to cultivate employees’ capabilities beyond those required by the current job. Development differs from training. It is possible to train people to answer customer service questions, drive a truck, etc. However, development in areas such as judgment, responsibility, decision making, and communication presents a bigger challenge. These areas may or may not develop through ordinary life experiences of individuals. A planned system of development experiences for all employees, not just managers, can help expand the overall level of capabilities in an organization. XIII. Human Resources Development Approaches Investing in human intellectual capital can occur on or off the job and in “learning organizations.” Development becomes imperative as “knowledge work,” such as research skills and specialized technology expertise, increases for almost all employers. But identifying the right mix of approaches for development needs requires analyses and planning. A. Job-Site Development Approaches To ensure that the desired development actually occurs, managers must plan and coordinate their development efforts. Managers can choose from various job-site development methods. Coaching The oldest on-the-job development technique is coaching, which is observation and feedback given to employees by immediate supervisors. For coaching to be effective, employees and their managers must have a healthy and open relationship. One type of coaching that is growing is team coaching. This approach focuses on coaching groups of individual employees on how to work more effectively as parts of workforce teams. Committee Assignments Assigning promising employees to important committees may broaden their experiences and help them understand the personalities, issues, and processes governing the organization. Job Rotation The process of moving a person from job to job is called job rotation. It is widely used as a development technique. When properly handled, such job rotation fosters a greater understanding of the organization and aids with employee retention by making individuals more versatile, strengthening their skills, and reducing boredom. B. Off-Site Development Approaches Off-the-job development techniques give individuals opportunities to get away from their jobs and concentrate solely on what is to be learned. Contact with others who are concerned with slightly different problems and come from different organizations may provide employees with new and different perspectives. Various off-site methods can be used. Classroom Courses and Seminars Most off-the-job development programs include some classroom instruction. People are familiar with classroom training, which gives it the advantage of being widely accepted. But the lecture system sometimes used in classroom instruction encourages passive listening and reduces learner participation, which is a distinct disadvantage. Sabbaticals A sabbatical is an opportunity provided by some companies for employees to take time off the job to develop and rejuvenate, as well as to participate in activities that help others. Some employers provide paid sabbaticals while others allow employees to take unpaid sabbaticals. The length of time taken off from work varies greatly. Positive reasons for sabbaticals are to help prevent employee burnout, offer advantages in recruiting and retention, and boost individual employee morale. C. Learning Organizations and Development As talent management becomes more important, employers may attempt to become learning organizations. Learning organizations do their best to teach employees how to be effective through formal learning processes such as seminars, job experiences, and sound leadership, as well as through informal mechanisms such as social learning, behavioral norms, and information sharing. Such a learning environment can be difficult to introduce into an organization where it has not grown on its own. But in situations where it is already present, a learning organization offers a significant opportunity to develop employees. Knowledge-based organizations that deal primarily with ideas and information must have employees who are experts at one or more conceptual tasks. These employees continuously learn and solve problems in their areas of expertise. Developing such employees requires an “organizational learning capacity” based on solving problems and learning new ways not previously used. Encouraging them to pass their knowledge on to others is the basis for a learning organization. XIV. Management Development Although development is important for all employees, it is essential for managers. Without appropriate development, managers may lack the capabilities to best deploy and manage resources (including employees) throughout the organization. While classroom training can be helpful, experience often contributes more to the development of senior managers because much of it occurs in varying real-life, on-the-job situations. Not all companies take the time to develop their own senior-level managers. Instead, senior managers and executives often are hired from the outside. Figure 5-5 shows experience-based sources of managers’ learning and lists some important lessons for supervisors, middle managers, and senior-level executives that should be provided by development activities. Numerous approaches are used to mold and enhance the experiences that managers need to be effective. The most widely used methods are supervisor development, leadership development, management modeling, management coaching, management mentoring, and executive education. At the beginning level for managerial development is the first-line supervisory job. It is often difficult to go from being a member of the work group to being the boss. Therefore, the new supervisors who are used to functioning as individual contributors often require new skills and mind-sets to be successful supervisors. The usual materials for supervisor training and development include several topics, such as basic management responsibilities, time management, and human relations. Human relations training attempts to prepare supervisors to deal with “people problems” brought to them by their employees. The training focuses on the development of the human relations skills a person needs to work well with others. The most common reason employees fail after being promoted to management is poor teamwork with subordinates and peers. Other common reasons for management failure include not understanding expectations, failure to meet goals, difficulty adjusting to management responsibilities, and inability to balance work and home lives. Leadership development is expanding a person’s capacity to be effective in leadership roles. Managers learn by behavior modeling, or copying someone else’s behavior. A great deal of human behavior is learned by modeling. Management development efforts can take advantage of natural human behavior by matching young or developing managers with appropriate models and then reinforcing the desirable behaviors exhibited by the learners. The modeling process involves more than straightforward imitation or copying. Thus, exposure to both positive and negative models can benefit a new manager as part of leadership development efforts. A method called management mentoring is a relationship in which experienced managers aid individuals in the earlier stages of their careers. Such a relationship provides an environment for conveying technical, interpersonal, and organizational skills from a more-experienced person to a designated less-experienced person. Not only does the inexperienced employee benefit, but the mentor also may enjoy having the opportunity and challenge of sharing wisdom. Company mentoring programs that focus specifically on women and individuals of different racial/ethnic backgrounds have been successful in many larger firms. A. Problems with Management Development Efforts Many of the management development problems in firms have resulted from inadequate HR planning and a lack of coordination of HR development efforts. Common problems include the following: Failing to conduct adequate needs analysis Trying out fad programs or training methods Substituting training for selecting already qualified individuals Another common management problem is encapsulated development, which occurs when an individual learns new methods and ideas, but returns to a work unit that is still bound by old attitudes and methods. The development was “encapsulated” in the classroom and is essentially not used on the job. Consequently, in this situation, it is common for individuals who participate in development programs paid for by their employers to become discouraged and move to new employers who allow them to use their newly developed capabilities more effectively. Instructor Manual for Human Resource Management: Essential Perspectives Robert L. Mathis, John Jackson, Sean Valentine 9781305115248
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