Introduction for training and development
Introduction
In the world of work today, “Organization operate in more
complex, competitive and volatile environments, where they need to change
strategies, structures and process to respond to the business
challenges increase”(Conner, 1999: Higgs and Rowland, 2001). Thus
the obvious way for organisations to remain competitive in this era of
the globalisation that is highly driven by innovations, knowledge and technology is
by placing importance on acquiring new skills and creative expertise through
training and development of its employees (Scott, 2007).
Wan (2007) argues that the only strategy for
organisations to radically improve their workforce productivity is to seek to
optimise their workforce through comprehensive training and career development.
To achieve this purpose, organisations must afford proper training to acquire
the requisite skills and competencies that will enable them to function
effectively in complex situations.
This is premised on the fact that expertise and skills are
increasingly seen as the critical level not only for organisations but for the economy as a whole to compete internationally (Leitch, 2006).
Learning, Training & Development
According to Armstrong (2010) learning and
development is the process of ensuring that the organisation has the
knowledgeable, skilled and engaged workforce it needs. It involves facilitating
the acquisition by individuals and teams of knowledge and skills through
practice, learning events and programs provided by the organisation, guidance
and coaching provided by the line managers and others, and self - directed
learning activities carried out by individuals.
According to Armstrong (2014) defined training
as the systematic application of formal processes to impart knowledge and help
workers to acquire requisite skills for them to perform their jobs
satisfactorily. This definition supported by Olakunle & Ehi (2008),
who see training as the methodical development of the knowledge, skill and the attitude required by an individual employee to perform effectively on a given
task or job. Therefore the process of training and development is
a continuous one and an avenue to gain more and new knowledge and
develop further the skills and techniques to function effectively (Isyaku,
2000).
In the view of Armstrong (2014), development is
considered as the growth or realisation of a person’s ability and the potential
through the provision of learning and educational experiences.
Harrison (2009) concludes the key
aim of learning and development as the organisational process is to aid
collective progression through the collaborative expert and ethical stimulation
and facilitation of education and the knowledge that support business goals,
improve individual potentials, and respect and build on diversity”.
Accordingly, with the proficient industry expertise in tourism
and hospitality trade, the “loop wholes are invisible”. Due to this
matter, the readiness level of subordinates plays a critical
part when quick decision making is vital. Constant variations in tourism trends
and current economic environment are uncontrollable dynamics that cause to
influence on employee disengagement and low competences in the Sri Lankan tourism sector. Thus lack
of training and development is a crucial disadvantage for an organisation that will
drastically impact on its sustainability.
- Ineffective employee engagement creates low productivity in the organisation.
- Staff demotivates will influence to create goal in-congruence via departments.
- Poor leadership interest and control
(Source: Armstrong, 2006)
Sloman (2003) between learning, which
‘lies within the domain of the individual’, and training, which ‘lies within
the domain of the organisation’. Today the approach is to focus on individual
learning, and ensure that it takes place when required - ‘just - for - you’ and
‘Just - in - time’ knowledge. Therefore learning involves the acquisitions of
abstract concepts that can be applied flexibility in a range of situations. The
motivation for the development of new ideas is provided by new
experiences (Kolb, 1984).
The Experiential Learning Cycle
Experiential learning will profoundly influence to create a productive workforce. Therefore with the industry expertise in tourism and
hospitality sector training of housekeeping function as tap heads to gain
real experience within the industry.
Concrete Experience:
Personalised service and housekeeping function as tap heads to
gain efficiency through staff motivational training program to increase
employee engagement for better productivity.
Reflective Observation:
With the influence of trainers’ observation, the housekeeping
staff will be gaining knowledge to improve effectiveness in-room service,
proper communication, time management, and business ethics to improve the
readiness level of the team to manage situations effectively.
Abstract Conceptualization:
With the supervision of achieving set KPIs in a given time frame
and the readiness level of the housekeeping staff will enhance the idea of
practising their knowledge through learning that will help to deliver effectively
workforce by strengthening employee engagement.
Active Experimentation:
Leaning through training will help the staff to be committed by
completing the task successfully through increasing productivity by delivering
positive results on taking practical actions in any given situations, while
this creates a new concrete experience to the staff, and the cycle begins.
Significance probabilities on after training
housekeeping:
- High commitment and competency of the workforce.
- Being more customer-oriented due to the knowledge of training and development.
- Negative customer service feedback.
- The staff of the hotel will feel inspired to go above and beyond the call of duty.
- Dedication and innovation help to develop excellent hospitality staff.
- Identifying the level of employee output helps to exert effective decision making.
According to Armstrong (2014) citation on the
Kolb learning cycle is explained in the above figure 01, discuss “to learn
effectively, individuals must shift from being observers to participants, from
direct involvement to a more objective analytical detachment”.
Therefore with the effect of identifying the gap between what
people know and can do and what they should know and be able to do is concerned
with identifying and satisfying learning development needs (Armstrong,2012
cited in Olakunle and Ehi, 2008).
Purcell et al. (2003) believe
that discretionary behaviour which helps the firm to be successful is most
likely to happened, when employees are well motivated and duel committed to the
business and when the job gave them a high level of satisfaction.
Therefore (Purcell et al., 2003) established
that the critical policy and practice factors influencing levels of commitment were:
§ received training last
year;
§ are satisfied with career opportunities;
§ are satisfied with the performance appraisal system;
§ think managers are competent in people management (leadership);
§ find their work challenging;
§ think their the form helps them achieve a work-life balance;
§ Are satisfied with communication or company performance.
According to (Bentley, 2006) with the influence
of training and development, it adds value to the training process and direct
organisations towards the achievement of their strategic objectives.
Training and development activities allow organisations to
adapt, compete, innovate, excel, be safe, produce, improve service, and reach
goals. In the United States alone, organisations spend about $135 billion in
training individuals per year (Patel, 2010). Organisations
like Toyota, Apple, Microsoft and British Petroleum are changed continuously with
the social trends and pattern were training, and development programs are
essential to influence perform a high degree of learnability, logical ability,
cooperation and management potential, communication and advanced expertise and
planned approach for problem-solving (Sreenivas, 2006).
According to Armstrong (2014), formal training
is indeed only one of the ways of ensuring that learning takes place, but it
can be justified in the following circumstances:
The knowledge or skills cannot be acquired satisfactorily in the
workplace or by self-directing learning. Different skills are required by several people who have
to be developed quickly to meet new demands and cannot be gained by relying on
experience. The tasks to be carried out are so specialised or complex that
people are unlikely to master them on their own initiative at a reasonable
speed. When a leaning need common to several people has to be met
that can readily be dealt with in a training event or programed.
For example Induction, essential IT skills, communication
skills,
Consequently, there are two significant areas of training in the
organisation: these are “on - the - job” training and “off - the - job.”
training (Sulu, 2011). On-the-job training describes a variety of
methods that are applied while employees are actually performing their jobs.
In on-the-job location, the emphasis is more on the acquisition
of specific, local knowledge in a real situation (Cole, 1997).
Induction/orientations, coaching, apprenticeships/internships,
job instruction training, job rotation/ enlargement/ enrichment and understudy
are methods that include in On-the-job (Bankole, 2000: Nwokocha, 2014).
Accordingly the advantages of On-the-job training; it
facilitates the transfer of learning in organisations, the training approach
familiarises the individual with the procedures and tools trainees are going
with, the acceptance of trainees is enhanced since they would be pre-exposed to
those they would work with (Olankunle and Ehi, 2008).
Having considered the above facts, it is understood that
training research has come a long way.
Today it is empirical in nature and theoretically based. (Wright
& Geroy, 2001) note that employee competencies change through
effective training programs.
According to (Ford & Kraiger, 2007; Salas &
Kozlowski, 2010) the
next 50 years will bring many challenges to the science of training. As the
the population gets older, wiser, more technology-savvy, more insistent of
receiving just - in - time knowledge, more supportive of collaboration, and
more involved in multitasking, the science will have to even more
multidisciplinary, integrating findings from different areas such as human performance
modelling, augmented cognition, change management, skill acquisition.
Conclusion & Recommendation
Employee engagement is the emotional commitment employees have
towards the organisation and its goals (Evans & Lindsay, 2012). Training
and development influence to increase the level of involvement of employee
engagement to deliver their knowledge towards the organisation
success. According to (Arthur, 1994; Scholl, 2003), companies
can seek to achieve organisational goals through a multiplicity of human
resource strategies and methodologies. One such approach, a commitment
strategy, attempts to develop psychological connections between the company and
employee as a means of achieving goals.
Considering the above
facts, it highlights the level of influence towards an organisation through
practical training and development. With the industry expertise in the tourism
and hospitality sector, it is essential to exert analysing training needs to
fit the overall objectives to increase commitment and competency level in the
hospitality trade. In the context of
service-oriented environment, it is essential to reduce the number of accidents, labour
turnover, increase inefficiency and avoid job dissatisfaction to deliver
active service towards the stakeholders.
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