In the article “Employee Learning Theories and their Organizational Applications” by

Abdussalaam Iyanda Ismail, Abdul-Halim Abdul Majid and Hammed Oluwaseyi Musibau, the

authors believe that organizational success hinges on employees with the required KSAs, that

employees’ effectiveness at learning new skills and knowledge is connected with the kind of

learning technique the organization adopts, and that theories of learning and human resource

development are useful in piloting the workers in developing their careers. The Human Resource

(HR) practitioner plays an important role in ensuring that the organization develops in a way

which facilitates the learning. It is believed that learning can appear in many aspects within an

organization and in order to maximize learning in the workplace, HR practitioners must

comprehend the concept of learning theory for achieving the enhancement of employee

development. These learning theories attempt to explain how people learn and each theory

relates to different aspects of the learning process. The article explored the different types of

learning theories and their organizational applications. Each theory refers to different way of the

learning process, which possibly give HR practitioners certain ideas and concepts for how people

learn and what can be done to help employees learn so as to achieving the optimization of their

performance. The learning theories discussed were the Reinforcement Theory, Social Learning

Theory, Goal Setting Theory, Need Theories, ERG Theory, Expectancy Theory, Adult Learning

Theory, and Information Processing Theory. The authors also divided the aforementioned

theories into two approaches. These are the Cognitive-based Approach (Expectancy, Goal

Setting, Social Learning, and Adult Learning) and the Need-Based Approach (Maslow, ERG,

and Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory). Cognitive-based Approach are influenced by both intrinsic

and extrinsic factors, which eventually bring about learning in an individual while Need-based

Approach used to identify what people need and then make sure that the work environment
becomes a means of satisfying these needs. Reinforcement Theory on the other hand focuses in

the external environment and uses the analysis of the environment to explain and control

workers’ behavior and therefore it is a non-cognitive approach. The authors pointed out in this

article that all these learning theories play vital roles in influencing employee behavior in the

organization. Thus, HR practitioner should consider the appropriate learning theories to fit into

the different circumstances when facilitating the learning activities.