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Case Study Assignment

3. Discuss why and how Dow Chemicals would conduct a needs analysis before the

Leadership in Action program was run.

Conducting a training need analysis would assist Dow channel resources in areas that

would contribute to employee development and enhance the performance of the firm. The review

is useful because it indicates the areas that need improvement. The fields may include attitudes,

skills, and knowledge that the workers may require in enhancing the activities of Dow

Chemicals.

The analysis is also essential to Dow since it makes managers and trainees committed.

The study helped the manager and the vice president of Dow to recognize that the program that

they used earlier ‘had a major weakness (Manuti, Pastore, Scardigno, Giancaspro, and Morciano,

2015, pp.12). The program was missing a hands-on experience’ (CS) (Noe, 2017) that helped

employees to understand the cultural context.

Dow chemicals would analyze the procedure; the manager would formulate the objective

of training whereby they wanted the staff to be in a position to cope with unexpected situations,

acquire skills, and learn to solve problems.

The second step is linking the business outcomes with the behavior of its employees.

Dow’s managers through interviews and surveys should identify the capability of each

employee, skills and the personal characteristics linked to the outcome of Dow Chemicals. Only

the primary competencies are considered.

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The competencies that can be trained are identified by the managers. They determine

what exactly they would want their staff to possess to perform their work efficiently (Pless,

Maak, and Stahl, 2012, pp.880). According to Dow, expanding its global presence requires that

its employees are capable of networking and develop relationships with the local commercial and

the government.

Dow Chemical should then evaluate the competencies among its employees to find out if

they possess any of the skills. The firm could employ assessments or a competency evaluation.

The process helps evaluate observable behaviors. Otherwise, a 360-degree survey can be

conducted.

Dow would then determine the gaps in performance. This would help identify the

possible employees who require improvement or require training. For example, Dow Chemical’s

management commissions thirty-six potentially employees for training to improve on the skills

and influence the performance of the firm.

The management in Dow should aggregate the data collected in the above step on

performance gaps and prioritize the training needs. It involves identifying the number of

employees who needed the training (Tabassi, Ramli, and Bakar, 2012, pp.220). According to the

case study, Dow Chemical choose thirty-six of its employees who were introduced to unfamiliar

work surroundings to develop their skills.

Determining the methods to use for training of employees would define how best the

practice would impact on the staff. In the beginning, Dow Chemical used to send its employees

‘to week leadership development classes’ (CS) (Noe, 2017), but the technique had a significant
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weakness that it never taught employees how to understand the cultural context. This led to

adopting a new leadership program called Leadership in Action.

Dow Chemicals should then consider conducting a cost analysis of the Leadership in

Action program. The cost factors may include the time required for training. According to the

firm, the firm was scheduled for five months.

Lastly, the firm should come up with a mechanism to determine if the training impacted

on the employees (Hargreaves, and Fink, 2012, pp.60). The management of Dow had proved that

after completion of the training, the staff had a new view of the world and some of the

participants were eager to continue working for Dow’s growth in Africa.

4. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the Leadership in Action program

overall. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of the program compared to more

traditional ways of training leaders.

Dow Chemical technique of developing leaders by sending them to work in unfamiliar

surroundings such as Ethiopia and Ghana (CS) (Noe, 2017) has its strengths as well as

weaknesses. Its main strength is that it has assisted its employees to develop their consulting

skills and were in a position to work together with humanitarian groups and corporate partners.

A key goal of Dow Chemical in its approach is that exposing employees to different

environment assists them in dealing with uncertainty and change (Lozano, 2014, pp.210). As

evident, the groups collaborated from their home offices where they faced challenges such as

loss of power and telephone services which they were in apposition to cope with for five months.

Thus, the approach was beneficial in ‘hardening’ the employees.

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Evidence exists that working under different conditions helped the employees understand

the social structure and values of the people (García-Morales, Jiménez-Barrionuevo, and

Gutiérrez-Gutiérrez, 2012, pp.1060). Having an understanding of the community was essential in

creating ‘meaningful, accepted, and useful solutions’ (CS) (Noe, 2017). The groups, therefore,

acquired the necessary skills to work with varying communities.

Thirdly, exposure to different environment helped develop leadership skills and enhanced

humility and integrity required while conducting business in new markets (Singh, and Mohanty,

2012, pp. 90). The adventure encouraged teamwork among the groups which contributed to the

success of the program.

However, Down Chemical strategy had weaknesses whereby it gave no consideration to

the disabled and the people with health conditions. Individuals with the above problems would

be unlikely to participate in the training.

Like in any other program, Dow’s Action Plan had its advantages. They include;

employees were sent to work with nongovernmental organizations whereby employees put their

skills and knowledge to direct use, unlike formal education that fails to provide an individual

with active participation.

Secondly, the learning acquired by the employees of Dow Chemicals was in full context

as they interacted with nongovernmental organizations to help develop projects required by the

community. In this manner, they were able to learn precisely how the duty is performed, unlike

informal learning where there is no interaction to gain the skills.

Nonetheless, Dow’s program may have had disadvantages because each group acquires a

different skill from the other team (Elnaga, and Imran, 2013, pp. 139). This makes sharing the
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knowledge difficult as the employees feel threatened to share skills learned in different

environments, unlike informal learning where the knowledge has been standardized among all

learners.

Secondly, the employees may have had little extent in improving their communication

skills in the business environment as evident in formal learning where an individual is guided on

writing and presentation skills. The employees were busy involved in developing their skills in

the new environment but had no one to guide them in developing their communication skills.

5. Describe how you would determine if the Leadership in Action program

delivered effective outcomes for Dow Chemicals. Identify four measures (metrics) that you

would include in deciding effectiveness

In determining whether Leadership in Action program had any efficient consequences for

Dow Chemicals, the use of Kirkpatrick’s four-level analysis would be considered. Each of the

four levels indicates a precise level of effectiveness of the Leadership in Action program.

Metrics to be collected include the reaction of the participants, conduct a pre- and post-test after

training, assess the behavior change, and the feedback from the practice.

According to the model, assessing the reactions of the employees of Dow Chemical is the

first level. Here, a survey is conducted to find out the take of the employees regarding the

program (Tahir, Yousafzai, Jan, and Hashim, 2014, pp. 86). It can be in the form of a

questionnaire where questions such as; were the experience of any importance to their work? Are

asked. Verbal reaction from employees can also be used. Reflecting on the responses, if the

employees indicate a positive response, to some level, indicate that the program had an impact
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on them. At the end of the program, ‘almost all participants wanted to continue to be involved in

some way working on Dow’s growth in Africa’ (CS) (Noe, 2017).

Conducting a pre- and post-test is the second level of Kirkpatrick’s model. It tries to find

out the degree that the employees of Dow Chemicals have advanced their skills, changed their

attitude, and knowledge as a result of the training. The test is conducted before the employees are

deployed to the different working environment and after the training, to ascertain the learning

that has occurred.

The third stage involves identifying behavioral change, i.e., how the employees apply the

learned skills and knowledge in their workplace (Pless, and Borecká, 2014, pp. 526). This

assessment tries to answer few questions; are the newly acquired skills and knowledge being

used in the environment of the employee? Despite this level being the most challenging level as

it is not possible to measure the change in behavior, it is the most crucial level of assessing the

effectiveness of a program. Dow’s manager and vice president want the employees “to focus on

understanding social structures and values of the communities” (CS) (Noe, 2017). These are

among the reasons that would lead to behavioral change among the employees. The process is

conducted through close monitoring of the Dow’s employees, through observations, or

conducting interviews with the participants.

The fourth stage involves evaluating training from the results of the business

performance. This could be measured by measuring the rate of return of the Dow’s employees

who were involved in the preparation and those not included in the training (Amitabh, and Sinha,

2012, pp. 212). The data can then be evaluated to find out which among the employees had an

enormous impact on the performance and daily returns of Dow Chemicals.

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Bibliography

Noe, RA 2017, Employee training & development, 7th edn, Irwin McGraw-Hill, New York, NY.

(Chapter 2).

Amitabh, A. and Sinha, S., 2012. The Learning Continuum Formal and Informal Learning

Experiences-Enabling Learning and Creation of New Knowledge in an

Organization. International Journal of Advanced Corporate Learning, 5(2).

Elnaga, A. and Imran, A., 2013. The effect of training on employee performance. European

Journal of Business and Management, 5(4), pp.137-147.

García-Morales, V.J., Jiménez-Barrionuevo, M.M. and Gutiérrez-Gutiérrez, L., 2012.

Transformational leadership influence on organizational performance through organizational

learning and innovation. Journal of business research, 65(7), pp.1040-1050.

Hargreaves, A. and Fink, D., 2012. Sustainable leadership (Vol. 6). John Wiley & Sons.

Lozano, R., 2014. Creativity and organizational learning as means to foster

sustainability. Sustainable development, 22(3), pp.205-216.

Manuti, A., Pastore, S., Scardigno, A.F., Giancaspro, M.L. and Morciano, D., 2015. Formal and

informal learning in the workplace: a research review. International Journal of Training and

Development, 19(1), pp.1-17.

Pless, N.M. and Borecká, M., 2014. Comparative analysis of International Service Learning

Programs. Journal of Management Development, 33(6), pp.526-550.

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Pless, N.M., Maak, T. and Stahl, G.K., 2012. Promoting corporate social responsibility and

sustainable development through management development: What can be learned from

international service learning programs?. Human Resource Management, 51(6), pp.873-903.

Singh, R. and Mohanty, M., 2012. Impact of training practices on employee productivity: A

comparative study. Interscience Management Review, 2(2), pp.87-92.

Tabassi, A.A., Ramli, M. and Bakar, A.H.A., 2012. Effects of training and motivation practices

on teamwork improvement and task efficiency: The case of construction firms. International

Journal of Project Management, 30(2), pp.213-224.

Tahir, N., Yousafzai, I.K., Jan, S. and Hashim, M., 2014. The Impact of Training and

Development on Employees Performance and Productivity A case study of United Bank Limited

Peshawar City, KPK, Pakistan. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and

Social Sciences, 4(4), p.86.