Human Resource Management

Week 8
Learning and Development

Human Resource Management – 2022

 Training and Development

Training
• an intervention by the organisation intended to advance
business objectives (Harrison 2005)

Development
• Broader view of knowledge and skills acquisition through
training
• Less job orientated than career orientated
• concerned more with potential than with immediate skill
• Sees employees as adaptable resources

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Learning and Development

• Learning and development is the process of ensuring that

the organisation has the knowledgeable, skilled and
engaged work force it needs
• The elements of learning and development are:
• Learning
• Training
• Development
• Education

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Components of L & D
Learning and
development

Individual Leadership &

Organisational Blended
learning and Training management
learning learning development
development

Workplace Formal
Knowledge learning on-the-job
management
training

Self-directed
learning Formal
off-the-job
training
E-learning

Coaching and
mentoring

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Approaches to Learning and
Development
• The starting point for learning and development is the
systematic identification of learning needs

• Workplace learning
• Workplace learning is experiential learning
• It is learning by doing and by reflecting on experience so
that it can be understood and applied

• Online-learning

• This involves the use of computer, networked and web-

based technology to provide learning material and
guidance to individual employees

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 Learning Needs Analysis:
Identifying the Learning Gap

What is Learning gap What should be

Actual performance Performance levels

levels required
Knowledge and skill Knowledge and skill
possessed required

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Identifying Learning Needs

Corporate Function Individual

Business Human resource Training Performance Job and role

plans plans surveys reviews analysis

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 Development

• Development takes the form of learning activities that prepare

people to exercise wider or increased responsibilities

• A personal development plan sets out the actions people

propose to take to learn and to develop themselves

• Planned experience is the process of deciding on a sequence

of experience that will enable people to obtain the knowledge
and skills required in their jobs and prepare them to take on
increased responsibilities

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 Training

• Training is the use of systematic and planned instruction

activities to promote learning
• It is required when:

• The knowledge or skills cannot be acquired in the workplace or

by self-directed learning
• Different skills are required by a number of people
• The tasks to be carried out are specialised or complex
• There is a learning need common to a number of people

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 Systematic Training Model

1 Identify learning needs

2 Plan training programmes

Techniques Facilities Locations Trainers

3 Implement training

4 Evaluate training

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 Design and Delivery

• Initial decisions
In-house or externally provided?
On-the job or off-the-job?
Individual or collective?
Facilitation versus Instruction

• Considerations include
Financial and time limitations
Specific context in which the learning is to take place
Characteristics of the targeted learner group
Strategic goals and mission
Availability of in-house expertise
Customs and established practices

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Planning and Delivery

• Establish learning needs

• Define learning objectives
• Decide on content
• Decide on methods of delivery
• Decide on the location and facilities required, the budget and
who delivers the programme
• Prepare information on the programme or event
• Deliver the learning
• Evaluate the learning

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 Delivery Methods

Coaching and mentoring

Online learning

Blended learning

Continuing professional development

Management development

Provide feedback to learners

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 Designing Interventions

• Translate identified needs into the specific aims of a learning

intervention, the means through which these are to be
achieved

• Planning and designing learning

• What do participants need to know and be able to do to be
competent in their job role?
• How do you design an effective and balanced learning
programme?
• What are the most effective methods to support the learning
experience?

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 Learning Strategies

• Individual Learning

• Individual learning comprises the processes and programmes

used to ensure that individual employees acquire and develop
the new knowledge, skills, capabilities, behaviours and attitudes
required to perform their roles effectively and to develop their
potential

• Organisational Learning

• Organisational learning strategies aim to improve organisational

effectiveness through the development and acquisition of
knowledge, understanding, insights, techniques and practices

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Concerns about Development

• Increases productivity but by how much?

• Difficult to show causal link between HR development and

organisational performance

• Means of building core competence over the longer term to

achieve sustained competitive advantage

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 Identification of needs
(Boydell 1976)

Training/Learning needs can occur at three possible levels

•Organisational level - Global review? Critical incident?

•Occupational or job level

• Knowledge - technical, context, background
• Skills - intellectual, physical, interpersonal
• Attitudes

•Individual employee level

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 Training and Links to Economy

• Importance of training linked to 4 major concerns:

• The nation’s declining economic performance

• Unemployment - and employment - types and levels
• Rapid change - technological, societal and legal
• The training contribution (Barrington & Reid 2007)

• ‘Investment in human capital will be the foundation of success

in the knowledge-based global economy of the 21st century.
That is why the government has put learning at the heart of its
ambition’
(The Learning Age DfEE 1998)

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 Evalution

• Has the training met its stated outcomes?

• Assess the extent to which the training intervention has met
the needs of all stakeholders and their specific objectives
• Has the participant transferred learning to the workplace?
• Identify areas for change and modification
• Costs and benefits of activity
• Formal or informal evaluative methods

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 Learning Levels Evaluation
(Kirkpatrick 1987)

• Level 1:
• Reaction
• Level 2:
• Evaluate learning
• Level 3:
• Evaluate behaviour
• Level 4:
• Evaluate results

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 Learning Curve

• The concept of the learning curve refers to the time it takes an

inexperienced person to reach the required level of performance in
a job or a task
• EWS - the experienced worker’s standard

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The Learning Curve

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 Organisational Learning

• Organisational learning is the development and acquisition in

organisations of knowledge, understanding, insights,
techniques and practices in order to improve organisational
effectiveness
• A learning organisation was defined by Pedler et al (1997) as
one that ‘facilitates the learning of all its members and
continually transforms itself'

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Nature of Development Needs

• The need for learning and talent development begins with a

performance itch (Saks and Haccoun 2010)

• Reactive or proactive?
• Response to change in organisational context
• Analysis of gaps between current work performance and desire
standards of work or performance criteria
• Identify desired:
• Performance, Gap, Learning

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 Potential Areas of Intervention

• Cognitive capacities – ‘Beyond knowledge’, includes the

development of imagination, creativity and decision-making

• Capabilities – The discrete abilities or skills involved in

effective performance, including capabilities in dealing with
‘data’, ‘people’ and ‘things’

• Behaviours – Developed through learning and development to

change attitudes, develop values and ‘emotional intelligence’

(Gibbs
2002)

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Designing and determining which
intervention

• Considerations include:
• Financial and time limitations
• Specific context in which the learning is to take place
• Characteristics of the targeted learner group
• Strategic goals and mission
• Availability of in-house expertise
• Customs and established practices
• Organisational culture

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 Explicit Knowledge

• Explicit knowledge can easily be written, communicated and shared

• Explicit knowledge can often be found easily
• Explicit knowledge occurs when data is structured, organised, interpreted and processed
• It is usually easy to write and store
• It refers to processes, expectations or vocabulary that can be passed to new starters
• Examples:
• Datasheets, employee handbooks, instruction manuals, research results and white papers

• Tacit learning could be understood as gaining knowledge that is not readily expressed but resides within the mind, behaviour,
and perceptions of individuals (Dampney et al., 2002).

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 Tacit Knowledge

• Tacit knowledge is gained from personal experience and can

be difficult to share with others
• It might refer to processes and techniques that can only be
learned through practical experience, context and training
• Tacit knowledge can require skill and in-depth explanations to
communicate
• People may not be aware of their knowledge or how it can be
valuable to others
• Effective transfer of tacit knowledge generally requires
extensive personal contact, regular interaction and trust
• Explicit knowledge often compliments tacit knowledge but
they're different

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 Implicit Knowledge

• Implicit knowledge refers to the application of explicit

knowledge and is often transferable from one job or industry to
another
• It gives broader context to explicit knowledge and can usually
provide a helpful platform for new teachings
• If a team member is asked how they complete a task, they might
outline the various methods or techniques that could be used
• Their implicit knowledge could enable them to share the
advantages and disadvantages of each approach so someone
else can decide the best way to accomplish

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Implicit Knowledge

• Implicit knowledge often happens by accident

• With familiarity with processes and routines, individuals can
gain implicit knowledge
• Also called procedural or conceptual knowledge
• It can be applied to new contexts or jobs
• Implicit knowledge differs from tacit knowledge because
implicit knowledge is often easier to synthesize and apply
• Learn something explicitly, then use implicit knowledge to
improve
• Tacit knowledge is usually more situationally specific

Human Resource Management 2022

 How People Learn

• People will learn more effectively if they are motivated to learn

• Individuals learn for themselves and learn from other people
• They learn as members of teams and by interaction with their
managers, co-workers and people outside the organisation
(social learning)
• They learn by doing and by instruction
• Self-directed or self-managed learning involves encouraging
individuals to take responsibility for their own learning needs

Human Resource Management - 2022

 Learning Styles

• Individual learners have different styles – a preference for a

particular approach to learning
• The two most familiar classifications of learning styles are
those produced by Kolb and by Honey and Mumford

• Learning preferences (Honey and Mumford 1986)

• Activist- try out
• Reflector – think about
• Theorist- learn about
• Pragmatist- find purpose

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Kolb Learning Cycle Model (1984)

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Honey and Mumford Model (1986)

https://www.mint-hr.com/mumford.html

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2022
 Theories of Learning and
Development

• Reinforcement theory (Operant conditioning):

• changes in behaviour take place as a result of an
individual’s response to events/stimuli and the ensuing
consequences ie rewards or punishments (BF Skinner 1974)

• Cognitive learning theory:

• learning involves gaining knowledge and understanding by
absorbing information in the form of principles, concepts
and facts and then internalising it (Piaget 2017)

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 Reinforcement/Cognitive Approach

• This approach to learning is based on the idea

that learners respond to stimuli in their environment
• The role of the learning facilitator is to provide relevant and
useful stimuli so that the learner responds to and gains the
required knowledge or experience

• (Activity 1)

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Lewin’s 3 Stage Model

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2022
 Theories of Learning and
Development

• Experiential learning theory:

• takes place when people learn from their experience by
reflecting so that it can be understood and applied (Kolb 1984)

• Social learning theory:

• effective learning requires social interaction (Bandura 1977)

• (Activity 2)

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 Social Learning Theories
(Albert Bandura 1977)

• A set of theories which highlight the role of context in

individual and group learning emphasising how individuals
actively construct knowledge and understanding
• Behavioural modeling
• Observing and modeling behavior of others
• Learning behaviour consequences
• Observing consequences that others experience
• Self-reinforcement
• Reinforcing our own behaviour with consequences within
our control

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Cone of Experience
(Dale 1969)

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Passive/Active Learning

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Gibbs Reflective Cycle

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 Learning Culture

• One in which learning is recognised by top management, line

managers and employees generally as an essential
organisational process to which they are committed and in
which they engage continuously

• A “growth medium” in which “employees will commit to a range

of positive discretionary behaviours, including learning”
Reynolds (2004)

• Characteristics of a learning culture :

• self-managed learning not instruction,
• long-term capacity building not short-term fixes
• empowerment not supervision

Human Resource Management - 2022