Learning & Development;

Performance Strategies
Chap 10 and 11
 Strategic Human Resource Development –
definition and aims
• SHRD involves introducing, eliminating, modifying, directing, and guiding
processes in such a way that all individuals and teams are equipped with the
skills, knowledge and competences they require to undertake current and
future tasks required by the organization. (Walton, 1999)
• It takes a broad and long-term view about how HRD policies and practices
can support the achievement of business strategies.
• It enhances resource (intellectual) capability in accordance with the belief
that a firm’s human resources are a major source of competitive advantage.
• It provides an environment - through mentoring, coaching and training - in
which people are encouraged to take responsibility for their learning and
development.
• Although it is business led, its specific strategies take into account individual
aspirations and needs.
• It also suggest how organization’s processes can be better ordered.
 Elements of HRD
• Learning – ‘a relatively permanent change in behavior that
occurs as a result of practice or experience’. As Kolb (1984)
describes it, ‘Learning is the major process of human adaptation.’
• Training – planned and systematic modification of behavior
through learning events, programs and instruction that enable
individuals to achieve the levels of knowledge or competence
needed to carry out their work effectively. It is one of the
organization’s responses to promote learning.
• Development – the growth of a person’s ability or potential
through the provision of learning and educational experiences.
• Education – the development of the knowledge and values
required in all aspects of life rather than the knowledge and skills
relating to a particular area of activity.
Strategies for creating a learning culture
A learning culture is one in which learning is recognized by
top management as an essential organizational process to
which they are committed and in which they engage
continuously.
It is characterized by:
• empowerment instead of supervision,
• self-managed learning instead of instruction,
• long-term capacity building instead of short-term fixes
• individuals actively seeking to acquire the knowledge
and skills that promote organization’s objectives.
Strategies for creating a learning culture
• A learning culture is one in which learning is recognized
by top management as an essential organizational
process to which they are committed and in which they
engage continuously.
• It is characterized by:
• empowerment not supervision,
• self-managed learning not instruction,
• long-term capacity building not short-term fixes
• and individuals actively seeking to acquire knowledge
and skills that promote the organization’s objectives.
 Steps in developing a learning culture
1. Develop and share the vision
2. Empower employees with freedom & autonomy
3. Provide employees with a supportive learning environment, e.g peer
groups, protected time
4. Coach employees to draw out their own talents and seek out
solutions to their problems
5. Guide employees through their work and provide them with time,
resources and feedback
6. Recognize new behaviors and attitudes in employees
7. Encourage networks – communities of practice.
8. Align systems to vision – get rid of bureaucratic systems that
produce problems rather than facilitate work
 Organizational Learning Strategies
Organizational learning strategy aims to develop a firm’s resource-
based capability in accordance with the basic principle that it is
necessary to invest in people in order to develop the human capital
required by the organization and to increase its stock of knowledge
and skills.
5 Principles of OL
• communication of a strong and coherent vision in order to develop
strategic thinking in all employees
• need to develop strategy in the context of a vision that will promote
lateral thinking
• frequent dialogue & communication within the framework of vision
and goals
• Continuously re-examine what is taken for granted
• develop a conducive learning and innovation climate
 Single and double-loop learning
• Single-loop learning defines the ‘governing variables’, ie
what one expect to achieve in terms of targets and
standards. They then monitor and review achievements,
and take corrective action as necessary, thus completing
the loop.
• Double-loop learning redefines the ‘governing variables’
to meet the new situation imposed by the external
environment. The organization has learnt something new
about what has to be achieved in the light of changed
circumstances and then decides how this should be
achieved.
 Learning Organization Strategy
Pedler, Boydell and Burgoyne (1989) define the LO as one which
facilitates the learning of all its members and continually transforms
itself by adapting to its context. It continually improves by rapidly
creating and refining its behavior and capabilities. LOs are good at:

• Systematic problem solving through the scientific method

• Experimentation and continuous improvement
• Learning from past experience quoting the philosopher George
Santayana who coined the phrase: ‘Those who cannot remember
the past are condemned to repeat it.’
• Learning from others e.g. through benchmarking
• Transferring knowledge quickly and efficiently throughout the
organization through collective problem-solving
 Individual Learning Strategies
The learning strategy should cover:
• how learning needs will be identified
• the role of personal development planning and
self-managed learning
• the support that should be provided for
individual learning in the form of mentoring,
coaching, learning resource centres, and external
and internal courses & training programs for
individuals and groups.
 Performance Management Strategies
• Strategies for managing performance are concerned with how the
business should be managed to achieve its goals.
• They focus on how the performance of individuals and teams can be
improved through performance and personal development planning.
• They understand and manage performance within an agreed
framework of planned goals, standards and competence
requirements.
• They may refer to performance measures such as the balanced
scorecard (Kaplan and Norton, 1992) that direct attention to four
related questions: 1) How do customers see us? 2) What must we
excel at? 3) Can we continue to improve? and 4) How do we look to
shareholders?
 Performance management
• Performance management can be defined as a strategic and
integrated approach to deliver sustained success to organizations
by improving the performance of individuals and teams that work
within organizations.
• It is based on management by agreement or contract rather than
by command.
• It emphasizes the integration of individual and corporate
objectives.
• It lays importance on the initiation of self-managed learning
development plans.
• It provides for an integrated and coherent range of human resource
management processes that are both mutually supportive and
contribute to improving organizational effectiveness.
 Integration of Performance Management

It is integrated in four senses:

1) vertical integration – aligning business, team and
individual objectives
2) functional integration – linking functional strategies in
different parts of the business
3) HR integration – linking different aspects of human
resource management, especially organizational
development, human resource development and reward
4) the integration of individual needs with those of the
organization
 Performance Management Concerns
• performance improvement - in order to achieve organizational,
team and individual effectiveness. Organizations have ‘to get the
right things done successfully’
• employee development - addressing the core competences of the
organization and capabilities of individuals and teams
continuously
• satisfying the needs and expectations of all the organization’s
stakeholders
• communication and involvement - continuing dialogue between
managers and the members of their teams to define expectations
and share information on the organization’s mission, values and
objectives.
 Scope of Performance Management
• It is a natural process of management, not a system or a technique
• It is about managing within the internal & external context of the
business
• concerns everyone in the business –responsibility & accountability
is shared between managers and team members
• It is a holistic concept in that it believes that everything that
people do at any level of work contributes to achieving the overall
purpose of the organization. It is therefore concerned with what
people do (their work), how they do it (their behavior) and what
they achieve (their results). It thus embraces all formal and
informal measures and processes of the organization to develop
knowledge, skill and competence at individual, team and
corporate level.
 Scope of PMngt (cont.)
• Integration is achieved vertically with the business strategy and
goals. Individual and team objectives are agreed upon within the
framework provided by the overall purpose and values of the
organization.
• Horizontal integration means aligning performance
management strategies with other HR strategies concerned with
valuing, paying, involving and developing people.
• Performance management reviews (individual and 360-degree
feedback) provide data required to create personal/team
development and pay plans.
• By defining input requirements (KSAs) and assessing the extent
to which the expected levels of performance (targets, standards)
have been achieved that developmental needs are identified.
PM is thus a forward-looking and developmental process.