Human Training

Role Of Training

2007-09-18T07:39:00.000-07:00

Training is an essential ingredient in the
change process in that it helps us move from
one point to another. This may be for any
number of reasons, for example:
• because we do not have all the skills to do
the job we currently hold or because that
job itself is changing;
• because of technological change;
• because of structural changes;
• in order to prepare us for changes to come
in the organization we currently work
for or to give us transferable skills to make
us more employable elsewhere.

Establishing A Training Function

2007-05-05T10:44:00.001-07:00

Some leader doesn’t know the important of training in the organization. The first thing for the managers would need is a training policy that has a clear place in an organization’s strategic plan. Having done this, the Training Department needs an action plan or business strategy that identifies what it will do in the immediate future, and how it can demonstrate accountability against that. This because of change is occurring so rapidly, there is a need for new ways to manage focusing on product quality and individual involvement (Harvey and Brown, 1996).

For resources, a Training Center is essential, supported by adequate resource materials (videos, tapes, books, CD-ROM’s etc), and course or program material. A training program will need to be developed with content, outcomes, and for all to see. A network of trainers needs to be developed, especially those offering expertise not available internally. Training also can occurs in many ways. About two-thirds of individual training isn’t formal at all, but rather results from day to day unplanned interactions between the new worker and his or her colleagues (Day, 1998). It shows that there many ways of training and the organization must identify the suitable training conditions for their organization.

A means of capturing the training needs of employees is required. An excellent means of doing this is through a performance management program or performance appraisal process. Training can also emerge from self-nomination or manager nomination. Major training initiatives need to start from a benchmark that establishes a base line. All training should be evaluated using evaluation that is appropriate to the goals. A useful process can be to establish a model of what best practice would look like and invite self-assessment to determine whether on the job behavior reflects that practice.

Trainer

2007-05-05T10:42:00.000-07:00

Many of those engaged in providing training will have at one time been teachers. Training is a time honored escape route for those wanting to leave the teaching profession. Some trainers will have become accomplished in a skill and enjoy imparting their knowledge. It’s important for the organization to prepare the trainee with proper information. Recent research evidence shows that the trainees’ pertaining preparation is a crucial step in the training process (Dessler, 2000). Improper preparation will have impact directly or indirectly to the training process. The training will be useless and the objective of the training cannot be achieved. It just wasting time and money of the organization and for the long run it will affects the organization performance. Nowadays, some organization hired trainer for their staff or paid a consultant to provide training for their organization. It’s to make sure that their objective can be achieved.

Another issues that arise are some organization hired a trainer without knowing the actual training they need. The trainer will do the jobs and the trainee will not get the benefit from it. It’s important for the trainee to give perceived need for training in the needs of participants (Kimberley and Smith, 1996). It’s difficult and a challenge for the trainer to influence the participant the motive the training. The trainer should not do the job as consultant without concerns the objective of the company that hired them. The trend for internal training departments to be reduced in size and to buy in specialist training expertise is also common issues in training.

Training Perspective In Organizations

2007-05-05T10:40:00.000-07:00

Training is a difficult issue for many organizations. Most do not see real benefits arising from it. Training is a charge against the bottom line and demonstrating a benefit in terms of increased profits or added value is difficult. There are several issues that are important in the organizational perspective. One of the issues is considering of the staffing costs. Much training is not integrated into a business planning or performance management process, so it hangs in an ill-defined place within the organization. Training is a cost and some employers have gone to court in an attempt to require individuals who leave their firms after training to repay the cost (Mathis and Jackson, 2000). It’s important for the organization to take corrective action to make sure the expenditure that they have invested is returnable in such a way benefit to the organization.

If organizational leaders do not support training, it will wither on the vine. One further way in which training is vulnerable is that in times of hardship, it is one of the easiest budgets to slash, and any adverse consequences will take some time to appear. Some leader even doesn’t want to put a budget on training. The leader must have greater level of self-confidence and to be more action-oriented (Bowman, 1999). Quality also demands leadership from the top down with every person in every leadership position understanding the operation and being able to assess training needs in his or her area of responsibility (Johnson, 1997).

While it can be obvious sometimes that training is fundamental if certain things are to happen, for example, with the introduction of a new system, the gains from other forms of training are less obvious. Many times, an organization neglect to identify the training resources required implementing the policy decision. Training in the softer skills poses real difficulties in terms of identifying benefits e.g. in management, leadership, customer service, assertiveness, time management, team or group skills, change management and so on. Some organization just send their staff for training because want to use the budget and send them training without know the need of training for them. Organization often feels compelled to reduce training commitments because of economic reasons even though many studies rove solid training programs are a required investment that does not cost it pays (Johnson, 1997).

Problem in establishing suitable training is to establish a measured starting point, a point at which skills achieved can be measured, and the gains to the organization quantified. The technique used for establishing a starting point is called training needs analysis and that for an end point, an evaluation. Determining organizational training requirements can be difficult. The problem must be reviewed in various ways: employer-employee, executive manager, manager, or work force, professional or nonprofessional (Johnson, 1997). Each will require different topics and often-different approaches to the same topics.

Deficiencies in training and their consequences often show up in staff targeted for termination in downsizing or staff reduction exercises. In Malaysia when economic downturn, most organization retrenched their worker. Those most likely to be retrenched will often have been starved of training or staff development over a significant period of time. Some organization will consider of development of staff skill or outsourcing to reduce cost or risk of management. Therefore it’s important to set the training needs. Once the training needs have been identified using the various analyses, then training objectives and priorities must be established (Mathis and Jackson, 2000). All the gathered data is used to compile a gap analysis, which identifies the distance between where an organization is with its employee capabilities and where it needs to be. Training objective and priorities are set to close the gap (Elliot, 1998).

Education is a crucial factor in determining how a nation will fare in the 21st century, or what is billed as the information age. Towards that end, educational bodies and learning institutions need to ensure that they have a relevant mechanism in place to produce a new generation of workforce (knowledge-based workers/k-workers) to excel in the knowledge-based economy (New Straits Times, 2002).

Training also needs analysis. Most organization did not determine what training is required. Task analysis and performance analysis are two main ways to identify training needs (Dessler, 2000). It’s often true that no one knows as the people actually doing it and so soliciting employee input is usually wise (Freeman, 1993). From the analysis will help the organization improving the organization training methodology and can e reviewed from time to time. It will help the organization in controlling their expenses and their productivity.

Definition Of Training

2007-05-05T10:38:00.001-07:00

Dessler (2000)
The process of teaching new employees the basic skills they need to perform their jobs.

Jackson and Mathis (2000)
A process whereby people acquire capabilities to aid in the achievement of organizational goals.

From the definition we can see that training is a very useful tool for the organization to improve their staff efficiency and the organization performance. Lack of training in the organization can also influence the organization performance since cannot compete with others competitors. What is interesting is that as organization’s restructure and implement strategic changes, training becomes more important.

The function of training is to promote acquisition of skills that will benefit both an individual and his or her employer. Adult learning is different from school learning. They would suggest the adult learner (for recipients of most training are adult learners) is more motivated, is more desirous that can be translated quickly to a benefit. Training can result in formal awards (degrees/diplomas/certificates) but it may contain other features. Training can occur through reading, use of computer packages, audiotape and watching videos. It can occur through role-plays, through structured work assignments or job exchanges. It might include work shadowing, it often includes demonstration and assessment of skills and competencies, and it could comprise study tours. It plays importance role to the organizations effectiveness and can be used for achieving organization goals.

Cooperative Learning

2007-04-28T20:52:00.000-07:00

The goal of all learning is to make information portable, so that learning travels with the learner to new locations. In the new locations, the learning is transferred and applied in novel, interesting, and innovative ways. This is the phenomenon referred to as the 'Transfer of Learning'. When transfer of learning occurs, it is in the form of meanings, expectations, generalisations, concepts, or insights that are developed in one learning situation being employed in others (Bigge and Shermis, 1992).

Basically, education that does not achieve considerable transfer is not worth much! In its broadest sense, transfer of learning is basic to the whole notion of schooling. If there is no transfer at all, students will need to be taught specifically every act that they will ever perform in any situation (Bigge and Shermis, 1992). However, we often over-emphasise the transmission of information (by the teacher) and the retention of information (by the student) in our own disciplines that we overlook this very important aspect of learning.

A person is in the best frame of mind for transfer to occur when he/she is aware of acquiring meanings and abilities that are widely applicable in learning and living. He/she must also want to solve new problems, or approach new situations and take risks, in the light of the insights gained through previous experience. For transfer to occur, individuals must generalize (i.e. perceive common factors in different situations, comprehend the factors as applicable and appropriate to both situations and thereby understand how a generalization can be used); and they must desire to benefit by the sensed commonality (Bigge and Shermis, 1992). Teachers can act as guides and prompters to "shepherd" knowledge and skills from one context to another (Forgarty et al, 1991).

Transfer Of Learning

2007-04-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

Transfer of learning is pervasive in our everyday life at work, at home and in the community. Transfer takes place whenever our existing knowledge, abilities and skills affect the learning or performance of new tasks. But what are the principles of effective transfer of learning? How can workplace instructors design training programs to facilitate transfer? What can the shop floor supervisor do to encourage transfer of learning? How should trainees or participants prepare for transfer back on the job? Given the centrality of this topic to so many areas of workplace education, this discussion paper will draw together the results of research and some practical techniques that will help practitioners in the field. It Is organized into four parts:
1) definitions of learning transfer,
2) factors influencing the transfer of learning,
3) integrating learning transfer into program planning and
4) strategies to enhance the transfer of learning.

Situational Learning

2007-04-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

Lave argues that learning as it normally occurs is a function of the activity, context and culture in which it occurs (i.e., it is situated). This contrasts with most classroom learning activities which involve knowledge which is abstract and out of context. Social interaction is a critical component of situated learning -- learners become involved in a "community of practice" which embodies certain beliefs and behaviors to be acquired. As the beginner or newcomer moves from the periphery of this community to its center, they become more active and engaged within the culture and hence assume the role of expert or oldtimer. Furthermore, situated learning is usually unintentional rather than deliberate. These ideas are what Lave & Wenger (1991) call the process of "legitimate peripheral participation."

Other researchers have further developed the theory of situated learning. Brown, Collins & Duguid (1989) emphasize the idea of cognitive apprenticeship: "Cognitive apprenticeship supports learning in a domain by enabling students to acquire, develop and use cognitive tools in authentic domain activity. Learning, both outside and inside school, advances through collaborative social interaction and the social construction of knowledge." Brown et al. also emphasize the need for a new epistemology for learning -- one that emphasizes active perception over concepts and representation. Suchman (1988) explores the situated learning framework in the context of artificial intelligence.

Knowledge

2006-10-29T04:07:00.000-08:00

According to Robert (1996), knowledge can be very difficult concept to define. Indeed, a whole branch of philosophy is given over to question about knowledge. On the other hand, ‘knowledge’ is a word we all use and understand in everyday life without much trouble. So, he defined the knowledge as comprises the facts, rules, models and concepts that underpin the day-to-day decisions made at every level in the organization. For example:
 Facts: Felix is a cat, a cat is a mammal;
 Rules: if x is y and y is z, then x is z;
 Models: class hierarchies, classification of animals;
 Concepts: cat, mammal, class, class membership
According to him,
Knowledge can be explicit or tacit, for example:
 Explicit: “I like meat, I don’t like fish”;
 Tacit: “I don’t know what I want but I’ll know when I see it”
Burlton (1998), said ‘Explicit’ knowledge is an articulated knowledge you can see, read and use, while ‘Tacit’ knowledge is what’s in people’s heads. Oftentimes people don’t know what they know.
Sometime it is very difficult to make tacit knowledge explicit, which you need to be able to do to understand, explain, test or teach it
Knowledge can be deep or shallow, for example:
Deep: “I gave the patient these pills because he had symptoms which indicate a certain condition that the pills are effective against”
 Shallow: “If you’ve got a cough, try cough linctus”

Knowledge is formulated in the minds of individuals through experience. People learn, naturally, all time, through shared experience and through the transfer of knowledge, both tacitly and explicitly. Every individual and community has a pool of ‘general’ and specific knowledge. Every task or skill has specific knowledge associated with it.

In Alvesson’s research (1999), he stated that knowledge is a very difficult to understand. It may be divided up into information (simple, fragmented kind of knowledge), knowing (how to do), explanation (knowledge answering why? what is behind? what is the cause?) and understanding (knowledge, referring to patterns, connection, providing gestalt of phenomenon).
According to Oxford dictionary, knowledge is a person’s range of information or sum of what is known.
Since knowledge is infinite, it is not ‘consumed’ in the way we consume raw materials. Knowledge is not depleted when it sold or used but actually multiplies through use. The nature of knowledge as a resource in the new economy is so different that there is a phenomenal growth of attention of knowledge development and management.
Alle (1999), in her research sees knowledge as complex system that can be viewed as the following principles:

a. Knowledge is ‘messy’
In organizations, every aspect of knowledge is connected to everything else. You cannot neatly isolate the ‘knowledge’ component of everything. Organizational knowledge relates to cultures, technology and the unique configuration of individuals that make up the organization.

b. Knowledge is self-organizing
Every day, knowledge is created, sustained, killed off (which appropriate to current use and need to dispose off) and renewed in an organization. Knowledge has little of its owns and it is a self-organizing entity. The ‘self’ that knowledge organizes around is organizational or group identity and purpose.

c. Knowledge seeks community.
Knowledge wants to happen just as life wants to happen and both want to happen as community. Communication of knowledge is so powerful that they now involve people in conversation with each other all over the globes.

d. Knowledge travels on language.
Language is the verbal blue print of our experiences. Without a word experience or language to describe our experience we cannot communicate what we know. Every mode of knowledge travels on a different language. Language initiates us into particular world of experience.

e. Knowledge is slippery.
The more you try to pin knowledge down, the more it slips away. It is tempting to try to tie up knowledge as codified knowledge, document, patents, intellectual property, libraries, and databases. When too much rigidity and formality lead to unwanted side effect of stifling creativity and new knowledge development.

e. Loser is probably better.
Highly adaptable systems look sloppy but the survival rate of diverse, decentralized systems is higher. This means we can waste resources and energy trying to control knowledge processes too tightly.

f. Knowledge keeps changing.
There is no final solution in knowledge management. The patterns of knowledge are always changing. The best approach or solution is one that keeps things moving along while keeping options open.

g. Knowledge does not grow forever – eventually dies / lost.
Number of people in knowledge hold that knowledge is continuously grows. Constant growth does not hold true in nature and it does not hold true for knowledge.

h. No one really in charge.
Knowledge is a social process. Only people together make knowledge happens. No one person can take responsibility for collective knowledge. Knowledge managers cannot manage knowledge itself. However. They can and do help devise and manage process for acquiring creating, sharing and applying knowledge.

i. You cannot impose rules and system.
If knowledge is truly self-organizing, then the most important way you can advance it is to remove the barriers to self-organization. Ti will take care itself.

j. There is no silver bullet.
No best practice to advance knowledge and expand organizational intelligence. It must be supported at multiple levels. It requires a system approach, careful thought, reflection, and experimentation and constant adjustment.

k. How you define the knowledge ‘problems determines what and how you try to manage.
The knowledge question can prevent itself in many ways. If organization is concerned with ownership then focuses on acquiring codified knowledge that can be protected with copyright and patents.

l. Knowledge can be obsolete
Knowledge that can used today maybe can’t be used after some time and can be obselete.

Although the principles stated do not govern all aspect of knowledge, organization still advance in other ways that may support the creating, satisfying, sharing and renewing of knowledge.

Human Training

2006-10-21T22:18:00.000-07:00

Did you know that when considering human training we must relate to three domain which are cognitive, affective and psychomotor. The main focus of training are depends on the objective of training program itself.

Training program objective must contains all this elements which are:
1. Specific.
2. Measureable
3. Achieveable
3. Reliable'
5. Timing