MODULE 5: TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

• Socialization

  • a.k.a., Onboarding
  • It is a process of adaptation to a new work role.
  • Adjustments must be made whenever individuals change jobs.
  • The most profound adjustment occurs when an individual first enters an organization, i.e., outside to inside.
• The Assumptions of Employee Socialization

  1. Socialization strongly influences employee performance and organizational stability.
  2. New members suffer anxiety
  3. Socialization does not occur in a vacuum
  4. Individuals adjust to new situations in similar ways
• The Socialization Process:

  1. Prearrival
  2. Encounter
  3. Metamorphosis
• Prearrival: Individuals arrive with a set of values, attitudes, and expectations developed from previous experience and the selection process.
• Encounter: Individuals discover how well their expectations match realities within the organization. Where differences exist, socialization occurs to imbue the employee with the organization’s standards.
• Metamorphosis: Individuals have adapted to the organization, feel accepted, and know what is expected of them.
• Outcomes of the Socialization Process:

  • Productivity
  • Commitment
  • Turnover
• New-Employee Orientation:

  • It may be done by supervisor, HR staff, computer-based programs, or some combination.
  • It can be formal or informal, depending on theorganization’s size.
  • It teaches the organization’s culture, or system of shared meaning.
• Employee Handbook:

  • HR's permanent reference guide
  • A central source for teaching employees company mission, history, policies, benefits, culture
  • Employers must watch wording and include a disclaimer to avoid implied contracts.
• Top management is often visible during the new employee orientation.
• CEOs can:

  1. Welcome employees
  2. Provide a vision for the company
  3. Introduce company culture
  4. Convey that the company cares about employees
  5. Allay some new employee anxieties
• HR has a dual role in orientation:

  • Coordinating Role
  • Participant Role
• Coordinating Role: HRM instructs new employees when and where to report; provides information about benefits choices.
• Participant Role: HRM offers its assistance for future employee needs (career guidance, training, etc.).
• Employee Training (Now-Oriented):

  • Designed to achieve a relatively permanent change in an individual that will improve his or her performance.
  • Training goals should be tangible, verifiable, timely, and measurable.
  • Training is either on-the-job or off-the-job.
• Employee Development (Future-Oriented):

  • Helps employees to understand cause and effect relationships, learn from experience, visualize relationships, think logically.
  • Not only for top management candidates; all employees benefit.
• Employee Development Methods:

  • Job Rotation
  • Assistant-to Positions
  • Committee Assignment
  • Lecture Courses/Seminars
  • Simulations
  • Adventure Training
• Job Rotation => moving employees to various positions in the organization to expand their skills, knowledge, and abilities.
• Assistant-to Positions => employees with potential can work under and be coached by successful managers.
• Committee Assignment => provide opportunities for decision-making, learning by watching others, and investigating specific organizational problems.
• Lecture Courses/Seminars => benefit from today’s technology and are often offered in a distance learning format.
• Simulations => include case studies, decision games, and role plays - and are intended to improve decision-making.
• Adventure Training => typically involves challenges that teach trainees the importance of teamwork.
• Organization Development:

  • Its efforts also force change on employees, whether newly hired or seasoned.
  • Change agents help employees adapt to the organization’s new systems, people, processes, and technology.
• Two metaphors clarify the change process:

  • Calm waters
  • White-water rapids
• Calm waters: unfreezing the status quo, change to a new state, and refreezing to ensure that the change is permanent.
• White-water rapids: recognizes today’s business environment, which is less stable and not as predictable.
• Organization Development Techniques:

  1. Survey Feedback: gets workers’ attitudes/perceptions on the change.
  2. Process Consultation: gets outside experts to help ease OD efforts.
  3. Team Building: strives for cohesion in a work group.
  4. Intergroup Development: achieves cohesion among different work groups.
• A learning organization values continued learning and believes a competitive advantage can be gained from it.
• A learning organization is characterized by:

  • A capacity to continuously adapt
  • Employees continually acquiring and sharing newknowledge.
  • Collaboration across functional specialties
  • Supporting teams, leadership, and culture
• Evaluating Training Programs:

  • Typically, employee and manager opinions are used: these opinions or reactions are not necessarily validmeasures; and influenced by things like difficulty, entertainment value or personality of the instructor.
  • Performance-based measures (benefits gained) are better indicators of training’s cost-effectiveness.
• Kirkpatrick's Model:

  Level 1 => What was reaction to training

  Level 2 => What was learned

  Level 3 => Did training change behavior

  Level 4 => Did training benefit employer
• Performance-based evaluation measures:

  • Post-training method
  • Pre-post-training method
  • Pre-post-training with control group
• Post-training method: employees’ on-the-job performance is assessed after training.
• Pre-post-training method: employee’s job performance isassessed both before and after training, to determine whether a change has taken place.
• Pre-post-training w/control group: compares results of instructed group to non-instructed group.
• Training and development is critical to overseas employees.
• Must teach the following which may involve role playing, simulations, and immersion in the culture's:

  • Politics
  • Language
  • Religion
  • Economy
  • History
  • Social Climate
  • Business Practice