Organizational learning and development strategies
An organizational learning and development strategy is aimed at providing a road map to the leaders in aligning and leveraging learning resources within the organization to effectively provide learning activities to the members of the organization that is the employees based on their field of specialization. The learning process is necessary for every staff thus following the changing technological development in every area of organizational production activities as it helps to equip most of the staff members with the required knowledge in the production of high-quality products and services based on the latest production technology.
In implementing the learning strategies by the human resource manager, the organization has always been faced with different challenges thus related to the learning strategies from both the employees and the management as most of the human resources within the organization might not positively embrace the learning activities hence tends to resist the learning process. Learning strategies designed by the organization for knowledge and skills development among the employees have been critically analyzed in the report with various implementation processes which will attract minimum resistance from the employees. Drivers for learning strategies within the organization have also been considered in the story.
Organizational learning strategies designs
learning strategies can be summarized to individuals procedure of organizing and using a particular set of skills and knowledge to learn new content which will help them to accomplish the assigned task effectively and efficiently within the organization or their respective places of work. To design a better learning design for the employees, the instructional designer that is the human resource manager should possess the following qualities to create a practical and applicable learning program for the employees; they must be learner-centric, have an eye for detail, have passion for the learning, be creative, imaginative and innovative, reliable and excellent analytical skills, must be effective communicator, excellent nd exemplary written skills and visualizing skills. With the skills mentioned above, the human resource manager in charge of designing the learning process for the employees will effectively create more desirable and useful learning design.
Since the primary goal of learning strategies is to get workers to become more effective learners, a human resource manager in charge of the learning process should, therefore, consider the following learning strategies while designing their learning plans, that is mnemonic, structural and generative strategies. The learning, as mentioned above, strategies have been discussed in the context as follows.
Mnemonic strategies
The mnemonic learning strategy helps workers to memorize some of the operational activities of the organization and their applications, which will, after that, be applied in managing their assigned production task. One of the examples of the mnemonic learning strategies is the keyword method which is involved in learning some of the confusing facts and structures of the operational machines due to its image and phonetic elements. The learning strategy is useful to employees who have a great memory in remembering the activities, parts and operation of the production devices as they will effectively operate such machines based on the leanings and instructions they have memorized. In most cases, this particular learning strategy has been widely used with the help of devices developed by the instructors to help learners to remember the instructions and operational procedure leant in class.
One of the main reasons for these devices is to do the dual coding work for the learners. This implies that while learning is in process, the method is likely to code both non-verbal and verbal information used by the instructor hence they will be applied by the workers for reference or to help them memorize the instructions and learning offered to them on some of the necessary production procedures. According to the principles of connectionism, it is easier for one to remember a list of words if he or she forms a sentence with them; hence the dual coding devices prove to be necessary for learning.
Secondly, the devices will help the learners who are the employees to effectively organize the information together by creating a consistent box to put information in. The information box created by the students will help them to put important information gained during the learning process tighter, instead of being split apart for easy reference and retrieval.
The third reason for such devices to the associate or connect the information gained from the learning process between different elements of leanings. The strong association of the information proves helpful to the employees during their practical assessment that is in the operation of the production machines as they will easily link the technical procedures with the functional requirements thus ensuring adequate production of quality products and services to the market.
Structural learning strategies
Instructors apply this particular learning strategy as it encourages students to mentally pick some of the critical information after that put them together into one structure. Structural learning strategy promotes the use of conceptual maps, charts and graphs as they are the most used structures to put the vital information together. In most cases, employees will find this strategy more helpful as they will have to draft some of the learning outcomes on the operational procedures of the newly acquired production machines by drawing some of the essential parts and operational procedure which they will later refer to during their practical work.
It is believed that when the employees or staff organize the information into charts, or pictures related ideas, it will be easier for the entire classroom to remember the main points leant and therefore effectively applies them in their operational activities on the assigned task based on their area of specialization thus promotes quality of products and services produced by the workers which later improves the organizational performance in the market. From the research, it is evidenced that employees who use such techniques in learning process perform at a higher level compared to other staff since they truly understand the content relating to the production process.
Generative learning strategy
In contrary to the two learning strategies discussed above which focus on learning of new ideas by the employees, generative learning strategy is aimed at incorporating the newly acquired ideas leant by the employees with the existing operational content. The generative approach will enable works to combine new ideas tipped with the current operational procedure in performing their assigned task since in most cases, the new designs are meant to refurbish the existing approaches concerning technological applications used by the organization. The performance of the employees will increase due to the incorporation of new and existing operational knowledge and skills acquired from the learning process.
In generative learning strategy, taking notes, asking and responding to questions or saying things loud plays a vital role in passing new ideas since they are the commonly used tools in communicating ideas as they are bound to seek clarity on the existing knowledge and skills.
Implementation of learning strategies
Visualization technique
Tools such s interactive whiteboards, classroom experiments and the local trip will help the instructors to effectively implement the above discussed learning strategies as they form part of visual aids which refers to the use of visible objects to pass operational information to workers. For instance, in machine operation learning, there will be a drawing or display of the machine where the workers will have to see the parts and their applications.
Cooperative learning
This is a case where employees will have to share their ideas based on their understanding on the operational activities and procedures with other members of the staff thus based on their qualifications, experience and skills due to the diversity in opinion, qualifications and experience on different fields of operation. Through verbal interaction and asking questions, workers will become more confident and knowledgeable from responses nd discussion forum created by the human resource manager.
Professional development
Engaging employees on regular professional development programs will help to boost their experience, skills and knowledge based on the operational activities of the organization. The employees must attend workshops or professional inspirational events based on their area of specialization to gain new ideas in their receptive fields. This will improve their performance as they will have to learn new insights and gain more skills and knowledge in performing the assigned operational task.
Drivers for learning strategies
Global skills shortage
Due to the lack of qualified and skilled employees within the organization and the whole job market, the organization through the human resource manager will, therefore, decide to train or teach their exiting employees with the latest operational skills rather than hiring new staff.
Challenging productivity targets
Since corporate are looking ways to grow out of recession, equipping employees with new production skills and knowledge will be one of the options the company has to consider, therefore driving the urge for training their existing employees. With new skills on production procedures, the corporate will get out the recession position as the production will be of high quality.
Increased regulation
One of the drivers of the learning strategies by the organization is the increased government regulation on the qualities of products and production technology used by the organization. For instance, the organization will have to adopt environment-friendly technologies in production machines and devices which requires new skills and knowledge to operate hence calls for training and learning process of the employees.