Psychology Tutor: Mentor (PSI) Psycho-Social Incarnation

Critically discuss how training and development could be used to implement a corporate strategy that involves substantial change within an organisation.

Training and development of employees, at all levels of an organisation, is a critical method for implementing an overall corporate strategy to reach goals and meet mission statement commitments. For example, ongoing training and development of employees gives them a broader skill set, competencies and knowledge, as well as providing them with a:

• Sense of ownership of the company, a sense of belonging
• Ability to take a team-member approach to work and accountability
• 21^st century quality management training focus on an equalitarian workforce

References

Baum, H. M. (2004). The Transparent Leader. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers.

Brinkman, J. & Ims, K. (2003). Good intentions aside: Drafting a functionalist look at Codes of Ethics. Business Ethics: A European Review, 12, 265-274.http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=426146

Lee, R. V., Fabish, L., & McGaw, N. (2005). The value of corporate values. StrategyBusiness, 39. Retrieved June 19 2006 fromhttp://www.aspeninstitute.org/site/c.huLWJeMRKpH/b.612437/k.6A29/Research_and_Resources.htm

The role of training and development within an organisation is:

• Essential to remaining innovative and competitive
• It is fluid and flexible in that it changes as the company changes
• Continuous and ongoing
• Desirable through on-site training centres with an extensive ranges of resources
• Needed to be comprehensive, systematic, job related, with fair evaluations that are

classroom and performance-based and work best when based on a “no-fail” proposition

References

Brenneman, G. (1998). Right away and all at once. Harvard Business Review, 63(1), 1-13.

Yip, G. S. (1989). Global strategy… in a world of nations? Loan Management Review, 29 (Fall).

Training and development in team management within an organization according to current literature can provide a corporation with:

*        A flatter organizational structure that can give teams more autonomy

*        Intermediaries between “workers” and management

*        Encourages team units that have their own technicians, support and operational staffs

*        Focusing on stricter screening processes to streamline recruitment of applicants who “match” the mission and goals of the corporation; thus saving on training and development costs

References

Brenneman, G. (1998). As above.

Yip, G. S. (1989). As above.

Training and development can provide a corporation with human resource planning which is:

• Inclusive
• Team-focused
• Collaborative, cooperative, and enabling of conflict resolution
• Keen for worker feedback to ensure a team management approach
• Reliant on self and peer review is to aid ongoing continuous training and development of employees, and the continued competitiveness of the corporation

References

Brinkman, J. & Ims, K. (2003). Good intentions aside: Drafting a functionalist look at

Codes of Ethics. Business Ethics: A European Review, 12, 265-274. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=426146

Carrol, W. K., & Carson, C. (2003). The network of global corporations and elite policy groups: A structure for transnationals capitalist class formation? Global Networks, 3(1), 29-43.

A corporate strategy that includes continuous development of staff ensures self-managing teams that means the company has:

• The teams that are highly autonomous yet interdependent
• A basic unit of performance being the team, not just the individual
• Teams that can act as small business units having their own technical, support and operational staff so that professionalism is on site and not having to outsource, or to overload a few employees responsibilities of a large number of staff

References

Cascio, W. F. (2000). Strategies for responsible restructuring.  Academy of Management Executive, 19: 39-50.

Swift, T. (2001). Focus on social and ethical auditing trust, reputation and corporate accountability to stakeholders. Business Ethics a European Review, 10, 16-20.

Yip, G. S. (1989). As above.

Training and development is essential for a corporation to be able to effectively evaluate its initial recruitment procedures, and thus effectively hire more suitable long-term and committed staff.

A high quality strategy for an organisation is to select employees that seemed suited to working in a team environment as that is what the team management philosophy is about, and it is what 21^st century business is about. Training and development of recruitment staff can enable them to design or select “hurdles” to screen applicants; for example, creating a half-day orientation so the potential employee can decide if still interested in working for the company; an assessment centre to provide standardized tests, and then interview with key personnel.

Standardized testing aims for all applicants to be measured in the same way on the same things and tends to be more objective as there is less likelihood of personal biases affecting tests results when psychometric tests are used.

References

Bryman, A. (2004). Social Research Methods, 2^nd ed. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress.

Cascio, W. F. (2000). As above.

Mercer, I. (2008) “Downsizing jobs, outsourcing lives: Part 2.” Retrieved online September 19, 2008 from http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32895

The role of training and development must continually change and adapt within an organisation to:

*     Provide ongoing and continuous change as determined by internal and external forces

*    Continue to be professional as it uses evidence-based evaluations to make changes to the training programs

*     Change in positive ways as this is part of a team-management approach to strengthen

*     Listen to employee feedback for better and more relevant training

*     Establish a corporate culture that listens to the input of employees as well as customers

References

Bryman, A. (2004). As above.

Lane K., Whatley, A., & Worthley, R. (1987). Assessing the effects of culture on

managerial attitudes: A three-culture test. Journal of International Business Studies, 18(2), 17-31.

Powell, T. C. (1995). Total quality management as competitive advantage: A review and empirical study. Strategic Management Journal, 16(1), 15-37.

Schlickman, J. (2003). ISO 90001: 2000: Quality management system design. New York: Artech House Norwood.

Training and development can provide a corporation with a strategy that is based on peer appraisals within teams:

• Advantage: subjective feedback from within the team itself
• Advantage: they rate each other on the qualities that they deem important
• Advantage: enhances intra-group communication and cohesion, collaboration, cooperation and conflict resolution
• Disadvantage: personal biases can influence ratings so that they are no longer objective
• Disadvantage: groups that have internal conflicts may exacerbate issues as they are too close to the problems the group is having and an outside opinion could provide some objectivity on issues

References

Carrol, W. K., & Carson, C. (2003). The network of global corporations and elite policy groups: A structure for transnationals capitalist class formation? Global Networks, 3(1), 29-43.

Husted, B. W., Dozier, B., McMahon, T., Kattan, M. (1996). The impact of cross-national carriers of business ethics on attitudes about questionable practices and form of moral reasoning. Journal of International Business Studies, 27.

Training and development can mean the implementation of better methods of disciplining staff within a team-management structure:

• Advantage: enhances team cohesion, collaboration and conflict resolution
• Advantage: encourages trust relationships between team members
• Advantage: less likely to embarrass an employee as “what happens within the team, stays within the team”
• Disadvantage: can encourage maverick or “cowboy/girl” behavior if the team sees itself as diametrically different to the other teams within the company
• Disadvantage: different methods for addressing discipline issues may result in unequal treatment of employees across groups

References

Gill, C. W. L. & Jones, G. (2004). Strategic Management Theory an Integrated Approach (6th Edition). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

The team approach and a work ethic that supports a team-focus makes it more likely that an employee will enjoy the training and development programs offered by the company. In this way each employee is more likely to become more cross-skilled and so be a versatile resource within the company.

Ongoing continuous training and development requires continuous evaluation of employees in terms of knowledge and performance. This ensures that gaps in knowledge and procedures that lead to an unsafe or unproductive environment can be identified quickly.

Peer review makes discipline more equitable as an employee does not need fear “the boss” instead being aware that they themselves have as much power as the next employee to enforce expectations and needs of the company.

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