Organizational learning and HRD

Majority of the successful multinational corporations have declared fortifying the learning abilities of their organization into their strategy. Discussion about organizational learning and learning organization has become more and more public in both academic and pragmatic fields of business. Torrington et.al (2008) state that the interest in learning organizations has been stimulated

by the need to be competitive as learning is considered to be the only way of obtaining and keeping a competitive edge. The field of management has also adapted the concept of knowledge management. In addition to the management of information the concept withholds the aspects of gaining and sustaining skills and competences for achieving the organizational goals (Strömmer 1999, 175, Torrington et.al 2008, 273).

Organizations are often perceived as individual entities instead of considering them to be a sum of their members. However, organization learns trough it’s members making the overall ability to learn dependent on the combined abilities of the employees. Therefore enabling the possibility for individual learning is a critical factor in the organizational development (Crossan et al. 1991, Strömmer, 1999, Torrington et al. 2008). Continuous technological and economical change accelerated by globalization and development of the information society along with the growing importance of innovating and flexibility in fulfilling customer needs have raised the learning abilities of an organization as one of the key success factors. Learning refers to action or function that an individual uses to acquire and adopt skills and knowledge in a manner that leads into relatively permanent changes in behavior (Torrington et al. 2008). Strömmer (1999) refers to Woolner’s (1991) arguments about the possibility to recognize learning separately in individual, team and organizational levels. Individuals are able to master and develop new skills and attitudes while acting simultaneously as the critic of their own performance. Team level examination addresses a much more complex level of learning as the team’s ability to learn is dependent individually on it’s each member (Strömmer 1999, 183, Woolner, 1991). In learning-based organizations learning is seen as a continuous process where learning trough experience and spontaneous learning have a substantial role along with educating (Strömmer, 1999, Crossan et al.

1991).

The outcomes of learning in both individual and team levels reflect an impact into the organizational level. They can be recognized from the culture, systems and practices as they either further or impair the learning and organizational development. Thus it can be stated that the organization acts as the environment for all learning (Strömmer 1999, 183) A learning organization is a result of consistent and carefully planned decisions, attitudes, managerial processes and commitment. Successful development of a learning organization requires determination, patience and paying attention to the organization as an entity. Competent staff, learning organization and learning on all organizational levels are considered as vital elements of competitive advantage and key factors in the long-term success (Schuler & Jackson 1999, 153; Bratton & Gold 2007, 307).

Human resource development (HRD) is a vital part of organizational learning and according to Dessler (2003, 118) an entire learning process ipso facto. Accordingly HRD can be characterized as an ongoing process that aims to enhance the execution of work assignments, to achieve the set goals and objectives, and to the improvement of individual abilities by offering the people and groups within the organization possibilities to develop their skills and competencies. HRD can include training, organizational development and career-related improvement (Strömmer 1999, 194-195;

Beawer & Hutchings 2004, 85; Bratton & Gold 2007, 306). HRD is based on the underlying thought of the company decision makers seeing the employees as factors of production worth investing on and that providing learning-enabling circumstances benefits not only the organization and it’s employees, but also the economy and the whole society (Bratton & Gold 2007, 313).

However the short-term and the long-term goals of HRD are not always necessarily compatible as a given. Actions that could seem reasonable and effective on short time frame might have poor potential of creating results on a longer period of time. Most sustainable results in HRD can be achieved when the education and training is also able to create capabilities for responding to future challenges. This requires certain meta-skills, such as learning to learn and ability to revise to be developed alongside with the actual assignment-related development and learning (Strömmer 1999, 194-195; Leopold et al. 2005, 352).

Bratton & Gold (2007) state that in the recent years the field of HRD has started to undergo a paradigm shift from a narrow training and development perspective towards a more holistic perception that emphasizes learning in all organizational levels. It has become increasingly intentional to integrate HRD as a part of all functions of an organization instead of traditional training departments. Thus the preoccupation to integrate learning to work and to create learning organizations has grown distinctly (Bratton & Gold 2007, 307). Also Strömmer (1999) states that there is also a trend of transition in the Finnish HRD practices towards broad and long-term development programs and processes. However, short and unattached trainings primarily capable of updating trivial assignment-related routines still seem to remain as one of the most common methods of HRD practices among Finnish companies. Strömmer (1999) argues that one of the largest obstacles for the development of HRD methods relies in the traditions of a didactic model that contains a premise of the student as a passive receiver of information.

Learning in an organization can occur by the means of either official or unofficial training.

Official training refers to education provided by training organizations that usually leads into a certificate or diploma. Thus unofficial training refers into education that does not lead into an official certificate. Unofficial training can be arranged on behalf of the company itself, or an

outsourced partner and it can consist of e.g. quality training or interaction coaching. Unofficial training also includes the learning created by work experience. Usually learning like this is occurs unorganized without systematic planning and it is fostered by e.g. innovation-friendly organizational culture. Learning can also occur spontaneously or by accident trough am emerging challenge or a problem. It could be an important asset for companies if they are able to see unofficial learning as a part of planned organizational activities (Strömmer 1999, 195-196, Torrington et al. 2008, 273-274).

Dessler (2003) argues that training used to focus mostly on teaching technical skills. Today, such technical training is no longer enough. Employers today have to adapt to technological change, improve product and service quality, and boost productivity to stay competitive. Doing so often requires remedial education. Torrington et.al (2008) state that the line manager’s role in learning and development has increased with the devolution of HR tasks. Coaching is an informal approach to individual development based on a close relationship between the individual and one other person either internal or external to the organization. The coach is often the immediate manager, or specially trained internal coach, who is experienced in the task. However, there is also increasing use of external coaches, especially for more senior managers. Also ‘coaching’ has become very much a professional occupation with its own code of ethical practice. Strömmer (1999) suggests that although unofficial learning happening in practice should be fostered in the companies as much as possible, external training programs also remain important for their ability to create value trough new information and competences. (Strömmer, 1999, 194-195; Dessler 2003, 187; Torrington, Hall

& Taylor 2008, 422-423)

The responsibility of creating and enabling a learning organization lies equally in the hands of the management, HR-department and the employees. Also the middle management has a key role in the process of defining the development needs for the staff and contributing to the creation of an atmosphere that supports learning.