Executive Summary
The report at hand focuses on the analysis of the role of training in learning organizations. Having analyzed the literature, it was found that training plays are a significant player in the modern world of rapid change. If the learning organization wants to move at the same pace as the world does, it should train its staff effectively. The report focuses on the different aspects of the importance of the training in learning organizations, namely, support of a new strategic direction, increase of business-driven activities, a better understanding of the core values, corporate strategy and organizational performance. Moreover, it addresses employee weaknesses, improvement in work performance in the organization, consistency in duty performance, employees’ development, as well as ensures employees’ satisfaction, increasing productivity at the workplace, guarantees of quality of service and products, reduction of cost and supervision, business growth and success, and effective business solutions.
The Role of Training in Learning Organization
Training is a specific act, which helps firms and separate employees obtain new knowledge and skills. Understanding the role of training in a learning organization, it is important to define what a learning organization means. It is an organization that values and prioritizes learning on an ongoing basis. Such entities tend to understand the importance of information and training for staff. Employees should cope with the changes and challenges the company faces and the possibility to do it in a professional manner can boost their performance and profit. Trying to meet the new organizational realities, the companies choose to train their staff trying to meet the changes, which occur in the environment. Trying to understand the role of training in learning organizations, it is useful to consider the external environment they operate in, more specifically the globalization phase, knowledge era, and information technologies. The role of training in such an organization should be studied by analyzing the features of such entities and the purposes they have after the training is conducted. Depending on the initially set objectives, the role of the training in the learning organizations should help a company cope with the changing environment brought up by the globalization, innovations, and new knowledge development.
Body of the Report
Training plays an important role in organizations since the high level of competition and increased level of globalization require the organization to constantly change and develop itself not to fall behind. Pursuing different aims when planning training, each learning organization sets some expectations. The concept of coaching in an organization is usually focused on the support of a new strategic direction. Training staff provides employees with new knowledge, which can be used in introducing positive changes inside the company. No firm can exist in the modern world without change implementation and only with the help of staff training such actions are possible. The staff should understand where the company moves and what actions it expects from its workers. The support of the organization’s goals is impossible without a strong understanding of its corporate strategy and its purposes. Training can not only give improve understanding of this direction but also teach staff to apply the acquired knowledge in the real world, helping them achieve the firm’s strategic goals. Another aim of training in a learning organization is the improvement of business-driven activities in order to support the movement of the company in a chosen direction. Speaking about such activities, business optimization is closely connected to IT development. Ensuring a venture’s success is unimaginable without advanced information technologies, so it is important to guarantee that the employees understand what should be done in this regard. Working with sophisticated hardware and software may be difficult, thus, the chief objective of the training is to guarantee that employees are able to accomplish the tasks using these technologies exactly in a way the management requires.
By conducting training, the companies want to give the staff a better understanding of their core values and norms. Each firm wants to provide some benefit to society; however, each organization chooses different approaches and means of pursuing such goals. Only a deep awareness of what the company works for and which core values it cherishes may give employees an opportunity to open their scope and make sure that their actions are consistent with them. Addressing corporate strategy and organizational performance is yet another important aspect of training. New staff should receive special coaching that can explain the vision of the company. Otherwise, no specific effect from such undertakings can be expected.
Another role of training in learning organizations is to help the company management diminish or eliminate employee weaknesses. Coming to any organization, people have some set of knowledge and skills, however, it is obvious that each firm has some particular specifications and adjusting to these peculiarities is vital. In case employees have some weaknesses, they should be trained in order to address those and acquire new knowledge and skills in order to overcome them or having turned them into strengths. This specific function of training is supported by another one, which is aimed at improving the working performance in an organization. When dealing with a series of repeating actions on a daily basis, people start to see them as routine ones and lose inspiration and motivation. In case the workers lack enthusiasm, proper guidance can assist them in reconsidering their role with a given organization. Moreover, good training can help people reform their working routine and improve it. It is always relevant to look at this from another angle, in a critical way. The role of coaching in this regard is to give employees an opportunity to reconsider their actions and acquire new knowledge regarding the working processes and handling.
Consistency in duty performance is another aspect a staff training can assure. Working in teams is often a difficult affair. In fact, it is usually problematic to fully understand that the actions of one person depend on the actions of another one. Carrying out some particular duties, people in an organization should understand that the results of their work will be used by other employees. Team building training can assist in resolving this particular issue and guarantee that when working on a specific task, each chain of the working process will be directed at achieving the same result, regardless of personal ambitions and individual needs. Coaching can bring about the employees’ development in the long run. People should grow in order to be able to meet the needs of a constantly changing environment. Personal and professional growth is an important factor in the firm’s success. When a person does not develop professionally, he/she may be incapable of adapting to a swiftly changing business environment required to ensure the profitability and success of the company. Training can help people learn to implement new strategies, develop new skills and knowledge and some new experience applicable to the working process.
Another vital duty of training is to ensure employees’ satisfaction in the workplace. Undergoing some particular training, the management of the company can learn about some problems the operating staff experiences and decide how to meet those problems later on. Training can assist employees in expressing their potential dissatisfaction and in reconsidering their needs. Ultimately, they give staff the opportunity to view their working process from another angle, which may change their personal attitude to the working procedures and increase the overall satisfaction. When people are satisfied with their working conditions, their productivity can also increase. Looking at the situation from the perspective of the role of training in learning organizations, they can substantially increase productivity at the workplace. Obviously, when speaking about job satisfaction and staff performance, the issue of quality services cannot be left out. Satisfied people and professionally trained staff can guarantee the quality of services and products provided by the corporation. Significantly, coaching can help develop this particular feature. Quality of services and products is the main factor of a company’s success. If some problems appear, the firm should consider carrying out training sessions so as to help staff reconsider their actions and see the previously made mistakes.
The other function of training is the reduction of operational costs. Qualified professionals cannot act as cheap labor. However, when professionals work effectively, they are able to reduce the amount of money spent on production and services development. Only an effective organization of labor in the firm can be considered as a powerful tool for the implementation of company goals. Therefore, when speaking about cutting costs and the role of training in this process, one should understand that having spent some finances on training sessions, the further working process will be properly organized, giving the firm an ability to save considerable amounts of money in the long run. It is also important to note that the companies understand that supervision and work monitoring are effective tools in providing quality services, but such structure can incur lots of costs and expenses on the corporation. Having implemented effective training sessions aimed at reducing supervision in the organization, the companies may benefit in the future in terms of reducing the monitoring and supervision expenditures.
Business growth and success is the most desirable outcome from the conduction of training that the companies may expect. Much has already been said about the roles of coaching, most of them being directed at the company success and growth. Hence, if the training sessions in the organization are effectively organized, the firm may think about the possibility of superior growth in comparison to rivals, who do not undertake similar measures. The role of a training session in this particular aspect is to motivate employees to work better and develop a strong strategy for ensuring success. When working on certain projects, employees may find themselves in numerous problematic situations. Training can assist in finding required effective business solutions as well. Working on some individual undertakings, people may be stuck on a particular stage of the project and have issues with it. Working in a team and performing some specific training tasks, one may find the required solution and be happy with implementing it in practice. Additionally, coaching may help people open their potential and use it in their future work.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Therefore, it can be concluded that the major role of training is to help the learning organizations is to structure the working process, help staff understand the goals of the company and assist management in reducing costs and increasing the firm’s profits. Training also helps employees perform their duties better. It is significant to recommend each learning organization to impose training for the new staff in order to make sure that people understand what is expected of them. Another suggestion is to set training for employees once or twice a year, depending on their responsibilities. People working with advanced technology and/or in a rapidly changing environment should have trained more frequently to guarantee that they move at the same pace as the global business environment.
