An organisation is a group of people who work together with coordinated efforts to achieve certain objectives or goals. Organisational goals and objectives are of various categories and it is this variation of the goals and objectives which classify organisations into three main categories namely profit making; service based and social responsibility based organisations (Murray, Poole, & Jones, 2006).
Management is about planning, coordinating and controlling organisational resources so as to facilitate the achievement of organisational goals and objectives in an efficient and effective manner. The nature of management therefore only allows for the top leadership of an organisation to act as the drivers of the organisation in a way which facilitates the organisation to achieve its goals and objectives, including the management of organisational change (Lewis, 2007).
Organisational strategy refers to the processes, procedures and operations which an organisation must undertake in order for it to attain its set goals and objectives within a given period of time. An organisation’s strategy comprises its mission, vision and core values.
Human resource development refers to the activities and processes which are intended to have an impact on organisations and individual learning needs so as to ensure the survival and success of the organisations. Human resource development can be enhanced through training, which is an organized process concerned with the acquisition of the capability to perform certain tasks and the maintenance of that capability.
The human resource development frame work is composed of four components namely needs assessment, design, implementation and evaluation. This frame work is applied in the integration of organisational strategy with its human resource development.
In order for an organisation to attain its goals and objectives in a timely manner, there is the need to integrate both its strategy with human resource development. Integrating the two enables an organisation to move forward in a fashionable manner.
In fact, the two occur as a continuum, that is, one is a pre-requisite of the other, meaning that for an organisation to develop and implement its strategy, it has to involve its staff. The staffs are the drivers of the strategy. On the other hand, the employees cannot do a lot in the absence of a strategy. In other words, human resource development is an essential part of development and implementation of an organisational strategy.
Human resources play a very crucial role in enabling organisations meet their objectives. Human resources mainly comprise employees and the management of organisations, who interact at various levels while undertakings their responsibilities. Organisations exist in a dynamic social, political, financial, technical and technological environment. This dynamism obliges them to adapt to the changes so as to remain in business (Hayes, Wheelwright & Clark, 1988).
One way of adapting to the dynamism is through organisational learning which entails continuous generation of knowledge about the job performed by employees so as to keep organisations on course of achieving their mission and vision. Organisational learning originates from individuals, and then it’s documented and shared by the organisational members which becomes a culture in that organisation (Bradford & Burke, 2005).
The training needs include the learning of skills to perform tasks, re-learning of skills as a result of changing jobs, enhancement of the performance at the current job, or as a result of organisational policy. Training entails learning, which involves acquiring new patterns of behaviour and incorporates four basic process. These include the drive by the learners to learn, acquisition of responsible behaviour as a result of learning, reinforcement of the learned behaviours and the application of the learned behaviour in the work context.
Organisational Learning
Learning is the process of acquiring new knowledge and understanding regarding a particular subject. It can take various forms and may be acquired from various sources which may include imitation, observation, listening, brainstorming, doing and learning through mistakes, trainings, seminars, and from cultural practices (Easterby-Smith & Lyles, 2005).
The concept of organisational learning has its origin from Argyris and Schön, who in 1978 came out to express their views on the concept. Their view has been referred to as the technical classical approach to organisational learning. Their model of organisational learning comprises the single and double loop learning (Argyris & Schon, 1978).
Single loop learning entails the detection and correction of mistakes or errors made in organisations which makes organisations perceive change as an incremental process. Double loop learning entails changing of strategies by organisations due to either internal or external forces. Argyris and Schön model of change can be viewed as a technical approach to organisational learning because it involves the use of individuals and systems or strategies by organisation to meet their objectives (Argyris & Schon, 1978).
Donald Schön was another scholar who viewed organisational learning from a technical perspective where he argued that organisational learning is a product of tacit resources, meaning that it originates from individual employees, who have knowledge or seek and attain particular knowledge and expertise, then share it with the other employees. The knowledge is then documented to form a database for organisations which may be used to inform organisational polices (Argyris, 1999).
The other school of thought to organisational learning is known as the social perspective. This perspective view organisational learning as a cultural and political process and as a product of social construction. This perspective does not put more emphasis on tacit resources as a source of organisational learning like the technical perspective.
Instead, it views organisational learning as an on-going process, which is characterized by interaction between employees mainly in group contexts. These interactions enable employees to share their stories, experiences and knowledge from each other which enables them to acquire new skills, knowledge and competencies to discharge their duties effectively.
According to Lave and Wenger, organisations learn through communities of practice, which is a process involving people who are contextually and informally bound together by a common interest of learning and using a common practice when performing their duties (Wenger, 1998).
These two perspectives to organisational learning have for long been characterized by the debate of whether organisations do learn or it is individual employees who learn. However, the dilemma can be solved through the use of a pragmatic approach to organisational learning.
This pragmatic approach reconciles the two perspectives and comes up with a single approach to organisational learning, which takes into account the views of the two perspectives. The pragmatic approach comes with the argument that organisations do actually learn. But the learning by organisation is seen as an on-going process which is necessitated by the forces of change either internal or external to the organisations (Pont, 2003).
Managers therefore come up with best practices to ensure that their organisations utilize their human resources effectively to generate knowledge, understanding and expertise on various fields by various employees, which is documented and rewarded. The knowledge and expertise generated is therefore harmonized with the external environment or with the organisational goals and objectives (Pont, 2003).
The pragmatic approach also takes into consideration the importance of on-going training of employees both on the job and off the job, so that the employees may be updated with the latest information or knowledge which is relevant in their areas of operation. Technological advancement also necessitates the training of employees on the latest technology in their areas of operation.
For example, a company which deals with commuter transport may adopt online booking of bus tickets instead of receipts. Such an organisation would need to train the employees on that kind of technology so as to increase their effectiveness and reduce their work load. This in turn motivates them (Reid, Barrington and Brown, 2004).
Importance of Organisational Learning
Organisational learning is one of strategies in organisational development which focuses on enabling organisations place themselves in strategic positions so as to remain competitive and meet their objectives in a decisive manner. Globalization is one major reason for organisations to keep on learning. Globalization has transformed the world into a global village. Everything is changing and the world is becoming smaller in terms of how individuals and organisations interact and communicate (Clutterbuck & Mugginson, 2005).
Organisational learning also enables organisations to prepare employees for any change which may come as a result of organisational restructuring or mergers or due to adoption of a certain technology. It also enables organisations to have in place very competent and reliable employees, who are flexible and open- minded to handle any situation which may come along their way in their lines of duty.
Organisational learning keeps organisations in a strategic position for increasing their competitiveness as well as coming up with best practices which not only improve organisations’ productivity but also the image of organisations to their customers (Miller & Dess, 1998).
For example, an organisation which deals with provision of electricity may engage itself in what is referred to as corporate social responsibility by undertaking activities like conservation of the environment, fighting poverty through provision of scholarships to needy students or training communities on entrepreneurship (Hartog, Morton & Muller-Camen, 2008).
This may increase the competitiveness of the organisation among other electricity providing organisations thereby increasing and maintaining its customers. In this organisation, the employees need to learn people’s skills for dealing with communities so that apart from providing electricity to them, they may also train the people on how to do business or sensitize them on behavior change (Morton, Newall & Sparkes, 2001).
In this sense, the organisation would be engaging itself in a win win situation in that it would be empowering its employees with new skills, which would be a motivation for them, and delivering social responsibility services to its customers using the same employees who perform the core business of the organisation (Harrison & Kessels, 2004).
Creating and Sustaining Learning Culture in Organisations
For an organisation to create and sustain a learning culture there is the need for it to first of all do an environmental scan or analysis (Marsick & Watkins, 1999).
The environmental analysis should focus on where the organisation is, where it wants to be in future, what it has already done in an effort to reach there, what resources are available, what needs to be done to make the organisation reach its destination, who are its customers or clients, what are its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and strengths as well as its history (Malhotra, 1996).
After the environmental scan, organisations should embark on a fact finding mission, focusing on how to utilize their human resources effectively as a means of realizing their objectives.
This can be done through the formulation of a strategic plan with two main pillars namely the financial and the social pillars with the financial pillar comprising the financial resources available for the organisation and the social pillar comprising the creation and sustaining of a good organisational culture, which would make the employees motivated (Mayo, 1998).
Case study on integration of organisational strategy with HRD
Infosys is a software Company based in India and started in 1981. The Company was established on the philosophy of professionalism in the Company’s operations and service delivery as well as motivating employees through proper remunerations.
After its formation, the Company experienced some challenges in picking up, but with the resilience and persistence of the cofounders, it started growing in an exponential manner.
The Company was consequently ranked as the best employer in India. This is because it paid the employees well and also included other incentives for employees’ motivation. A lot of training was also undertaken by the company so as to add value to the employees (DeLong, Tandon, & Rengaswamy, 2005).
As the Company grew and expanded, the management saw the need to change its human resources management from collective employees motivation to motivation based on individual employee’s performance. This was necessary for the Company to meet the ever increasing demand of services and competition from multinational corporations, which were offering better packages than Infosys (DeLong, et al, 2005).
The company introduced variable pay, which involved giving incentives to employees based on their performance. This was aimed at maximizing the potential of hard working employees while adequately motivating them, as well as saving on the incentives initially given to low performing employees. The idea was to enable hard working employees to earn as much as they could, which was believed to reduce employee turnover. It also introduced promotion based on the rationality of the promotion, individual’s performances well as the employees’ abilities.
Reference List
Argyris., C. & Schon, D 1978, Organisational Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective, Addison Wesley, White Plains, NY.
Argyris, C1999, On Organisational Learning, Wiley-Blackwell, London, p.69.
Bradford, D.L., & Burke, W.W 2005, Organisation Development, Pfeiffer, San Francisco.
Clutterbuck D., & Mugginson, D 2005, Making Coaching Work: Creating a coaching climate, CIPD Publishing, London.
DeLong, T.J., Tandon,J & Rengaswamy, G. 2005, Infosys (A): Strategic Human Resource Management. Harvard Business School. Web.
Easterby-Smith, M., & Lyles, M.A 2005, The Blackwell Handbook of Organisational Learning and Knowledge Management, Wiley-Blackwell, London.
Hayes, R. H., Wheelwright, S., & Clark, K. B 1988, Dynamic Manufacturing: Creating the learning organisation, Free Press, New York.
Harrison, R., & Kessels, J 2004, Human Resource Development in a Knowledge Economy- an Organisational View, Macmillan, Palgrave.
Hartog, M., Morton, C., & Muller-Camen, M 2008, CSR and sustainable HRM, Prentice Hall, Muller.
Lewis, P.S 2007, Management : challenges for tomorrow’s leaders, Thomson/South-Western, Mason, OH.
Malhotra, Y1996, Organisational Learning and Learning Organisations: An overview. Web.
Marsick, V. J., & Watkins, K. E 1999, Facilitating Learning Organisations: Making learning count, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Mayo, A 1998, Creating a Training and Development Strategy, IPD, London.
Miller, A. & Dess, G 1998, Strategic Management , 3rd edn, McGraw Hill, London.
Morton C., Newall, A., & Sparkes, 2001, Leading HR: Delivering competitive advantage, CIPD, London.
Pont, T 2003, Developing Effective Training Skills, CIPD Publishing, London.
Reid, M. A., Barrington, H., & Brown, M,2004, Human Resource Development – Beyond Training Interventions, 7th edn, CIPD, London.
Wenger, E, 1998, Communities of Practice: learning, meaning and identity, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.