management training & development

MANAGEMENT TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT 2013

Q1. THE DYNAMICS OF INDIAN ENVIRONMENT HAVE MADE THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF A TRAINING MANAGER MUCH CHALLENGING. CRITICALLY ELUCIDATE.

INTRODUCTION

Training is often looked upon as an organized activity for increasing the knowledge and

skills of people for a definite purpose. It involves systematic procedures for transferring technical

know-how to the employees so as to increase their knowledge and skills for doing specific jobs

with proficiency. In other words, the trainees acquire technical knowledge, skills and problem

solving ability by undergoing the training programme.

According to Flippo, “Training is the act of increasing the knowledge and skills of an

employee for doing a particular job”.

Training involves the development of skills that are usually necessary to perform a

specific job. Its purpose is to achieve a change in the behaviour of those trained and to enable

them to do their jobs better. Training makes newly appointed employees fully productive in

lesser time. Training is equally necessary for the old employees whenever new machines and

equipment are introduced and/or there is a change in the techniques of doing the things. Training

is a continuous process and does not stop anywhere. The top management should ensure that any

training programme should attempt to bring about positive changes in the knowledge, skills, and

attitudes of the employees.

OBJECTIVES OF TRAINING

The objectives of training can vary, depending upon a large number of factors. The

objectives depend on the nature of the organization where training has to be provided, the skills

desired and the current skill levels. It is difficult to draw generalizations of the objectives of

training; still they can be stated as under:

1. To increase the knowledge of workers in doing specific jobs.

2. To systematically impart new skills to the human resources so that they learn quickly.

3. To bring about change in the attitudes of the workers towards fellow workers, supervisor

and the organization.

S.Y.M.B.A./IInd SEMESTER


4. To improve the overall performance of the organization.

5. To make the employees handle materials, machines and equipment efficiently and thus to

check wastage of time and resources.

6. To reduce the number of accidents by providing safety training to employees.

7. To prepare employees for higher jobs by developing advanced skills in them.

SIGNIFICANCE OF TRAINING

Fostered by technological advances, training is essential for any human resource

development exercise in organizations in the rapidly changing times of today. It is an essential,

useful and productive activity for all human resources working in an organization, irrespective of

the job positions that they hold. It benefits both employers and the employees.

The basic purpose of training is to develop skills and efficiency. Every organization has

to introduce systematic training programmes for its employees. This is because trained personnel

are like valuable assets of an organization, who are responsible for its progress and stability.

Training is important as it constitutes a vital part of managerial control.

Most progressive organizations view expenditure on training as a profitable investment.

Large organizations hire a large number of persons every year, who might not know how to

perform their jobs. There are also certain types of jobs where no one can afford an untrained

person. For instance, nobody would dream of allowing an untrained individual to work as a pilot

or operate a lathe. Such raw hand persons must be trained properly so that they may contribute to

the growth and well being of the organization.

The responsibility for imparting training to the employees rests with the employer. If

there is no formal training programme in an organization, the workers will try to train themselves

by trial and error or by observing others. But this process will take a lot of time, lead to many

losses by way of errors and will ultimately result in higher costs of training. The workers may

not be able to learn the best operative methods on their own.



CHANGING FACETS OF TRAINING

The present time of rapid change has its influence on training also. Lynton and Pareek

have identified the following salient changes, that have occurred in training in last thirty years:

1. Training has changed from training individuals to training teams of people, comprising of

members across the hierarchies.

2. Training has acquired an inter-group learning character.

3. Training is finding itself linked with the organizational development process. It is a part

of a higher-end corporate relearning exercise.

4. Socio-technical systems are influencing the training processes in organizations.

5. Target audience of audience is also undergoing a compositional change. There are more

number of females and people from diverse ethnic groups and castes working in the

organizations. This creates diversity in the training activity as well.

6. Technologies, government and markets are undergoing a rapid change. (This issue is not

being addressed to in detail here as it requires a detailed discussion, which is usually included in

the paper on business environment).

7. Training extends beyond employees and includes clients, suppliers, publics as well,

making a learning organization into a learning system.

The changes have to be learnt by the organizations to ensure effectiveness of training

exercise. The roles, responsibilities of the trainers are undergoing changes, and are discussed

hereunder.



THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE TRAINING MANAGER

Training managers are subject to several challenges which need to be met often within

the parameters of reduced training budgets. The technical challenge is to keep up-to-date with

changes in legislation, company policy, new methods of training delivery and new subject

matter. The strategic challenge is to monitor and respond to expected changes in skill

requirements, and to deliver training which provides demonstrable, measurable bottom line

results, both short and the long term.

The professional challenge is to keep up-to-date with changing practice, to manage

ongoing continuing professional development, and to ensure that the organization’s trainers and

line managers are informed and practised in applying the best in training ideas and methods.

Gordon Lippitt has identified four roles for training managers in modern organizations:

1. learning specialist and instructor.

2. administrator of training and development staff and programmes.

3. information coordinator.

4. internal consultant to the management of the organization.

Traditionally, the activities of training managers have focused primarily on the first two

of these roles. As the need to contract out training projects and to equip managers with staff

development skills has increased, so the focus has shifted significantly towards the last two of

the roles listed:

The training manager as information coordinator:

managing and monitoring contractor relationships.

enabling and evaluating line manager effectiveness in developing their staff.

coordinating an organization-wide skills development effort.

The training manager as internal consultant:

identifying skill development needs for the future.

advising on staff development methods and best practice.

evaluating and improving the bottom line effectiveness of the organization’s training and

development effort



CHALLENGES FACED BY TRAINING MANAGERS

When it comes to training, managers play a critical role before and after an

employee signs up for a course. In fact, how involved a manager is in picking and

reviewing coursework could be the difference for the company's return on its training

investment.

1. A manager has to be aware of his team's skills. He has to know each individual's

strengths and weaknesses as well as those of the team as a whole. He has to cross-

reference those skills with the needs of the organization and have a clear road map of

what projects are on the horizon for his team. By doing this, he can quickly decide what

courses are valuable and which are unnecessary for his team to pursue.

2. A manager should do some investigation into what training opportunities are well

regarded by the industry. He can tap into human resources or colleagues to make a list of

reputable firms. With this list in hand, he can make educated decisions when an employee

asks for training. He can also steer an employee away from a bad learning experience if

he has heard that a company is not the best in the business for training.

3. He should suggest training to employees. Oftentimes, a manager will wait until

employees approach him before agreeing to training. Instead, a manager should be

proactive and study the business needs and employees skills to decide who needs to train

in what areas. That way, when crunch time comes for a project, he'll have the team in

good shape to tackle the technology.

4. A manager should develop training benchmarks. When an employee wants to take

several courses toward certification or a degree, a manager should have points where he

checks in on the person's progress. He should communicate those points clearly to the

employee as well as the expectations of training. For instance, has the employee shown

how the training benefited the company? Has the employee received good remarks from

the instructor? Or has the employee outlined a career path with the company? These are

all tangible questions to ask during the checkpoints.



5. After an employee finishes training, the manager should have a debriefing. Was the training

on-track for the project? Will the employee need more training? Was the instructor good? Was

the coursework appropriate for the situation? Should other team members take the course? How

will the employee be using what she's learned to improve the network? Will she be able to teach

other members of the team what she's learned? The manager can get these answers through a

report from the employee or a face-to-face meeting. He then should communicate the results to

his upper management so that the training budget is kept in tact or enhanced in the next fiscal

year. He should also report back to human resources if the employee liked or disliked the

training firm she worked with. This is valuable information for the whole company.



RESPONDING TO THE CHANGING DEVELOPMENT NEEDS

As organizations change, there is a need for managers to learn new people management

and leadership skills. Employees who work part time or on short term contracts or in job- sharing

face different difficulties and are motivated differently from full-time employees. Managers need

to engender commitment by motivating individuals, working more participatively with them, and

finding new ways to enrich their working experience.

The challenge for training managers is to identify and then develop in managers the new

mix of skills and attributes which this approach requires of them. Our work in identifying

competences for managers has identified an increasing emphasis on the ‘softer’ management

skills (e.g., team working, building relationships, persuading and influencing) as an important

complement to the ‘harder’ skills of business finance, strategy and planning.

In the past, individuals sought advancement through promotion. As new organization

structures take shape, the opportunities for promotion are fewer. Managers need, therefore, to

find other ways to satisfy individuals’ ambition and desire for advancement. This can be done by

building development opportunities into jobs, and enabling people to expand and widen their

skill base and extend their roles and responsibilities.

For organizations who are already accredited to IiP or who are working towards it, it is

essential that managers at all levels are able to identify training and development needs for their

staff. There is an increasing need for managers to take a more active role in the development of

their staff. The challenge for training managers is to:

Equip managers within their organization, with the skills and knowledge required to

identify individuals’ development needs

coach and support skills development on-the-job.

At DBA we have seen the development of this trend in an increasing demand for our help

in:

enabling and equipping training managers to fulfill a new role as internal training.

consultants to managers in their organization.

designing and delivering coaching skills training programmes for managers.

new approaches to teamwork.



CONCLUSION

Training is important, not only from the point of view of the organization, but also for

the employees. It gives them greater job security and an opportunity for career advancement. A

skill acquired through training is an asset for the organization and the employee. The benefits of

training stay for a very long time. Training can become obsolete only when there is a complete

elimination of the desired for that skill and knowledge, which may happen because of the

technological changes.

The purpose of training is to bring about improvement in the performance of the human

resources. It includes the learning of such techniques as are required for the intelligence

performance of definite tasks. It also comprehends the ability to think clearly about problems

arising out of the job and its responsibilities and to exercise sound judgement in making

decisions affecting the work. Lastly, it includes those mental attitudes and habits, which are

covered under the general term ‘morale’.

No longer do the organizations talk of training in isolation. It is usually addressed along

with development. While referring to the conjugation of the two processes, Dale Yoder has

observed “The use of the terms training and development in today’s employment setting is far

more appropriate than ‘training’ alone since human resources can exert their full potential only

when the learning process goes far beyond simple routine”. Training means learning the basic

skills and knowledge necessary for a particular job or a group of jobs. In other words, training is

the act of increasing the knowledge for doing a particular job. But development refers to the

growth of an individual in all respects. An organization works for the development of its

executives or potential executives in order to enable them to be more effective in performing the

various functions of management. An executive development programme aims at increasing the

capacities of the individuals to achieve the desired objectives.


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