Literature review on contemporary HRD - Critically discuss and evaluate current perspectives on the changing role and nature of training and learning in organisations and human resource development.

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DL: Literature review on contemporary HRD

Critically discuss and evaluate current perspectives on the changing role and nature of training and learning in organisations and human resource development. This should include a critical appraisal of key theoretical perspectives on the strategic role of HRD within contemporary organisational contexts

Within this submission, I have illustrated  the changing role and nature of training and learning within context of a learning organisation.

Training and learning in organisations.

So what do we mean by training and learning within an organisation? One view is that it is about developing a learning organisation, an ‘organization that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future. For such an organization, it is not enough merely to survive, ‘Survival learning’ what is more often termed 'adaptive learning' is important, indeed it is necessary. But for a learning organization, ‘adaptive learning’ must be joined by ‘generative learning,’ learning that enhances our capacity to create’. Senge (1999:14) Further support for this ‘generative’ view is seen in Wick and Westley (1996) who take the perspective that a learning organisation should be seen against the backdrop of its culture. Arguing values, beliefs, feelings, artefacts, myths, symbols, metaphors’ form part of any approach taken by a learning organisation. It arguably impossible to clinically define what a learning organisation consists of in a generic form. By creating a learning organisation you create a learning climate, thus hopefully a training and learning culture.

Senge takes the view that, what fundamentally will distinguish learning organizations from traditional authoritarian “controlling organizations” will be the ‘mastery of certain basic disciplines. That is why the “disciplines of the learning organization” are vital’. Senge (1999: 5). However, it is to be noted that Senge uses the word discipline to mean a set of practices rather than a rigid system of rules, which is often inferred understood in the modern use of the word. Going on to comment, ‘To practice a discipline is to be a lifelong learner. You never arrive; you spend your life mastering disciplines’. Senge (1999: 11) Futher confirming the view that, this area of management study is far from being a science, but he does present offer a few guiding principles in his best selling book, The Fifth Discipline, ‘Have realistic goals, challenge your assumptions, commit to a shared vision and that teamworking is good for you. We see here the dualistic approach of both the need for the organisation and the individual to become intrinsically involved in the concept.

Although a popular view, others have felt that organisation learn in there own right, almost biologically. Schon for example sees organisations as, ‘repositories of knowledge’ independent of their members (Schon, 1983:242).

There is a wide school of thought that learning organisations develop and are not imposed, ‘…as cultures develop and alter their expectations, (an example of which would include the demise of unions and the capitalist ideology of the Thatcher years) so must organisations change that employ within that culture.’ (Schon, 1983).  Further cultural identities in terms of sector, product or organisations must also be taken into account, highlighted by the work of both Argyris (1960) and Hofstede (1994).

One mistaken view is that the term a ‘learning organisation’ is a new concept. It is certainly true that as the world changes new approaches must be investigated to maintain both personal and organisational survival. However, the idea that organisations have only recently had to deal with changing situations, both operationally and strategically, is clearly absurd. Only the pace and scope of change in the last 50 years has brought the spotlight on organisations managing its human resource in a more effective manner. It remains a truism that it is not an argument about leaning and development, after all we have all learnt and development within any organisation we have been in contact with either consciously or subconsciously. The argument must surely be how we identify, focus and deliver that learning in an organisational context to produce value to the individual and therefore hopefully the organization. A view highlighted by Argyris and Schon (1974)

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Historically this point is confirmed, ‘We trained hard… but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up in teams we would be reorganised. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising...’ Caius Petronius, AD 65. However, the key element of a learning

organisation is that it is about people and how they learn, develop and ultimately (or hopefully) contribute to the organisation. The link with HRD is therefore both binding and key in determining how T&D takes place in an organisation.

Yet we still come back ...

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