In the world of work today, “Organization operate in more
complex, competitive and volatile environments, where they need to change
strategies, structures and process in order to respond to the business challenges
increase”(Conner, 1999: Higgs and Rowland, 2001). Thus
the obvious way for organizations to remain competitive in this era of
globalization that is highly driven by innovations, knowledge and technology is
by placing importance on acquiring new skills and creative knowledge through
training and development of its employees (Scott, 2007).
Wan
(2007) argues that the only strategy for organizations to
radically improve their workforce productivity is to seek to optimize their
workforce through comprehensive training and career development. To achieve
this purpose, organizations must afford proper training to acquire the
requisite skills and competencies that will enable them function effectively in
complex situations.
This is premised on the fact that
an expertise and skills are increasingly seen as the key level not only for
organizations, but for the economy as a whole to compete internationally (Leitch, 2006).
Learning,
Training & Development
According
to Armstrong (2010) learning
and development is the process of ensuring that the organization has the
knowledgeable, skilled and engaged workforce it needs. It involves facilitating
the acquisition by individuals and teams of knowledge and skills through
practice, learning events and programs provided by the organization, guidance
and coaching provided by the line managers and others, and self - directed
learning activities carried out by individuals.
According to Armstrong (2014) defined training as the systematic
application of formal processes to impart knowledge and help workers to acquire
requisite skills for them to perform their jobs satisfactorily. This definition
supported with Olakunle & Ehi (2008),
who see training as the methodical development of the knowledge, skill and
attitude required by an individual employee to perform effectively on a given
task or job. Therefore the process of training and development is a continuous one
and an avenue to gain more and new knowledge and develop further the skills and
techniques to function effectively (Isyaku,
2000).
In the view of Armstrong (2014), development is
considered as the growth or realization of person’s ability and the potential
through the provision of learning and educational experiences.
Harrison
(2009) concludes the key aim of learning and development as an
organizational process is to aid collective progression through the
collaborative expert and ethical stimulation and facilitation of learning and
knowledge that support business goals, improve individual potentials, and
respect and build on diversity”.
Accordingly with the proficient
industry expertise in tourism and hospitality trade the “loop wholes are invisible”. Due to this matter the readiness level of subordinates plays a
critical part when quick decision making is vital. Constant variations in
tourism trends and current economic environment are uncontrollable dynamics
that cause to influence on employee disengagement and low competences in the Sri Lankan tourism sector. Thus lack of training and development is a key disadvantage for an
organization that will drastically impact on its sustainability.
§ Ineffective
employee engagement creates low productivity in the organization.
§ Staff
demotivate will influence to create goal in-congruence via departments.
§ Poor leadership
interest and control.
§
High employee turnover.
|
Figure 01 Kolb Learning Cycle
(Source:
Armstrong, 2006)
Sloman
(2003) between learning, which ‘lies within the domain of the
individual’, and training, which ‘lies within the domain of the organization’.
Today the approach is to focus on individual learning, and ensure that it takes
place when required - ‘just - for - you’ and ‘Just - in - time’ learning.
Therefore learning involves the acquisitions of abstract concepts that can be
applied flexibility in a range of situations. The motivation for the
development of new concepts is provided by new experiences (Kolb, 1984).
The
Experiential Learning Cycle
Experiential learning will highly
influence to create an effective workforce. Therefore with the industry
expertise in tourism and hospitality sector training of housekeeping function
as tap heads to gain concrete experience within the industry.
Concrete
Experience:
Personalized service and
housekeeping function as tap heads to gain efficiency through staff
motivational training program to increase employee engagement for better
productivity.
Reflective
Observation:
With the influence of trainers’
observation, the housekeeping staff will be gaining knowledge to improve
effectiveness in room service, proper communication, time management, and
business ethics to improve the readiness level of the staff to manage situations
effectively.
Abstract
Conceptualization:
With the supervision of achieving
set KPIs in a given time frame and the readiness level of the housekeeping
staff will enhance the idea of practicing their knowledge through leaning that
will help to deliver effective workforce by strengthening employee engagement.
Active
Experimentation:
Leaning through training will
help the staff to be committed by completing the task successfully through
increasing productivity by delivering positive results on taking effective
actions in any given situations, while this creates new concrete experience to
the staff and the cycle begins.
Significance probabilities on after training housekeeping:
§
High commitment and competency of
the workforce.
§
Being more customer oriented due
to the knowledge of training and development.
§
Negative customer service
feedback.
§
The staff of the hotel will feel
inspired to go above and beyond the call of duty.
§
Dedication and innovation help to
develop an excellent hospitality staff.
§
Identifying the level of employee
output helps to exert the effective decision making.
According to Armstrong (2014) citation on Kolb learning cycle is explained in
the above figure 01, discuss “to learn effectively, individuals must shift from
being observers to participants, from direct involvement to a more objective
analytical detachment”.
Therefore with the effect from
identifying the gap between what people know and can do and what they should
know and be able to do is concerned with identifying and satisfying learning
development needs (Armstrong,2012 cited
in Olakunle and Ehi, 2008).
Purcell
et al.,(2003) believe
that discretionary behavior which helps the firm to be successful is most
likely to happened, when employees are well motivated and duel committed to the
business and when the job given them high level of satisfaction.
Therefore
(Purcell et
al., 2003) established that the key policy and practice factors
influencing levels of commitment were:
§
received training last year;
§
are satisfied
with career opportunities;
§
are satisfied
with the performance appraisal system;
§
think managers
are good in people management (leadership);
§
find their
work challenging;
§
think their
form helps them achieve a work – life balance;
§
Are satisfied
with communication or company performance.
According to (Bentley, 2006) with the influence of training and development it
add value to the training process and direct organizations towards the
achievement of their strategic objectives.
Training and development
activities allow organizations to adapt, compete, innovate, excel, be safe,
produce, improve service, and reach goals. In the United States alone,
organizations spend about $135 billion in training individuals per year (Patel, 2010). Organizations like Toyota, Apple,
Microsoft, and British Petroleum are constantly change with the social trends
and pattern were training and development programs are essential to influence
perform a high degree of learn – ability, logical ability, cooperation and
management potential, communication and advanced expertise and planned approach
for problem solving (Sreenivas, 2006).
According to Armstrong (2014) formal training is indeed only one of the ways of
ensuring that leaning takes place, but it can be justified in the following
circumstances:
· The knowledge or skills cannot be
acquired satisfactorily in the workplace or by self-directing learning.
· Different skills are required by
a number of people, which have to be developed quickly to meet new demands and
cannot be gained by relying on experience.
· The tasks to be carried out are
so specialized or complex that people are unlikely to master them on their own
initiative at a reasonable speed.
· When a leaning need common to a
number of people has to be met that can readily be dealt with in a training
event or programed.
For example: Induction, essential
IT skills, communication skills,
Consequently there are two major
areas of training in organization: these are “on - the - job” training and “off
- the - job” training (Sulu, 2011).
On-the-job training describes a variety of methods that are applied while
employees are actually performing their jobs.
In on-the-job location, the
emphasis is more on the acquisition of specific, local knowledge in real
situation (Cole, 1997).
Induction/orientations, coaching,
apprenticeships/internships, job instruction training, job rotation/
enlargement/ enrichment and understudy are methods that include in On-the-job (Bankole, 2000: Nwokocha, 2014).
Accordingly the advantages of
On-the-job training; it facilitates the transfer of learning in organizations,
the training approach familiarizes the individual with the procedures and tools
trainees are going with, the acceptance of trainees is enhanced since they
would be pre – exposed to those they would work with (Olankunle and Ehi, 2008).
Having considered the above
facts, it is understood that training research has come a long way.
Today it is empirical in nature
and theoretically based. (Wright &
Geroy, 2001) note that employee competencies change through effective
training programs.
According to (Ford & Kraiger, 2007; Salas & Kozlowski, 2010) the next 50 years
will bring many challenges to the science of training. As the population gets
older, wiser, more technology savvy, more insistent of receiving just - in -
time knowledge, more supportive of collaboration, and more involved in
multitasking, the science will have to even more multidisciplinary, integrating
findings from different areas such as human performance
modeling, augmented cognition, change management, skill acquisition.
Conclusion
& Recommendation
Employee engagement is the
emotional commitment employees have towards the organization and its goals (Evans & Lindsay, 2012). Training
and development influence to increase the level of commitment of employee
engagement to deliver their knowledge towards the organization success. According
to (Arthur, 1994; Scholl, 2003) companies
can seek to achieve organizational goals through a multiplicity of human
resource strategies and methodologies. One such approach, a commitment
strategy, attempts to develop psychological connections between the company and
employee as a means of achieving goals.
Considering above facts, it
highlights the level of influence towards an organization through an effective
training and development. With the industry expertise in the tourism and
hospitality sector it is essential to exert analyzing training needs to fit the
overall objectives to increase commitment and competency level in the
hospitality trade.
In the context of service oriented environment it is
essential to reduce number of accidents,
labor turnover, increase inefficiency and
avoid job dissatisfaction to deliver effective service towards the
stakeholders.
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