HRM Outline Human Resource Management

HRM Outline

Human Resource Management

An analysis of how to utilize Human Resources to create or maintain a competitive advantage within the modern business environment.

Synthesis Review

Leadership Background

Organizational Leadership Models

Leadership Development

Employee Selection

Training

Learning Culture

Cultural Dimension

Every modern organization has a human resources department to manage its employees and can range from a single person to an entire human resources department with hundreds of HR employees. Furthermore, human resources can be considered more of a support function or administrative function in some organizations, while in others it is considered the backbone that can drive an organization to innovation and build a learning culture and create a competitive advantage in the industry. The problem in many modern organizations is that they do not utilize human resources in a way that is consistent with the modern business cycle. An organization is as only as good as its people as well as the organization of those people. Therefore, in a way, human resources is what drives business and implementing the best practices is no longer an option for companies that wish to stay competitive in the modern environment. This analysis will focus on ways that organizations can lead their organization with advanced human resource practices that can propel them into perpetual growth.

Introduction

The role of human resources in an organization has changed and evolved dramatically since its inception. The field can trace its roots to the introduction of scientific management and the development of specialization during the industrial revolution. It was during this time organizations began to learn how to cooperate in order to work as functioning teams. However, today's human resources management had developed to previously unimaginable heights. There has been a transformation from simply hiring and administering employee data and records to leading an organization's culture and creating a competitive advantage. Today's advanced human resources play a comprehensive roll in the organization and can be a leader in all of the different business functions. This analysis will provide a short history of the development of human resources followed by some of the leading best practices that are used in today's competitive business world and introduce training and development and analyze the recent developments in this field as they relate to effectiveness and how they support organizational change.

Chapter I

Hypothesis

It is hypothesized that organizations that adopt the best practices and play a more comprehensive role in the organization will outperform those that do not; especially in regard to organizations that are able to foster a learning culture and manage organizational change.

Methodology

To test this hypothesis a qualitative research approach will be used to collect the data found in primary and secondary sources to provide the foundational analysis. A literature review will be conducted that focuses on collecting the best practices and applications of advanced human resources practices and the results of these applications.

Synthesis Review

The literature review primarily focuses on leadership as a driver of organizational success. Transformational leadership is noted as one of the most popular models for creating organizational change however alternative models are also provided and can be useful in different situations. Training and training effectiveness as well as executive coaching are also listed as way to play a supportive role in leadership.

Chapter II

Literature Review

The methodology for investigating the problem will be conducted by the compilation of secondary research and a qualitative analysis will tackle various elements of human resources that can give an organization a competitive advantage in virtually any industry.

Leadership Background

Leadership is studied by almost every discipline in the social sciences and from every perspective imaginable. Researchers and practitioners attempt to identify any relevant factors related to leadership because it is such an important role in virtually every organization. Leadership touches everyone's lives in one way or another. Therefore, it is a common practice to try to understand what makes a leader successful or effective. This information is then used to either identify or train potential leaders so that their organization can be more successful. Usually then end goal is measured in some form of productivity improvement on an organizational level. However, leadership was historically relevant to only those in positions of power or popularity in society until the specialization of labor ushered in the Industrial Revolution.

The era of Industrial Revolution is the period that first introduced the modern age. The specialization of labor allowed people to work together as teams to complete tasks that required cooperation (such as in an assembly line). This also led to technological breakthroughs that allowed for new systems of mechanization of various agricultural processes as well as the introduction of textile manufacturing. The owners of capital would employee laborers to trade their time and effort for money and thus the modern monetary system began to take hold. This also ushered in a power struggle between laborers and the owners of capital. Working conditions were hash in the industrial revolution and it was often the case that employers would demand as many hours as possible from their employees.

The working conditions were also generally horrific. In many cases the accidents were fatal. Factory workers worked 12 or more hours a day and a seven-day work week. Employees were not entitled to vacation, sick leave, and unemployment compensation. In 1882, the average of 675 laborers was killed in work-related accidents each week (McDougal, 2000). Between 1890 and 1910, the number of women working doubled from 4 million to more than 8 million as employers tried to fill more positions and roughly 20% of the boys and 10% of the girls under 15 held full-time jobs. Furthermore, the jobs for children and women paid the lowest wages and left little time for family affairs. However, it was later found that the scientific method could be applied to management and leadership in order to increase productivity which helped to improve working conditions by working smarter and not harder. Thus the first organizational leaders were really working in the field of human resources.

Frederick Taylor is usually credited as the first pioneers in the field of management that used a scientific perspective. The followers of Taylor would expand on his ideas in a variety of ways; such as Henri Fayol, who added the theory of administrative management, and Max Weber, who added the levels of bureaucracy. With each new generation of organizations and leaders different ideas and concepts that improved upon the foundation of the division of labor. The division of labor was introduced it allowed individuals to specialize in a specific task which greatly improved the efficiency of the way most goods were produced. The theories of scientific management, administrative management, and bureaucracy were developed to help organizations cooperate internally towards some shared goal.

One of the most popular of the modern management gurus of the twentieth century was Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Deming probably impacted the field of management and leadership more than anyone else in the contemporary period. Deming's 14 points of management were first introduced in after the Second World War in Japan in the 1950's when the Japanese to help them improve their quality control when the entire country was rebuilding its industrial base (Deming, 2011). Deming's approach was to continuously look for more efficient and effective ways to coordinate teams so that they could work together to reach organizational goals.

Deming was one of the first to take a multi-disciplinary approach to the inner workings of an organization that borrowed form engineering, physics, as well as statistics. From his perspective, he saw the organization as a dynamic and flowing set of interconnected systems. By looking at production as a dynamic process and not something more static, it allows leaders in an organization to take a more holistic approach to leading an organization in an evolving business environment. His theories were applied to various industries included manufacturing companies, telephone companies, railways, carriers of motor freight, consumer researchers, census methodologists, hospitals, legal firms, government agencies, and research organizations in universities (Bennet & Slavin, 2009).

Organizational Leadership Models

Researchers have developed several different leadership models to try to understand all of the various nuances of leadership. However, one of the interesting debates is whether or not leadership can be taught or if it is more of a natural ability. It is generally understood that leadership abilities can be improved upon no matter what level of natural talent an individual has. Thus leadership can be considered some combination of natural ability, acquired knowledge, and some factor of experience as well. Thus leadership can be practiced and learned but not everyone might have the natural ability to make it to the highest level; similar to practice and training with athletes and professional sports. Not every athlete that trains hard can make it to the professional level.

Leadership does not have to result from a single individual either. There some studies that focus on high performance work practices that involve employee involvement in organizational leadership (EIOL). This approach is built on theories focusing on organizational participation, shared leadership, and organizational democracy (Wegge, et al., 2010). The model includes several mediator (e.g., knowledge exchange) and moderator variables (e.g., self-leadership competencies of actors) that explain why and when this approach is effective and looks at leadership in more of a comprehensive way than focusing on one individual. Such perspectives have suggested that when employees become involved in the decision making processes then this can strengthen leadership.

Transactional Leadership

Transactional leadership is the leadership model that represents what most people view as the concept of management. Transactional leadership is defined by an exchange relationship between the managers and the employees that are all motivated by their own self-interests and meeting the expectations that are associated with their job description. Transactional leadership consists of monitoring, controlling, and motivating employees through economic incentives and other types of exchange incentives (Bass, 1985). Most of the motivation in this model stems from financial exchanges such as by either salaries, performance bonuses, benefits or other incentives to lead the organization towards is shared goals by more of a contractual arrangement than anything else.

On form of transactional leadership is known as management by exception. This is a form of management that involves monitoring performance at regular intervals and taking corrective action when it is needed. The management by exception model can either be used actively or passively. If the manager is motivated then they may actively seek to find barriers that prevent more efficiency. A passive approach to managing by exception is represented by a manager basically waiting for a problem to come to them in which requires some decision to be made. This approach is actually well-suited to many scenarios including those in which a manager has a large number of employees that they oversee.

An even more hands off approach is represented by the laissez-faire leadership model which is also a form of transactional leadership. A Laissez-Faire leader will actively try to avoid intervening in the organization; they avoid decisions, delay actions, and ignore responsibilities (Bass, 1998). This type of manager will generally not use whatever authority has been granted to them by their position to pursue organizational goals. Rather they purposely distance themselves from the workforce in any way they can. Although this type of manager does not have desire to achieve organizational goals they can be more common than a human resources department would like to believe. In many cases such managers get promoted on the basis of seniority or some other factor that doesn't consider their motivation towards organizational goals.

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is one of the most popular leadership models and has been called one of the most effective among the various theories of leadership (Judge & Bono, 2000). Transformational leaders are able to motivate their subordinates to reach their full potential by setting challenging expectations will in many cases leads the employees to achieve higher performances (Bass, 1999). Not only do transformational leaders have high performance marks, they also work well in a dynamic environment. They are able to adapt to change and are also known for their role in organizational change and change management. Transformational leaders can help an organization transition from one stage to the next in times of organizational change.

The transformational leadership model, was first presented by Burns who compared it to the transactional leader or manager role (Judge & Bono, 2000). Judge and Bono (2000) give the definition of transformational leadership as a leader who could appeal to the moral values of the employees. This in turn, motivates them to contribute to the organizational goals established without necessarily having a contractual motivation to do so. Employees who are inspired in an organization for a variety of reasons will perform better and devote more of their attention to what they can offer the organization and their role in the organization's goals.

Other versions of the definition of transformational leadership include that a transformational leader motivates followers to do their best, sets challenging expectations, and thus achieves higher performances. Furthermore, Bass later defined transformational leadership as simply a leader's ability to push followers beyond their immediate self-interests (Bass, 1985). He argued that a transformational leader could help an employee develop a higher level of maturity in their ideals, as well as their concern for the achievement, self-actualization, and well-being of others, of organizations, and of society generally. This type of motivation is not depending on a material rewards system.

Bass (1985) defined transformational leadership by four main components that the leader can exhibit. Idealized influence is a component that deals with a leader's ability to fit the image of leader and to maintain this "ideal" image. It is difficult to define what an ideal image would be, but the leader must exhibit a sense of dedication as well as demonstrate purpose and perseverance to the organization and its organizational goals. Another component deals with inspirational motivation which represents a leader's ability to share a vision for the future with enthusiasm, optimism, and commitment to goals. Thirdly, intellectual stimulation deals with the intelligence of the leader and how well they can appeal to an employee's rational. The last component of this definition deals with how much a leader can deal with people individually on a one-on-one basis and give them personal time and individualized attention. Bass (1985) made a major contribution to illustrate some of the character traits and behaviors that a transformational leader might exhibit.

The transformational leadership model is one of the most popular leadership models because it has been shown to correlate strongly with organizational success in a vast number of research experiments. Some researcher has even gone so far as to try to identify a dispositional basis using behavior scales to predict the ability for someone to be exhibit transformational leadership and found that some personality traits are helpful in predicting transformational leadership than others (Ross & Offerman, 1997). Furthermore, transformational leadership can help predict individual and organizational outcomes like leader effectiveness, team performance, subordinate's individual performance, job satisfaction of the subordinates, and organizational commitment (Lim & Ployhart, 2004). The transformational leadership model is one of the most powerful models for leadership in HRM and should be used to drive organizational change that can create a competitive advantage.

Servant Leadership

Servant leadership is a relatively new model in leadership studies but it has gained some traction from some popular sources. There is also some evidence to suggest that this model can provide insights into effective leadership and this model shares some common attributes and overlapping content with many of the other models. However, one of the reasons that this model is interesting because it reverses the focus from the leader to the employee or subordinate and the leader actually plays more of a support role. By definition, the leader is considered a servant in which they "serve" the needs of the employees which then translates in high organizational performances. Through servitude the leader takes a more humble role in the organizational setting. Humility is an important leadership attribute that has also been identified in other models. Although this represents a model that is comparatively new in academic literature, it seems like it will popular because of the need for ethical behavior in organizational settings (Reed, Vidaver-Cohen, & Colwell, 2011). It is also popular as a "faith-based" leadership perspective because it can complement many religious or spiritual views of individuals.

A servant leader will work to constantly scan the organization and the needs of the employees for ways that they can support their employees and to be empowered in their roles and duties within the organization. This perspective is a radical break from many traditional notions of leadership (Vinod & Sudhakar, 2011). This type of leaders will actively try to prevent their ego from letting them use their positional power for anything other than a supportive role. Therefore, this model predicts that the ideal servant leaders will have high self-esteem and not be motivated by achieving power and status alone. Thus this model has become popular quickly because it provides a real alternative to other contemporary models. It is also popular because of the wave of unethical behavior that has occurred within the business world over the last couple of decades and is seen as a possible way to help promote an ethical organization.

Empathy is one of the core characteristics that the servant leader must excel in. A servant leader must be able to put themselves in the shoes of other and be able to perceive the individualistic challenges that their employees are dealing with in order to help them improve their performance. This leadership model is also heavily reliant in the ideals of servitude and stewardship. A servant leader may not even view their self as a leader but feel more of a burden to help others. The servant leader will devote large amounts of their time to individualized attention which was considered one of the components of transformational leadership. Thus there is likely some overlap in the servant leadership and transformational leadership models.

Level 5 Leadership

There have also been several models of leadership that have stemmed from outside the academic literature. Collins (2001) offers some fresh perspectives into leadership by conducting some interesting leadership research on successful organizations over a period of time. Jim Collins has made some pretty bold claims in his book "Good to Great" (Collins, 2001). Collins (2001) illustrates how counter-intuitive some of the ideas of leadership are in his book. Collins makes the claim that "good" is the enemy of "great" and that the idea that the path to greatness is somewhat of a linear trend is something of a fallacy. Most people assume that great leaders have taken incremental steps to build their careers and their talent. Instead of being some kind of linear progression, Collins argues that the path for truly great leadership does not actually occur that way in reality and this path is ultimately non-linear.

Collins started his research by examining over fourteen hundred Fortune 500 companies and creating a set of criterion in which he could try to identify the most successful patterns of leadership. Of all the companies examined, only eleven were identified as achieving greatness for a prolonged period of time. Collins definition of achieving greatness was based on a financial measure would could be defined as the company creating profitable and sustaining stock returns that were on average three times greater than the average market return. However, not only did the companies have to outperform the market average by a factor of three (which is a pretty impressive statistic), but to be included in this elite category, they had to do it for fifteen years which started right after a major transition period (Collins, 2005).

The companies that meet this criterion were vastly different in many ways. What Collins found is these organizations had commonalities that were not based on their industry, but rather how the leaders behaved in their organizations. Furthermore, it is also interesting to note that these behaviors were not necessarily based on talent, ambition, or experiences; which are some of the common factors considered in HRM. Rather the behavioral traits that these leaders exhibited were had two main commonalities; humility and determination. The leaders in the organizations identified all had a healthy amount of humility and were modest but at the same time they all maintained a high level of perseverance and a determination to succeed at all times. These were the two leadership qualities that Collins identified that were the most important. It is also interesting that these qualities also have overlaps with transformational and servant leadership models. Thus, the literature on leadership can point to many traits that can be identified in regards to efficient and effective leadership that can create a competitive advantage for an organization. It behooves HRM professionals to understand these traits and be able to identify different types of potential leaders for their organizations.

Leadership Development

The previous section focus on leadership models that can help identify potential leaders and recognize different leadership and management styles. These models can assist HRM by analyzing the environment and trying to match the situation with the right leader. However, identifying a leader can also be considered just the first step in what human resources can do to ensure that effective leadership is guiding the organization towards its organizational goals. Another aspect of leadership is leadership development. Although it was identified that there is some component of leadership that is likely the result of natural ability, leadership abilities can also be improved by training, mentoring, coaching, and other activities that are within the HRM realm. Thus human resources can also serve as a support role to leadership by giving them the tools and attention they need so that they can maximize their leadership performance. This section will focus on HRM supporting the leadership role in an organization.

Executive Coaching

Executive coaching is a relatively new phenomenon that has grown exponentially in the last generation or so. Executive coaching has become more salient as human resources have expanded their roles in the organization and are more comprehensive stewards of organizational performances. Executive coaching has relevance to professional development and career development and coaching key organizational members has become more common in organizations. There have also been various models have emerged in the literature to guide these activities such as the behavioral and the skills model. However, some have criticized this field as lacking enough empirical research to support it. Thus the value that executive coaching has to an organization, which is based n the on the value of coaching and its impact on organizational outcomes, and on how it can be developed through training programs has been a somewhat contested issue (Oana, 2013).

The cognitive behavior coaching model has been defined as (Palmer, 2008):

Cognitive behavioural coaching is an integrative approach which combines the use of cognitive, behavioural, imaginal and problem-solving techniques and strategies within a cognitive behavioural framework to enable coachees to achieve their realistic goals. It can improve performance, increase psychological resilience, enhance well-being, prevent stress and help to overcome blocks to change. It is a dual systems approach as it uses problem-solving, solution-seeking and cognitive behavioural methodology to help clients overcome practical problems and deal with emotional, psychological and behavioural blocks to performance and goal achievement. An important aspect of cognitive behavioural coaching is the principle of parsimony.

Executives in a modern organization have to deal with more responsibility in a dynamic environment than ever before. This can lead to a great deal of stress, fatigue, and even burnout by well-qualified leaders.

Thus, an executive coaches or coaching psychologists may work with executive leaders to minimize their stress levels and streamline their decision making processes. Some of the relevant factors including in coaching sessions can include decision making, procrastination, stress, and feeling overworked; many times executives may even avoid making those important decisions, not delegating work to lighten their workload, or continuing with tasks that make them feel confident and successful but are no longer their remit (Ellam-Dyson & Palmer, 2010). Executive coaching is a lot different than training because it isn't necessarily teaching skills. Rather it is supporting the executive or the manager in their decision making and their stress levels. There are a variety of different psychological explanations for these behaviors and it is common at the executive level for these individuals to struggle with some element of perfectionism.

There have been different models that have emerged to try to fill in some of the gaps in the research. One such model, the Cognitive Behavioural Coaching (CBC) perspective, uses empathy as one example of a key relationship component it identifies how building, establishing and maintaining an optimal coaching alliance for the specific coachee, through an explicit process of negotiation and renegotiation epitomises 'the collaborative relationship' a central tenet of the Cognitive Behavioural framework (O'Broin & Palmer, 2009). There are also important aspects to this relationship that build over time. This research highlights how extending to the relationship itself an emphasis on the cognitive-behavioural dynamics of the coachee and the coach, individually and in interaction can potentially assist in fostering, maintaining, and where necessary managing disruptions in, the coaching alliance (O'Broin & Palmer, 2009).

Another model has been proposed that attempts to be far more comprehensive. A model for cognitive behavioral team coaching (CBTC), derived from existing cognitive behavioral theories and individual coaching models; in an organizational context coaching a team to increase well-being, instead of separate individuals, would appear on face value to be more effective (Hultgren, Palmer, & O'Riordan, 2013). The CBTC model could be more cost effective to organizations since coaching a team would include more members with the same amount of the coaches' time. In a project format, such a model might be more effective than in other situations for example. It is important for human resources to have a good deal of insight into the exact situation so that they can design a program that is appropriate.

It has been identified that cognitive-- behavioral approach for use in executive coaching engagements is an effective technique in many instances. The basic tenets of cognitive-- behavior therapy, as well as its conceptual underpinnings, are a relevant focus for how well the goals of executive coaching are met by a cognitive-- behavioral approach (Ducharme, 2004). It is recommended that for stress management and skill development purposes, cognitive-- behavioral coaching is appropriate and likely to be highly efficacious with further development. Focusing on the behavioral aspect of executive work can also create efficiencies along with providing stress reduction and better qualities of life for the employees.

However, many of the critics of executive coaching level have attracted some evidence-based research in the costs and benefits of such programs. The evidence-based executive coaching movement suggests translating empirical research into practical methods to help leaders develop a repertoire of crisis resiliency and value-directed change management skills (Moran, 2010). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an evidence-based modern cognitive-behavior therapy approach that has been and applied to organizational settings. When utilized as a leadership coaching model, Acceptance and Commitment Training ("ACTraining") demonstrates effectiveness in increasing work performance and innovation while reducing work stress and work errors (Moran, 2010).

Other case studies suggest that the coaching is even more valuable to well-being than previously imagined. One such case deals with therapeutic work and the therapy the client had suffered from procrastination for a long time and this was one of the key areas to be addressed in therapy (Palmer & Gyllensten, 2008). This case was presented to highlight that cognitive behavioural, rational emotive behavioural or multimodal coaching may be able to prevent mental health problems and it is also possible that the client's problem with procrastination could have been tackled in psychologically-based coaching at an earlier stage because psychological coaching could have provided the client with tools to deal with the procrastination and increase her self-awareness (Palmer & Gyllensten, 2008).

There have also been experiments that have tried to access the effectiveness on cognitive behavioral coaching on a wide scale. One study performed in Australia looked at the results of coaching on a population of rural general practitioner (GP) doctors. The results indicated that GPs who underwent cognitive behavioral coaching had lower rural doctor distress scores than the baseline group; also, before coaching, 81% of rural GPs in the intervention group had considered leaving general practice, which reduced to 40% after coaching and over a 3-year period, 94% of the coaching group remained in general practice compared with 80% of the control group (Gardiner, Kearns, & Tiggemann, 2013). Therefore it was found that behavioral coaching reduced the stress levels of rural GPs who self-identified the need for managing stress and reduced their intention to leave rural general practice. Further, despite initially being more stressed compared with the general population of rural GPs, more GPs from the coaching group remained in rural general practice (Gardiner, Kearns, & Tiggemann, 2013).

To have the most effective leadership team as possible, human resources must provide the support needed for these individuals to operate at their full potential. Not only can human resources can definitely play a role in identifying and grooming future leaders, but they can also play a supportive role as they develop in their career. Although there is some conflicts in the research in regard to whether or not these programs are cost effective, it is reasonable to believe that many of the benefits are intangible and are hard to account for financially. Thus even though these programs might not seem valuable on the surface, it is one of the opportunities for HRM to explore in creating a competitive advantage through well-supported and effective leadership.

Employee Selection

Although much of this literature review has focused on the importance of effective leadership in an organization, employee selection of organizational members across the board is another critical success factor. There are eight elements of the staffing process that can be used to take an organizational strategy and translate it into tactical human resource management goals. These elements include:

1. Human Resource Planning

2. Recruiting

3. Selection

4. Orientation

5. Training and Development

6. Performance Appraisal

7. Compensation

8. Employment Decisions

Once the organizational strategy is developed, these elements can serve as the basis of a human resources strategy that can support the organizational strategy. This is also another way in which leadership can be supported; by ensuring they are equipped with high performance team members that are can be motivated to achieve organizational goals.

The first step in the selection process is most likely one of the most important. The human resource planning function sets the human resource vision that serves as the foundation for the overall translation of the organizational strategy into a human resources strategy. Thus it is ideal for human resources to be involved with the development of the overall company strategy. If human resources is involved early on in the planning and strategy development then they entire HR team is more likely to be able to translate the vision into more tactical level strategies.

Once the human resource plan is in place then the organization can determine their methods by recruit and select their human resources pool. For example, if the organization is attempting to exploit an opportunity with a project-based organizational structure then it should chose candidates that have experience or are comfortable working in this environment. However, if the strategy is more dependent on physical resources based, then the organization should focus on the aptitude and ability of the employees to meet the needed skill requirements. The most important aspect of employee selection is that it is customized to support the organizational goals and the earlier that HRM can be introduced within the planning function the better. If HRM is included in planning, then it provides HR the ability to create the organization to create competitive advantages from the ground up.

Training

Advanced and specialized training is no longer a luxury in most industries; rather it has become the standard. The current business environment evolves rapidly and the skills needed to compete are continually advancing. As a result, employees must continually be trained with new skills or taught new business process. Simply training a workforce generally does not represent a competitive advantage in this environment any long. Rather it is the quality of training that gives human resources an edge to compete. If an organization wants to get the most out of its human resources, then it will undoubtedly need to have an effective training and team building capability. Therefore, human resources need to have a training capacity that can effectively and efficiently transfer skills as needed and on a regular basis to be competitive.

There are a wide variety of training methods and platforms that have developed within the last generation of technology; especially in regard to advancements in communication technology. These advancements have provided trainers new platforms that can be effective in terms of cost and convenience than ever before. For example, in contrast to hiring employees that have had university or other external training, organizations have more options for training programs internally. Skill development sessions may include such options as a weekend workshop, an online course, on-the-job training or an apprenticeship, traditional classroom methods, as well as many other options and hybrid forms.

Again, it is necessary for human resources to have a comprehensive understanding of the environment and the situation to create a plan for training given the number of options available. Although training must be customized for the specific circumstances and the unique characteristics of an organization, there are several sets of best practices and different theoretical models that can be used for guidance. Training also generally represents a major expense to the organization and training employees can sometimes be more expensive than the actual salaries these employees receive. Therefore, making training effective is a critical success factor to both human resources and the organization in general.

Similar to executive coaching, many training programs can demand a significant investment and the benefits from this investment are often difficult to quantify. However, even though the benefits are subjective in nature, most organizations devote these resources accordingly because the intangible benefits are widely accepted. Yet this can be another issue because some organizations will devote a percent of their resources to training without any clear outcomes in mind. Furthermore, if the training program is not effective, the company will have spent both time and money and not receive much of a return for their investment and decrease their competiveness. Thus training and training effectiveness are both areas in which human resources management can also help their organizations create a competitive advantage in the workplace

Definitions of Training and Learning

Training and learning represent concepts that are often used interchangeably to describe activities without any clear distinction in the terminology. However, there are some subtle differences between the two concepts. Not all training can be considered learning. In fact, ineffective training programs can create a situation in which an individual has been trained but actually learned very little. Furthermore, some things that can be learned are of little relevance to training for a specific job function. Employees can be trained to type, to enter data in a new software system, or handle document workflows.

Training and employee development generally refers to the imparting of specific skills or abilities that are meant to improve the employees performance on the job (Sarin, 2010). Training represents more of a short-term focus when compared to learning. For example, you can be training to work some station on an assembly line or how to use a new computer system. However, learning is generally considered more of a long-term process related to employee development and career development (Lepak & Snell, 1999).

Therefore training is often focused on a more rudimentary skill set. However, within modern systems this is not always the case with high levels of expertise in technical systems. For example, some complex systems require years of training and a technical aptitude. The new enterprise resource planning (ERP) software systems are a great specific example of this. Systems such as SAP brand ERP training programs may require multiple years of training to acquire the necessary skill set to be proficient on the system (SAP, N.d.). Project management, also requires some technical skills but managing a project is as much an art as it is a science in most cases. Thus you would commonly associate ERP with training while project management with some combination of training and learning.

Learning is often used to refer to higher leadership and management skills as well. For example, many of the things that the social sciences teach us about people would be considered learned information while the hard sciences could be considered training. Some of the issues related to management might include judging the competence or emotional state of the employee which is something that is generally learned through experience. Although the distinction can be somewhat subtle, it is important to organizations because it can be used in a variety of ways to create a competitive advantage.

Learning may also represent a process of acquiring knowledge without necessarily having an end use in mind while training is specific to some activity. Furthermore, learning also entails facets that are transferable to a multiple set of situations or environments such as interpersonal skills. In contrast training might occur on a specific platform in which these skills are not valuable in any other sphere. Therefore, the primary difference between learning and training is that learning is generally associated with high level skills that are transferable and relatively timeless while training is generally associated with more technical skills that are usually useful in specific circumstances and often have limited durations in which they are valuable. In that aspect there lies an inherent paradox within the concepts of training and learning in regards to their effectiveness, which often in its essence is superficial and mechanistic (Antonacopolou, 2001).

Learning is important because it is one of the areas that are receiving more attention in the literature. One of the trends that have been identified is that informal learning can be fostered. If an organization can create what is referred to as a learning culture then many employees will actively seek and design self-directed learning activities to teach themselves the things they need to know to improve their abilities. This represents one of the highest forms of HRM mastery. In an organization with a learning culture, much of the formal training programs can be forgone and teams work together to identify their own skill needs and gain them on their own. The collective culture of such an organization, both consciously and unconsciously, must provide the right kind of environment for people to pursue their own educational goals.

Training Effectiveness

Bramley and Kitson, (1994) described that since training is so important to modern organizations, the problem can be considered as how to achieve the most effective training environment rather than whether or not an organization should provide ongoing training to their employees. Also, Buckley and Caple (2009) stated that the modern business environment is evolving so quickly that the needed skills that are required to remain competitive are constantly in flux. Operational processes are constantly evolving and these changes require new skills sets from employees. Since change in the business environment is virtually imminent then training serves as the principle method of overcoming organizational change (Buckley & Caple, 2009).

As the organization changes, employees are required to learn new operating procedures, how to work within a new organizational culture, or how to perform new tasks. Through a training intervention many different aspects of organizational change can be addressed. Thus training can be used to transfer the skills that the organization is in need of and training effectiveness in such programs. Thus the effectiveness of the training program can be determined by the intended outcome vs. The actual outcome of the training intervention. For example, if the organization decides that it needs to upgrade a software system then it can use the intended outcome of training, the ability to use the new software, with the actual outcome which would be the employees' competency on the new system.

Even though the outcome after training may be quantifiable, the ability to make training effective is a difficult phenomenon to understand. One model that has been developed as an overview training process and the various factors that lie within this process is the Holton's Factors Model (Min, 2010). This model shows that the effectiveness of training can be divided into three key elements; the individual's motivation to acquire the skills, the climate in which the skills are transferred, and the design of the training program. Each of these three factors, shown in the illustration below represents complex factors that can then be subdivided and are the subject of individual research efforts.

Figure 1 - Holton's Model (Min, 2010)

The model is ideal of providing an overview of the training transfer process however. The first factor deals with the employee, or group of employees, and their level of motivation or receptiveness to learning and change. Obviously if the employee is not going to be receptive to the training then the outcome of the training efforts will likely be low. Most employees have some resistance to change, however in organizations with low morale these can be significant barriers to training. Such organization might want to improve morale before trying to initiate a training program or offer some kind of performance bonus tied to the training outcome.