Assessment 1: Discussion Board Assignments

Discussion Board Assignment 1: Delahaye and Choy (2017) assert that 'the HR developer must understand clearly the strategic direction of their organisation, because designing learning and developmental programs that do not fit into the organisation's strategic objectives would not make sense' (p.123). What specific learning and development initiatives would you introduce into an organisation that has an innovation strategic orientation?

Discussion Board Assignment 2: Critically evaluate the HR developer's involvement in performance appraisal and the role of performance appraisal in human resource development. (Performance appraisal is discussed from page 143 in the Delahaye and Choy text.)

Discussion Board Assignment 3: Do you think it is helpful for learners to know about theories of learning and their learning style preferences to be successful in learning new knowledge and skills? Discuss this question with reference to David Kolb's four stage learning cycle and learning styles. (See, for example, p.239 in Delahaye and Choy.)

Discussion Board Assignment 4: What are two examples of training courses that could evaluated up to level four in Donald Kirkpatrick's four-level evaluation framework? What are two examples of training courses where evaluation up to level four would be problematic or perhaps inappropriate? Explain your reasoning. (Kirkpatrick's four levels are discussed from page 346 in the Delahaye and Choy text.)

Assessment 2: Report on Promoting Individual Informal Workplace Learning

Brief:

You are the newly-appointed Human Resource Advisor in a medium-sized business that employs approximately 150 mostly professional staff. The CEO of your company values learning and wants to increase the quantity and quality of individual learning at and through work. However, the company does not have the financial resources to fund employee participation in formal education and training programs, but the CEO is willing to change the workplace so as to 'invite' more informal learning. Therefore, the CEO has asked you to conduct research and write a report on the broad topic of 'promoting informal learning in work organisations'. The CEO is not familiar with the field of informal learning but wants your report to address at least the following key questions:

• How do individuals learn in the workplace?
• What factors enable or constrain informal workplace learning?
• What individual characteristics (e.g., personality characteristics) influence the effectiveness of informal workplace learning?
• What are the potential benefits for individuals and the organisation of enhancing informal workplace learning?
• Based on your analysis of the literature, what are your recommendations for enhancing informal learning within the organisation?

The CEO has a strong academic background and is a firm believer in evidence-based practice. Your report must be tailored accordingly.

Assessment 3: Leadership Development Proposal

Brief:

You are the newly-appointed Human Resource Advisor in a medium-sized business that employs approximately 150 mostly professional employees. Of these employees, 10 occupy managerial roles. The CEO of your company values learning and wants to increase the quantity and quality of learning at work. However, the company does not have the financial resources to fund employee participation in external formal education and training programs. The CEO has considered alternative approaches to fostering learning at work. After reading a Harvard Business Review Blog (see https://hbr.org/2014/07/you-cantbe-a-great-manager-if-youre-not-a-good-coach) the CEO decided that the organisation should strive to develop a 'coaching culture'. Therefore, the CEO has asked you to write a fully developed proposal for a training course on 'Coaching Skills for Managers'. The training course will be attended by the 10 managers. The CEO is aware that one-off training courses often do not result in behaviour change in the workplace and improved performance. Therefore the CEO wants the coaching skills training course to be designed in a way that facilitates transfer of learning and the course must be complemented by the formation of an action learning set to help ensure that the capabilities acquired during the training course are applied and further developed in the workplace.

The CEO has a strong academic background and is a firm believer in evidence-based practice. Your report must be tailored
accordingly.

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of promotion of individual informal learning at the workplace. Informal learning is the first form of learning that human beings engage themselves in, even before entering school (Davies, 2008). It is the that form of learning which does not involve the formal disciplinaries (such as school, college) and is based on imbibing of knowledge by an individual, from the environment she is subject to. It is the form of learning outside the classroom. Therefore, informal learning does not involve the using of definite learning means and is more inherent in the sense that an individual grasps knowledge from the environment, he is subject to. For example, gaining new ideas while interacting with colleagues in the workplace.

The learning at workplace could be formal or informal. Formal learning is through means such as training, seminars etc. Informal learning at workplace is a rather new concept and is evolving. It is now being given due recognition, by employers to enhance the knowledge base of their employees and create productive human resources for themselves (Chivers, 2011). The importance of informal learning is being realized by all the organizations, be it large, medium or small sized. The dynamic business environment makes it all the more vital to inculcate workplace learning systems within organizations, so as to keep its's employees as well as the entire organization, well versed with recent economic changes, technological changes, new methods of strategic planning etc. To deal with the cut-throat business environment, corporations have to keep themselves at toe and fight the competition with innovative ways to deal with the competition (Davies, 2008). In the recent years, workplace learning has received a lot of attention, not only from corporations but also from academicians. It reflects the importance of learning in workplace, which is being thought of as competitive advantage to deal with the dynamic economic environment (Noe & Winkler, 2012).

Work and learning

Working is somewhat interrelated with learning and therefore, by means of workplace learning, the skills of the employees can be upgraded and their knowledge base can be increased. Workplace learning is mostly achieved through the means of work related interactions, which provide learning avenues to both the individual employees as well as the organization, as a whole (Noe, 2017). Learning at workplace not only updates the employees with the neo market developments, but also keeps them more involved in the business developments. The employees tend to take more interest in work and bring out their innovative ideas to deal with the dynamics. It increases employee participation.

Workplace learning activities

It has been found in studies that the most favoured workplace learning by employees is the workplace learning (Chivers, 2011). It has also been revealed in researches that 80% of the work-related learning happens informally. Informal learning is believed to deliver more than the formal learning techniques and employees are more open to accepting the informal learning techniques than the formal ones.

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