Process Of Acquiring And Developing Knowledge

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

"A literature review provides the reader with a picture of the state of knowledge and the main questions in the subject area being investigated", Bell, 1991, P. 93.

Theoretical Framework

Human resources are considered by many as being the most vital asset of an organization. Indeed, few employers are capable to explore and develop the potential from their employees (Radcliffe, 2005). Human resources are qualified as being productive resources with talents and skills that add to the production of goods and services in an organization (Kelly, 2001). Lado and Wilson (1994) define human resources system as a set of explicit but corresponding activities, functions, and processes that target at attracting, developing, and maintaining an organisation’s human resources. For Gomez-Mejia, Luis R, David B. Balkin and Robert L. Cardy (2008), it is a manner of confirming whether the organization possess the right people for the right job at the right time. In this event, to ensure having the right candidate who will be able to perform effectively and efficiently, many organizations comes up with a learning and development program whereby people are given training to perform their work correctly and at the same time developing themselves within the organization. Training ensures that haphazardness is decreased and learning takes place in structured format.

As a way of generating new knowledge, learning and development is placed within a broader strategic framework of human resources management, that is, global organizational management, as a planned staff education and development, both at an individual and team level, with the aim of aiding both the organization and the people working there. To maintain their position and to continue in accruing their competitive advantage, organizations need to be capable of creating new knowledge by not awaiting entirely on actual (Vemic, 2007).

Hence, learning and development has a meaningful role to play in the development of the individual as well as the organizational performance.

DEFINITIONS OF LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

Armstrong (2009: 664) defined learning and development as "the process of acquiring and developing knowledge, skills, capabilities, behaviors and attitudes through learning or developmental experiences. It is concerned with ensuring that the organization has the knowledgeable, skilled, engaged and committed workforce it needs".

Learning and development is a continuous process that revolves around the transformation of information into applicable knowledge and those applications conclude the actions (Argyris & Schon, 1978; Crossan Lane, White, and Djurfeldt, 1995; Fiol & Lyles, 1985; Huber, 1991).

Learning is a process within the organism which results in the capacity for changed performance which can be related to experience rather than maturation. (Ribeaux and poppleton, 1978: 38). Development however, is the process of becoming increasingly complex, more elaborate and differentiated, by virtue of learning and maturation. (Beardwell & Holden, 1997: 285).

Learning is the means by which a person acquires and develops new knowledge, skills, capabilities, behaviors and attitudes. As explained by Honey and Mumford (1996): ‘Learning has happened when people can demonstrate that they know something that they did not know before (insights, realizations as well as facts) and when they can do something they could not do before (skills).’ Development is concerned with ensuring that a person’s ability and potential are grown and realized through the provision of learning experiences or through self-directed (self-managed) learning. (Armstrong, 2009: 665).

Learning and development in the Tourism Industry

The world is constantly changing. So is the business environment. To be able to deal appropriately and effectively with these changes, analysts and practitioners are of the view that organizations must understand in all sense of terms, the crucial role that learning and development will play in ensuring their survival. Accordingly, each and every firm must admit the importance of developing the knowledge, skills and abilities of its employees (Morgan, 1991). Hence, it is important to pay very much attention to Human Resources Development (HRD), which is seen as vital, in a constantly changing world, to the progress of a flexible, efficient (Drucker, 1992; Stewart and Johns 1996; Garavan, 1991; O’mahony and Sillitoe, 2001).

Any organization would invest largely in programs to ensure their employees are appropriately and effectively equipped to face the world of competition and beat it. In the Tourism and Hospitality Industry, providing first class service to guest is an important aspect of the job. It is evident that if quality of service received is poor, guest will obviously move elsewhere. This is why it is very important in today’s era of competition to have a learning and development program.

Tourism and Hospitality Industry is a much requesting and demanding industry whereby needs and wants of clients are fulfilled. Being one of the economic pillars of the Mauritian economy, employees working in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry require adequate and effective training. Institutions that have been set up have an important role to play in the development of effective learning and development programs to those following the courses. It should ensure that they acquire the required skills needed in order to improve the performance of the organization as well as the employee.

Providing learning and development program to employees in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry is fundamental. Notwithstanding that the Mauritian economy relies much on this sector, the Tourism and Hospitality Industry is known to be a labor-intensive service industry, which depends largely "on the social and technical skills of its personnel, their ingenuity and hard work, their commitment and attitude" for success (Gabriel, 1998). In this sense, it is absolutely evident that in this changing world, the people and how are they managed is been seen as being a requisite for competitive success (pfeffer, 1994, 1998; Harvey Jones, 1994; 1998, CIPD, 2001 Becker et al. 1997). The fast, continuous and global competition therefore, forces this industry to develop their employability in a world full of uncertainty.

‘The business outlook is uncertain and the response must be flexibility. The prerequisite for flexibility is a high-skilled body of staff’, states a human resource director (in Crofts, 1990:16). Companies are seeking to have a motivated and committed workforce that is able to cope with changes occurring, meet the increasing demands of customers/clients, and perform effectively and efficiently with skills and knowledge required and prepare for the future leadership of the company. "Industries are becoming competitive and so success will require smart, motivated employees who can provide the best service to customer", (Noe, 2008). The only way towards contributing to an organization’s success is to put in place a learning and development program that will help achieve an organization’s strategy.

2.2 LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT IN ORGANISATIONS

Today’s organization’s learning and development programs are seen as being a critical and vital element of strategic importance. The need is felt to have an effective and efficient learning and development program to ensure survival. This is why many organizations create "learning organizations" where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire and continually learning collectively. Learning is considered as being a continuous process for improvement of employees and development of skills necessary that will help to perform tasks and roles properly with a view to contribute to organizational growth. Pedler et al (1991) state that a learning organization is one ‘which facilitates the learning of all its members and continually transforms itself ’. Wick and Leon (1995) refer to a learning organization as one that ‘continually improves by rapidly creating and refining the capabilities required for future successes’.

However, Easterby-Smith (1997) argues that attempts to create a single best practice framework for understanding the learning organization are fundamentally flawed. There are other problems with the concept: it is idealistic, knowledge management models are beginning to replace it, few organizations can meet the criteria and there is little evidence of successful learning organizations. Burgoyne (1999), one of the earlier exponents of the learning organization notion, has admitted that there has been some confusion about it and that there have been substantial naiveties in most of the early thinking. He believes that the concept should be integrated with knowledge management initiatives so that different forms of knowledge can be linked, fed by organizational learning and used in adding value.

Indeed, not all workers are capable or ready to find their own path to a learning route; especially if the everyday learning activities undertaken are disregarded or underestimate. The reason is simple: learning organizations asks a lot from employees for their willingness to continually learning, to be innovative, to be the one responsible for their own development and to be able to work in teams. But to what extent can employees abide by this? It should not be forgotten that each and every individual in an organization is unique and that they are the one who make the company be a learning one.

2.3 Learning and development strategy

Learning and development strategy represents the approach an organization adopts to ensure that learning and development activities, presently and in the future support the achievement of its goals by developing the skills and capacities of individuals and teams. A learning and development strategy should be business-led in the sense that it is designed to support the achievement of business goals by promoting human capital advantage. But it should also be people-led, which means taking into account the needs and aspiration of people to grow and develop. Achieving the latter aim, of course, supports the achievement of the former (Armstrong, 2009: 653). Learning is what happens after a person has received the required training and it takes place when the person is able to apply the new knowledge or skills to their own work-based situation. Effective learning is an essential component of business strategy. Organizations need to ensure that the identification and development of skills, knowledge and abilities is robust (Figure….). Organizations see people as their key to success and through a learning and development strategy, flowing from the business strategy, goals can be achieved.

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Impact of learning and development in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry

Learning and development demonstrate how learning, training and development programs meet business needs and how it impacts on the entire work-doing. Kearns and Miller (1997) go as far as to claim that: ‘If a business objective cannot be cited as a basis for designing training and development, then no training and development should be offered.’

Motivation and Commitment

Motivation and commitment is concerned with the factors that influence people to behave in certain ways. Arnold etal (1991), have listed the elements as being, direction-what a person is trying to do, effort- how hard a person is trying to and persistence- how long a person keeps on trying. Motivating other people and getting their commitment is about having them to progress in your desired way. Well motivated and committed people are those with clearly defined goals who take action that they expect will achieve those goals.

Motivation and commitment are the most important conditions for effective learning and development to take place. Employees should gain satisfaction to ensure successful implementation of the program delivered. The level of job satisfaction, quality of delivery of services, social relationships with work groups and clients and the degree to which individuals are committed and succeed or fail in their work are crucial determinants in the critical evaluation of the learning and development program. Ouchi (1981) and Pascale and Athos (1981) led to the theory that the best way to motivate people is to get their full commitment to the values of the organization by leadership and involvement. This approach to excellence was summed up by Peters and Waterman (1982) when they wrote, again, somewhat idealistically, as follows:

"Trust people and treat them like adults, enthuse them by lively and imaginative leadership, develop and demonstrate an obsession for quality, make them feel they own the business, and your workforce will respond with total commitment."

Armstrong (2009: 495) suggests that individuals must be motivated to learn; they should be aware that their present level of knowledge, skill or competence, or their existing attitude or behavior, needs to be improved if they are to perform their work to their own and to other’s satisfaction. He added by stating that learners need guidance; they need a sense of direction and feedback on how they are doing.

http://image.slidesharecdn.com/slideshow-110220004639-phpapp02/95/slide-6-728.jpg?1298185386

Sources: http://www.slideshare.net/dagmarkusiak/motivational-learning-theories

Learning is a satisfying and rewarding experience and makes a significant contribution to intrinsic motivation. Alderfer (1972) emphasized the importance of the chance to grow as a means of rewarding people. He wrote: ‘Satisfaction of growth needs depends on a person finding the opportunity to be what he or she is most fully and become what he or she can.’ The opportunity to grow and develop is a motivating factor that directly impacts on commitment when it is an intrinsic element of the work.

Motivation and commitment as a result of learning and development would not exist if it were not for something owned and offered. It should be fiercely noted that, according to Armstrong (2009: 495), "learners must gain satisfaction from learning" and it is only through this that they will feel committed to the organization.

PERFORMANCE

Performance management processes is a prime source of information about individual learning and development needs. The emphasis is on identifying learning needs for continuous development or to produce specific improvements in performance. Also, the primary purpose of learning in the organization is to improve results by having its people learn new skills and knowledge and then actually applying them to the job.

Harrison (2005) posed the question on what are learning and development implications towards performance and answered: "It has not yielded enough clear evidence of a direct link between individual learning and improvements in organizational performance (however that is defined). However, learning and development activity does consistently emerge as a crucial intervening factor. In other words, the learning and development process that help to activate the people performance link are those that hold the promise of learning to do things better, or doing new things. It is the sense of progression and purpose that is important, especially in linking to organizational commitment" (Purcell et al 2003: 73).

Setting aside the complexities of putting the lessons learnt into practice, learning will automatically lead to better performance only when knowledge obtained is accurate. This evaluation involves testing the learner's capabilities to perform learned skills while on the job. It determines if the correct performance is now occurring by answering the question, "Do people use their newly acquired skills on the job?"

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/content_images/fig/1130260402001.pnghttp://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1740220&show=html

Thus, it can be argued that it is not job satisfaction that produces high performance but high performance that produces job satisfaction, and that a satisfied worker is not necessarily a productive worker and a high producer is not necessarily a satisfied worker. People are motivated to achieve certain goals and will be satisfied if they achieve these goals through improved performance, as a result of an effective learning and development program. This suggests that performance improvements can be achieved by giving people the opportunity to perform, ensuring that they have the knowledge and skill required to perform.

Work Environment

According to Beardwell& Holden (1997) human resource management has emerged as a set of prescriptions for managing people at work. Its central claim is that by matching the size and skills of the workforce to the productive requirements of the organization, and by raising the quality of individual employee contributions to production, organizations can make significant improvements on their performance. The environment of an organization refers to the sum total of the factors or variables that may influence the present and future survival of an organization (Armstrong, 1998).

An enabling, supportive and inspirational work environment creates experiences that impact on engagement by influencing how people regard their roles and carry them out. It creates the conditions that encourage high performance and effective discretionary behavior. An enjoyable working environment, where implementation of learning and development will be successful, where attention is paid to achieving a satisfactory work–life balance, there is integrity and constant communication, attention is to maintaining a good and healthy work-culture, work-personality and camaraderie is a major consideration and personal growth needs are taken into consideration. An inspirational environment will be where what John Purcell and his colleagues refer to as ‘the big idea’ is present – the organization has a clear vision and a set of integrated values that are ‘embedded, collective, measured and managed’.

As Purcell (2001) stated, the way HR practices are experienced by employees is affected by organizational values and operational strategies. He also emphasized that work climate – how people get on in the organization – and the experience of actually doing the job – pace, demand and stress – all influence the way employees experience the work environment and this impacts on the learning and development ability.

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http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1793432&show=html

Customer and Employee Interaction

An important role that needs to be functioned by the HRM in the event of learning and development program in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry is to ensure high level of service quality. In doing so, it should put as much emphasis on the client-staff relationship as well as on the service counter. It should not be put aside that it is the employees who are in direct contact with the clients on a continuous basis and thus they require a special attention in that is, effective and congruent training in client relations. Perception weights a lot and loyalty is a strong element in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry. Indeed, it does happen at time that the service provided is great but employee’s attitudes towards clients are inconvenient which is an ultimate alarm to informing a lack of training in client relations.

Employees react in a number of different ways to practices in their organization and this affects the extent to which they want to learn more, are committed and satisfied with their jobs. This, in turn, influences the how well they do their jobs and whether they are prepared to contribute to discretionary effort. A qualitative strategy would thus encourage positive attitudes to work and promoting interest in effectively implementing what has been learned to ensure development. Quality is achieved through continuous improvement in the processes, products and services of the organization (Deming’s ‘journey of never-ending improvement’- Hodgson, 1987:41). The main features of total quality management are giving satisfaction to customers, both internal and external; continuous improvement in process, product; employee involvement, usually through teamwork; management by data and facts (Brown, 1992).

This increasing need for quality therefore requires a greater and extensive demand for learning and development in the Tourism Industry, not only for training but also for quality procedures. Lands’ End believes that staff that is enjoying themselves, who are being supported and developed and who feel fulfilled and respected at work, will provide the best service to customers; which will in turn have a positive impact on the way learning and developing is occurring.

Feedback

Giving feedback on results of performance of learners is seen as being crucial to their effective learning (Beardwell and Holden, 1997). It is effectively important in the sense that after training received in their special fields, staff in the Tourism and Hospitality industry will implement on the job what they have learned. So, in this way, providing them feedback after their evaluation is very important; this will help them to improve themselves in their work. Discussed in Ribeaux and Poppleton (1978) and Stammers and Patrick (1975), where it was stated that "feedback will be either intrinsic or extrinsic (or augmented). Learners receive visual or kinaesthetic feedback (intrinsic) from their responses to stimuli in the learning situation; they need to be encouraged to ‘listen’ to such bodily cues in order to improve performance" (Beardwell & Holden, 1997, p303). The need for feedback is very important at all levels of the learning and development program. It should be very well noted since the beginning of the program the reaction of the staff. Possibly, the best known evaluation of learning and development is that of Donald Kirkpatrick's, known as The Four Level Evaluation Model. The model was popularized in the year 1994 and is still a vital element in today’s learning industry. Kirkpatrick used the term steps when referring to the four criteria for evaluating learning and development (Craig, 1996). Adding to this, he never calls it a model but rather "techniques for conducting the evaluation" (Craig, 1996, p294).

The four steps of evaluation are, as seen in diagram …..:

Step 1: Reaction – Extent to which learners like the learning program?

Step 2: Learning – Reasons for learning? (Did learners acquire knowledge and skills?)

Step 3: Behavior – Behavior and capability improvement

Step 4: Results – Effects on business and on the environment resulting from the training received.

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Source: Kirkpatrick model of training evaluation: http://ci484-learning-technologies.wikispaces.com/Kirkpatrick's+4+Levels+of+Training

The Kirkpatrick's concept is seen as being valuable being that it makes an excellent planning, evaluating, and troubling-shooting tool. It is not only meant for training but also used for other learning processes. An example is that Human Resource Development (HRD) profession is responsible for not only helping in the development of formal learning such as training but also informal learning, development and education (Nadler, 1984). The diagram below (fig …) illustrates in more details the modern- day understanding of the Kirkpatrick learning evaluation model and how it is effective in evaluating and providing effective feedback.

level

evaluation type (what is measured)

evaluation description and characteristics

examples of evaluation tools and methods

relevance and practicability

1

Reaction

Reaction evaluation is how the delegates felt about the training or learning experience.

'Happy sheets', feedback forms.

Verbal reaction, post-training surveys or questionnaires.

Quick and very easy to obtain.

Not expensive to gather or to analyse.

2

Learning

Learning evaluation is the measurement of the increase in knowledge - before and after.

Typically assessments or tests before and after the training.

Interview or observation can also be used.

Relatively simple to set up; clear-cut for quantifiable skills.

Less easy for complex learning.

3

Behaviour

Behaviour evaluation is the extent of applied learning back on the job - implementation.

Observation and interview over time are required to assess change, relevance of change, and sustainability of change.

Measurement of behaviour change typically requires cooperation and skill of line-managers.

4

Results 

Results evaluation is the effect on the business or environment by the trainee.

Measures are already in place via normal management systems and reporting - the challenge is to relate to the trainee.

Individually not difficult; unlike whole organisation.

Process must attribute clear accountabilities.

Source: Kirkpatrick learning and training evaluation theory: http://www.businessballs.com/kirkpatricklearningevaluationmodel.htm