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I have carried out a single case study of a branch of Safeway in Scotland. My aim is to identify the value of coaching and training to style of coaching used and analyse if it is being implemented and if so if it is improving performance within the staff. Another goal is to find possible solutions to revealed problems and suggest the ways of solving them. 2. Literature review and current knowledge Training is a learning experience in that it seeks a relatively permanent change in an individual that will improve his or her ability to perform on the job. We typically say training can involve the changing of skills, knowledge, attitudes, or behavior (1). It may mean changing what employees know, how they work, their attitudes toward their work, or their interaction with their co-workers or supervisor.
For our purposes, we will differentiate between employee training and employee development for one particular reason. Although both are similar in the methods used to affect learning, their time frames differ. Training is more present day oriented; its focus is on individuals' current jobs, enhancing those specific skills and abilities to immediately perform their jobs (2). For example, suppose one enters the job market during ones senior year of college, pursuing a job as a marketing representative. Although this person has a Business Administration degree with a concentration in marketing, when he or she is hired, training is in order.
Specifically, you " ll need to learn the company's product line, your territory, and other pertinent selling tactics. This, by definition, is job-specific training, or training that is designed to make you more effective in your present job. Employee development, on the other hand, focuses on future jobs in the organization (3). As your career progresses and you move up in your field, new skills and abilities are required.
For example, if you become a sales manager, the skills needed to perform that job are quite different than those required for marketing a product. Now you will be required to supervise marketing representatives; requiring very specific management competencies like communication skills, evaluating employee performance, and disciplining problem individuals. As you are "groomed" for positions of greater responsibility in the company, employee development efforts will help prepare you for that day. Irrespective of whether we are involved in employee training or employee development, the same outcome is required that is, these programs are designed to enhance learning, so that employees are more effective and efficient on the job.
Since learning is critical to both these efforts, let's take a look at what we mean by learning. Learning is the process of bringing about relatively permanent change through experience. More recently an approach has been offered that blends both of these theories: Learning is a continuous interaction between the individual and the particular social environment in which he or she functions. Called social-learning theory (4), it acknowledges that we can learn by observing what happens to other people and simply by being told about something, as well as by direct experiences. Since much of training is observational in nature, this theory appears to have considerable application potential.
The influence of models is central to the social-learning viewpoint. Research indicates that much of what we have learned comes from watching models parents, teachers, peers, motion picture and television performers, bosses, and so forth. Four processes have been found to determine the influence a model will have on an individual: 1) Attentional Processes. People only learn from a model when they recognize and pay attention to its critical features. We tend to be most influenced by models that are attractive, repeatedly available, that we think are important, or that we see as similar to us. 2) Retention Processes.
A model's influence will depend on how well the individual remembers the model's action, even after the model is no longer readily available. 3) Motor Reproduction Processes. After a person has seen a new behavior by observing the model, the watching must be converted to doing. This process then demonstrates that the individual can perform the modeled activities. 4) Reinforcement Processes. Individuals will be motivated to exhibit the modeled behavior if positive incentives or rewards are provided. Behaviors that are reinforced will be given more attention, learned better, and performed more often (we shall pay special attention to this issue when dealing with the Safeway case). Social-learning theory offers us insights into what a training exercise should include.
Specifically, it tells us training should provide a model; must grab the trainee's attention; provide motivational properties; help the trainee file away what he or she has learned for later use; and, if the training has taken place off the job, allow the trainee some opportunity to transfer what has been learned to the job. Reinforcement Increases the Likelihood That a Learned Behavior Will Be Repeated The principle of reinforcement tells us that behaviors that are positively reinforced (rewarded) are encouraged and sustained. When the behavior is punished, it is temporarily suppressed but is unlikely to be extinguished. Punishment tells learners they are doing something wrong. What is desired, however, is to convey feedback to the learners when they are doing what is right to encourage them to keep doing it.
Learning will be facilitated by providing feedback through positive reinforcement. For instance, if workers are verbally praised when they have properly performed a task, they are likely to continue doing the task this way and be motivated to strive toward performing better work.
Free research essays on topics related to: employee development, employee training, social learning theory, processes, skills and abilities
Research essay sample on Social Learning Theory Skills And Abilities
