Learning and Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Learning and Development - Essay Example At the same time, workplace learning is poorly understood and under-researched, but has moved to centre stage in discourses about the so-called 'knowledge-based economy' and in policies based on that concept. Along with employees, it is an important issue in contemporary business environment that organizations developed and learnt together with their human assets. It is by means that organizations need to adapt to their changing environments. Local line leaders in the organization and high level executives as well as internal networkers and community leaders are needed who can motivate and direct the organization and its members, to learn to adapt to the changes. Changes in the economic environment from local, to national, to global markets require new perspectives. Interspersed with these changes are the rapidly ever-changing developments in information technology with which the organization and its members have to become intimately involved for acquisition and processing of information from the internal and external environments. The organization has to learn how to adapt to changes in the diversity of its workforce and customers as well as to the changing demands for social responsibi lity. In terms of what have been said in above, I will further discuss how learning and development can contribute to improved performance within an organization and how it impacts indi... Organizations are changing by "dejobbing", that is, changing is the concept of the job as a separate full-time position with a specific bundle of tasks. The concept of the jobs is being replaced by the unbundling of the tasks of a traditional job. Instead of an organizational member having one permanent bundle of tasks to complete, the member will need to work alone or in teams on temporary tasks and in temporary teams. Changes will coincide with changes in organization needs. Some tasks may be outsourced; some may be shifted to within the organization (Keep, Rainbird, 2000). The learning organization is the one that is dissatisfied with the status quo. It proceeds by looking at ways to improve itself, setting up criteria for appraising the effects of changes, creating alternatives, adopting and implementing those that work out well and abandoning those that do not work out well. In this process, reliable and valid measures will be employed. Learning organizations have adaptable cultures as illustrated by the firms, Walmart, Pepsico, and Hewlett Packard. In the late 1980's, the firms saw leadership as an engine of change. They stressed the value of meeting their constituents' needs. Adaptable new systems were introduced. Adaptable managers were favored. The results showed in the early 1990's. In comparison, a firm like Texaco was seduced by its dominant position in the oil and gas market and its prior successful growth and profits. As Robert Blake would say, it was fat and happy, and lacked the adaptability to change. Likewise, Coors Beer lacked the adaptability of a learning organization and couldn't accept the value to its continued success of its relations with