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Module 4 second weekGroup 1 - Outi Aitio (SF), Adelina Garcia (E), Anne Mariën (B), Liesbet Wouters (B) Group 2 - Anke Engling (D), Noe Blanco (E), Inger Osterlund-Oller (SF), Cathy Camertijn (B) Group 3 - Esther Booltink (NL), Veerle Dupont (B), Tom Jansseune (B), Miia Lehtonen (SF) Group 4 - Karen Dereymaeker (B), Peter De Temmerman (B), Paula Kari (SF), Jutta Laukart (D) Group 5 - Carme Anguera Iglesias (E) , Kalle Mäkinen (SF), Karen Soeteman (NL), Kristel Janssen (B), Lilianne Hercules (NL) Group 6 - Imke Abma (NL), Enric Perez (E), Anne Berg (SF), Liselotte Courtens (B) Group 7 - Marita Pylvanainen (SF), (SF), Els Vancluysen (B), Katrijn Vanduffel (B) Group 8 - Pirjo Töllinen (SF), Emma Causa (E), Miet Vanhilderson (B), Karen Wouters (B) Group 9 - Anna Palva (SF), Bart Ketelslegers (B), Melissa Verkley (NL), Mira Van Olmen (B) MODULE 4B LABOUR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION OUTI AITIO 1. INTRODUCTION Nowadays there are a quick changes in the economical world. The organisational way of doing has changed more in the last fifteen years than during last centuries. The most important reason for that has been the "Boom" of new technology. As a result of this organisational culture have to change too. Also the economical borders between countries are becoming more open. Because of that only the companies who can adapt to these changes and predict them will survive. Training is probably the best way to achieve that goal and to be competitive.
2. THE TRAINING PROCESS IN SABENA CATERING In Sabena Catering there are one thousand people working in. In Training Division there is only one person who is really involved in training. This person communicates with every divisions manager but he is the one who is responsible of training. We can recognise different reasons to set up training. In Sabena Catering only employees are recruited who fulfil the required standards for the future function. Some of these standards are experiences out of future jobs, knowledge about foreign languages, the medical examination, because the physical health of the employees is very important. This means no people are hired if they need some extra training before they can start to work. Nevertheless almost all these functions are low qualified ones. Though if needs arise during their career, training is organised by the training division of the Catering. These needs are identified within the evaluation interviews. Such an interview takes place on a yearly basis or every time a temporary contract can be prolonged. At the start of their career people have a probation time of two weeks: within this period the worker or the manager can end the contract on any moment. Often three or four temporary contracts are given to the employees before they receive a contract for an undefined period of time. The reason for this is the high amount of coming and going of people connected with the increasing production at certain moments of the year. If an employee wants to promote, it’s his/hers own responsibility to take up some courses and fulfil the required standards. Another reason to start training is formed by a change in technology, but during the apprenticeship no such changes came up. So she doesn’t have any experiences with it. Because of unforeseen happenings, the planned structural changes didn’t go through. Though information sessions and training are planned.
3. PLANING OF TRAINING In the next paragraph at first we will make some links between the concepts of organisation culture, organisational strategic plan, training plan and cost effectiveness. We already explained a bit of the organisational culture within Sabena Catering in the previous paper. This concept is about the values, ideas, beliefs,… of the company. The main mission of the company is to develop towards a learning organisation, but though they already want to present them as one, they aren’t a learning organisation yet. A few reasons for this fact could be recognised in the size of the company (About a thousand people are working in the Catering department.), the elaborated hierarchical structure of the department, the mainly one-sided communication in important decisions, the high amount of low qualified functions, the frequent coming and going of people. The organisation culture and the aspect of organisational strategic plan determinate each other.
ORGANISATION’S STRATEGIC PLAN The strategic plan is formed by five goals symbolised by a hand: efficiency, costs and gains, communication, right on time delivery of products and quality. These aims aren’t common knowledge among the employees. Only at the first contact with the company these aims are rapidly mentioned. For a further explanation of these goals we refer to the previous paper. On the one hand the training plan is used as a tool to achieve these goals and on the other the organisation culture and the training plan are influencing each other. Is a training only about spending money or is it seen as a way to reach more success? The fourth concept that can be connected with the previous ones is the cost effectiveness. Almost every company has a final direction towards benefits. The organisation culture and the organisational strategic plan are tending to or should tend to this aspect of cost effectiveness, while the training plan is used as an important instrument to gain this profit. We hope we made it clear these concepts are really tightly linked.
TRAINING NEEDS AND TRAINING AIMS To know the training needs there is a yearly interview by questionnaire. Every manager in each division uses the questionnaire to interview the workers. Some training needs are coming up from the answers of the questionnaire. But is also possible that the workers by themselves say that there exist some problems in the workplace. It is the employee and each manager who define the training needs. The communication between the top and the bottom is mostly one sided but they try to be more two sided. The evaluation of the training needs is one example of that and also the decision of the training aims. If the manager and the employee don’t agree about the course he/she has to follow then they can ask for help from the Training Division who has the last word.
TRAINING PLAN The Training Division is the responsible one to design the training plan and it is done for one year. Therefore during the year many training courses can be included. In that way we can say that the system is quite flexible.
TRAINING ACTIVITIES AND EVALUATION Most training courses are very short, from one hour to two days. For instance when people are hired they show them a one hour video with all the information about the company. The courses are evaluated by every manager of each department. Also the employees have to fill in an evaluation questionnaire about the course. The questions are very general for example about how did they like the course, if it answered their needs, if it deals with their expectations, if they liked the way of doing of the trainers,… There is also a yearly evaluation of the training process done by the Training Division. .If there still existing problems then the post-evaluation is needed but in an informal way. (Our paper is not finished yet we will continue it).
Group 2: Anke Engling, Noe Blanco, Cathy Camertijn, Inger Österlund-Öller MODULE 5 : LABOUR ORGANISATION AND MANAGEMENT 1.Introduction In this module we have seen that the humanistic approach can also have an economical benefit in the company. But in an indirectly way. By organising networks and by giving responsibilities to the employees we look at the employees as a resource for the company, not a cost. This is called empowerment. To create such an atmosphere we need more education on the different levels that exist in the company. The main problems that occur in this field are those of communication, different values,... In what follows we will go deeper into the strategies of how to organise training in a context of change.
2.Links with our organisation analyse The organisation we analysed was a non-profit organisation. This means that the outcomes, contrary to a for-profit organisation, are not competitive and economical growth but more the quality of the human services. We can see this accent in this organisation also because they were more goal-orientated and supportive and they scored less on the scale of the rules (cf. scheme). In this organisation we can see that they have lots of training (Noe which policy do you have ?) This training is needed because than the monitors feel confident in themselves and the others-------improve the teamwork--------- better exchange of knowledge and communication----------new methods are used---------children will feel the positive atmosphere---------will keep on coming------good image attracts people------networks-------overview of what is going on in the environment
3.Training as a tool for change In companies training is often used as a tool in making change. This can refer to a change in technologies, a change in the job for promotion and a general change in the company. This change can occur before or after the training. So the change can be the cause or the goal! It is better to act in a proactive way. For example use this way of working to introduce the Euro (cf. slide Pilar p. 6 Organisation, change and training; but you have to look at it the other way around) Besides many positive outcomes or effects of the use of training (cf. point 4.) we also see a danger in using training. Namely training can be used as a way to impoverish some employees. They are forced to do the change because if they don't follow the training there is a threat to be fired. We asked ourselves if in this case what will be the result of such a training because we have seen earlier that a first step in the learning process is the presence of a starting motivation. An example : In Germany we see that training is used in a way to dequalify people and this a specially on the low level. If you have a job, you get training to become very specific in what you are doing. But if you lose your job you will have almost no qualifications because what you can do is so narrow. Another thing that is going on in Germany is that they retrain unemployed people for a lower qualified job for example an engineer gets a training to become a secretary. They don't take into account your previous skills and knowledge. We see the same trends in Finland, Spain and Belgium. Because there is a recruitment of people with high diplomas and the work experiences are not taking into account. If you don't have a diploma, you are advised to follow some continuous training were we as trainers want to give them a global view. Most of the time the unemployed people do not see these trainings in a positive way and here we come back to the element of the basis motivation to learn. We will now go more in detail concerning the training in companies.
4.Identify the strategies in changing the culture in a company in humanistic way As consultants from the training department we are asked to solve the problems in the company. Problems that can be solved with training. For doing that we have to follow some steps : 1. analyse the training needs 2. what are the aims 3. combine those in a training plan 4.design/motivate people 5.training plan implementation 6.results In all of these steps we do an evaluation. After post-evaluation we transfer the results to the organisation strategic plan.
More in detail : 1. We have to analyse the training needs of the company in one way. For this we can look to the problems in the company. But we also have to analyse the training needs of the individuals on the other side. We can do this by questionnaires and interviews by focussing on quality, skills, coordination, communication and motivation. 2. Clarifying the aim’s of the company as well as the individuals. We can find the aims of the company in their strategic plan. They will refer in general to the economical part (profit, effectiveness, quality improvement and to be up to date in a way they can compete with other companies) Some general aims that the individuals can be : personal growth, motivation, improving skills, security, health and a good climate. We can find their exact aims out of the needs analyse. 3. In this step we are confronted with our main problem namely how to combine the needs and aims taking into account both parties. We can use some contact strategies for this : -show respect for them and build up relation based on confidence because them they (the managers) will listen to what we have to say -using the same expressions (language) as the top level of the company. This means we have to learn the economical language, because we want to let the managers see that training leads to benefits on both sides. As a consultant we should act in an intelligent way (cf. scheme about altruism and egocentricism, Italy) Our goal is to leave the situation of impoverishment, steeling the capacities of the individuals for to achieve your own goals of power. On the contrary, the goals for the consultants are to make the change in the organisation in an intelligent way and serving the whole society. -motivating the managers in realising the benefits for the company in economical factors: maximising the profit, by using effectiveness in time and quality of the skills and products and being up to date. To be competitive in time of change you have to learn very quickly. So the company needs continuous training Comment : As an outsider consultant we can criticise more the system because we are asked to do (only) this project. As we saw in the field visit in SANOFI the trainer was working inside the company and therefore without much influence. As an outsider you have a more objective view. So the real work is done outside the company! After this first contact phase we can start working on the shared values. This is the "Humanistic way of working". We are now working with the human resource department. HOW : 1) we start with looking at the strategic plan of the organisation 2) organisation analyse : -management systems, communication-, information systems etc.... 3) what is the main approach in the company and their culture on the base of organisation analysis for example adhocracy, entrepreneurial, professional, diversified, machine, ideological or political. And we can aspect that our advises will be heard more if we are dealing with an organisation with an open-minded culture. 4) the change we can do is not a drastic one but we only can start a process of change. We refer here to the expression of the snowball effect. 5) Our training program can only modify the organisation culture but not directly the organisation's strategic plan because in a way our training program is determined by these strategies. 4. Designing the training and motivating the people should be done here in a parallel way. By motivate in this early phase we can reduce the shock effect of the change. Employees become aware and realise the aims of the company which are now relate of the context of the society. Some strategies to motivate : - build up also with them a relationship based on confidence and respect - encourage and appreciate the employees for example by saying 'Thank You' - put up feedback systems -the motivation theory of Hertzberg : a two factor theory . On one hand to motivate people by giving them more salaries, career prospective and on the other hand personal growth, development, self-confidence, communication skills,... -give information about what is going on and what is going to happen but in case of a fusion it is a delicate question Condition : as a consultant we should make sure that the change we introduce doesn't create chaos but introduce a period of stability. 5.Evaluation During this process of planning we should evaluate constantly. Their is an initial, a process, a final and a post evaluation. In this last evaluation we should check if there is a transfer from the training into the workplace. We should ask ourselves "In what range are the aims of the company and the individuals reached ?" 6.transnational mentality As a consultant we concentrate mostly on the combination of the company element and the individual but we can not forget that there is also a third pillar namely the sociological one. Everything we do has an effect on our environment. We should also try to work on this pilar and this by creating a transnational mentality. Transnational mentality means that when a conflict emerge, like in globalisation, it is evident in the future to focus on the needs. By recognising the needs of the local market, also politically and they are moving in the same or similar direction namely the pressure to develop global-scale competitive efficiency. For the company it means, or should be aware of that fact, that their needs are in the same direction as the needs for the society en the local environment. For the individuals it means that their needs are in the same direction as the company !
"You think globally but you act locally !" 7.Conclusions The purpose for the paper of this week was to build up some strategies of entering the company, as a consultant, and make change in directions of human aspects. The evaluation part is important for knowing if the goals have been achieved. The methods to evaluate could be considered more deeply and together with the feed-back systems transferred to the strategic plan of the company. Also there is a need of categorising the values in for instance stages of ages (Ericsson) and in the development of the morality (Kohlberg). Cultural change in a company has to be understood by the managers of the company because they are the engineers. Also there is a need for the trainer to be constantly awake in what is happening. The trainer has to be like a sailor in the dark. You cannot see exactly were you are going but the main vision and direction is clear. You just have to follow the different steps by going from fire tower to fire tower in the direction of the main goal and vision. We refer to: Bartlett, C& Ghoshal,S.1995.Transnational management: Texts, cases and readings in cross-border management. Irwin. Intercultural group : 3 Esther Booltink (N) PART II PRO-ACTIVE ANSWER PREFACE Never before in human history have so many business and social organisations had to cope with so many fundamental changes. Not only internal pressures of for instance new technologies and the changing structures or attitudes threaten the survival of organisations, also external pressures in the economic and political environment has to be mentioned here (Bouwen, 1991, p.37). For example in Holland, the decision for increasing scale is one of the main cause for fundamental changes in social organisations at the moment. Confronted with new laws for expansion, mergers between little organisations become obligated. It is in this context that our case considering a merger of two organisations for foster-care, can be situated. The decision was taken in March 1997. The merger became a fact in September 1997. As described in the previous part, the merger causes lots of negative reactions among the people in the 'new' organisation for foster-care. The first part of this paper was an application we made starting from the following presupposition: confronted with stress and tension on the workplace, 10 months after the merge (June 1998) an appeal was made to the guidance of a consultant to optimise the change-process focusing the strengths and problems of the organisation. Starting form an analysis of both organisations involved in the merge and the process of change after the merge, we tried to work out a way to improve the existing situation by following a sequence for initiating and managing change developed by Kolb and Frohman (1970). We want to call this educational intervention as a way of generating change (after the implementation) a reactive answer to the organisational change caused by internal pressure. In this second part we want to go back in the past (before the implementation), trying to deal with the decision to merge both organisations in a pro-active way. We start from the following assumption: to prepare the involved organisations to the future change, a consultant is recruited six months before the implementation of the merge. Both thinking processes we made in this paper (part I & part II) started from a real existing case. In the first application, we worked further on the present situation (June 1998). In the second application we imagine that the merge wasn't implemented yet. Although the organisations themselves didn't follow the pro-active way in reality, in this second part we wanted to do the whole process over again like a kind of a thinking experiment. The following scheme tries to clarify the difference between both answers on the implementation of change, including the time-factor:
1. Training as a proactive answer Where the development of the organisation was the main focus of the consultant in the guidance of the change-process after the merge, the introduction of a merge, in our opinion, demands a focus on the individual level. Because of the big consequences of the decision for merging for the individual worker (he/she will work in a new environment, with new people, maybe on a different task, in a other role, structure and culture,...) new knowledge, skills and attitudes are needed. Individual acceptation of the change is a first important step in the change-process to prevent negative reactions afterwards and to strengthen the motivation of the individual worker. Moreover, the focus on the individual permits the acknowledging of individual fears, questions and needs. The choice we made for OD- activities (organisational development) in the first part (reactive answer) was based on the knowledge that organisation development focus on the organisation first -and on the interrelationships of people and units within the organisation, on structures and communications- not on the individual. The focus on the whole organisation in a reactive answer can be justified by our analysis of the situation after the merge. Of course individual and organisational development are close knit together: people develop because an organisation develops and the organisation develops because people grow to new dimensions (... Why have a training and development department?, 19..., p.12). In this part we want to explore the opportunities of in company-training for a successful introduction of a big organisational change with consequences on the organisational, but also on the individual level. Confronted with a future structural (and cultural) change on the organisational level, training can be an important tool to develop all employees for the new era. Of course training would not be the only answer. For a good result a support of non-educational (structural and strategic) decisions and actions is needed.
2. Planning training Choosing for training as a tool to introduce change demands a careful process of successive actions (Pilar Pineda). The first step in planning training is studying the strategic plan (1) of the organisation. Well-informed of the strategic plans and possibilities of participation in this plans, a need-assessment (2) and formulating of the training aims (3) becomes important. Both activities result in a training plan (4), the starting point of the real design (5) of the training activities. After the implementation (6), the results (7) has to be evaluated. Besides a previous initial and process evaluation, a post-evaluation linked to the strategic plan may not be forgotten.
2. 1 Organisation's strategic plan Confronted with the demand of preparing the employees to a planned merge, the first task of a consultant is the study of the organisation's strategic plan. This plan will tell us that in the near future (September 1997) a merge between two organisations for foster-care due to external political pressure from above, is planned. The structure of the new organisation would be the structure of the MLO. The people of the SO would be divided over the three existing teams (supra). Facing the strategic plan a first important question has to be taken into account: Is there a possibility as a consultant, to influence this plan? Is there a way to criticise this plan? Do we have to accept it as a given fact or is there some openness to modification? Note that an internal consultant would probably have a stronger voice in the strategic plan than an external one. If the strategic plan is fixed and closed to any questioning or new input, the consultant has the task to search for clear acceptable reasons for the decisions described in the plan. The employees have the right to be well- informed. A strategic plan with openness to modifications is of course desirable. Such a plan which can adapt to new needs, questions or problems that arises from the basis will optimise the process of change. The task of the consultant in this case is to look for channels that provide participation of the employees in the strategic plan. If you 're faced with a lack of freedom, as the first situation describes, you only can try to 'do the thing right'; the second situation permits you to 'do the right things' .
2.2 Training needs The entrance tot the strategic plan of the merge permits a clear view of the demands towards the employees. Attitudes of acceptance of the merge and the other organisation, flexibility, being able to work in new teams, in a new structure,... are examples of demands referring to the organisational change. Besides a organisational analysis, a person-, task- and KSA (knowledge, skills, attitudes)-analysis on the side of the members of both organisations will provide an overview of their own individual and group-demands. Questions as 'which kind of training did they already had in the past?', 'which skills, knowledge and attitudes they already have?',.... has to be posed. In this context, training can be seen as a way to over-bridge the gap between the requirements of the merge explicated to the workers and the needs and prerequisites of the workers themselves. Interviews with the people involved in the change, research about previous training and education of the workers, questionnaires which would give information about skills, knowledge and attitudes are examples of instruments useful to provide relevant information. Suppose that, after processing and classifying data, those instruments would bring up the following information:
Note that this need-analysis is done by research. A continuing check-up during the change-process is needed. 2.3 Training aims The process of need-analysis result in a clear formulation of the training aims. In formulating the training-goals it is important to have its double function in mind: on the one hand they give the direction, the focus of the training through the training-process; on the other hand, they are a guidance during the final evaluation. Closely linked to the previous formulated needs, several training aims can be written down: INFORMATION
COMMUNICATION
TEAMBUILDING
- give people the possibility to better know each other - give room for reflection on their previous way of working - stimulate appreciation of diversity - making them aware of the richness of working together with two organisations - ...
2.4 Training plan The previous phases result in a training plan: a document where the learning-needs and aims are carefully written down. The more concrete the objectives are described, the more they contribute to the evaluation afterwards. Know that the training plan is a guide through the implementation of the training but openness to revise this plan based on new information is recommended. 2.5 Training activities After careful research about the strategic plan of the organisation, the training needs and aims resulting in a training plan, the training-program has to be designed. Here the main work is done by a designer in close relationship with the consultant and an instructor. A clear diagnosis of the target-group, concrete training-objectives and evaluation criteria, a well-considered selection or development of content and methods using different and relevant resources are the most important topics to work on in this phase of designing. Because a detailed design of a concrete training-program would lead us to far in this paper, we only wanted to mention a few suggestions:
Notes: We want to stress the importance of 'daily-work'-training: the pro-active training must be closely linked with the daily work of the people involved. Working and learning can not be separated. First of all their work must go on. Asking to spend a part of their time on training for change can causes negative feelings towards this change. The training must create for both sides a win-win situation. During the training, they have to see and experience the positive aspect of the merge, namely that both organisations can complete each other and create together one strong organisation with room for everybody's talents. Secondly, the training sessions where the employees work together on a professional task closely linked to their daily work, gives, beside the professional product at the end, the possibility to learn from each other. Besides the product, especially the process of the suggested projects is something very important. Feedback and reflection provided by the guidance of the trainer are indispensable tools to real learning. 2.6 Plan implementation During the implementation of the training-program continuing evaluation of the process gives the possibility to adjust the objectives, methods or content of the program if needed. A permanent reflection on the training plan in dialogue with the training-practice permits a closer knit of training and needs of the involved employees. New needs can appear, presupposed needs can disappear: a check-up of the diagnosis on which the training is bases, is possible when interacting with the target-group. Thereby, new information from the basis can be communicated to the top which open up possibilities of non-education solutions like a revising of the strategic plan. 2.7 Results Change is a learning-process which involves the whole organisation. The carefully described objectives in the training-plan permit a final evaluation of the process but we are aware that many learning-outcomes are complex and difficult to evaluate. Note that the people themselves, employees and staff, may not be forgotten as partners in the evaluation. Reflecting on their previous formulated personal objectives, a real evaluation is possible. Evaluation is a reflective dialogue.
FINAL REFLECTION The thinking experiment of this second part gave us the possibility to explore the (educational) decisions and steps that are important towards a constructive implementation of a big organisational change. The involvement of every member, no matter what level or role in the organisation they play, in a two-side open dialogue seems to be the basis for successful change. The concept of change-agent can be used here to describe the role of the employees. Considering training as a tool to implement change, the close knit of learning and working has to be the basic assumption in planning concrete training activities. Finally, we want to stress the importance of the time-factor in planning an implementation of organisational change: learning is a process, determined by time and context. A good use of time and a constructive and positive environment are extremely important. Experiencing the whole planning process strengthen our statement that, like many other social phenomena, it is better to foresee and avoid the problems on the forehand, than waiting and try to solve the negative consequences of the problems afterwards. CONCLUSION Changes in organisations are learning processes. The role of the adult educator. In organisational change, two-sided open communication from the beginning of the change process is of vital importance. - Multicvoiceness BIBLIOGRAPHY BOUWEN, R. (1995). BOUWEN, R. (1998). BOUWEN, R. & FRY, R. (1991). Organisational Innovation and Learning. International Studies of Mgt. & Org., 21(4), pp. 37-51. POELL, R., TIJMENSEN, L., & KROGT, F. van der. (1997). Can learning projects help to develop a learning organisation? Lline, 2, p. SMYLIE, M. A. (1995). Teacher Learning in the workplace. Implications for School Reform. In: T.R. Guskey & M. Huberman (Eds.). Professional Development in education. New Paradigms, p. 92-113. New York/ London. Labour, management and organisation: New trends on in-company training 6-10 April 1999 Karen Dereymaeker - Peter De Temmerman - Paula Kari - Jutta Laukart Structure This paper will be a reflection on the trend towards learning organisation. In the first paragraph we will situate the concept of the learning organisation in a broader perspective. What kind of organisation exactly a learning organisation is, will be explained in the second paragraph. In the next paragraph, we make some remarks about this trend. In the last paragraph, we will try to see how adult education can contribute in a more humanistic way to training and development.
1. Postmodern influences in companies What post-modern age has set in, can also be felt within companies. The fast flow of information and the development of new products makes it necessary for organisations to go along with this tendency. New consuming markets are discovered, competition has reached a high rate and quality-demands are increasing. If organisations want to survive, they should adapt their organisational structure and culture. They will have to follow the market forces. One popular concept in this context is ‘the learning organisation’. This concept shows that employees and organisations as a whole have to learn continuously in order to react fast on the developments on the market.
2. The learning organisation and its characteristics A learning organisation is an organisation that follows a conscious policy to enlarge its learning capabilities on all levels (individual and organisational) and this on continu-basis. Its goal is optimise effectiveness itself through its competence of adapting quickly to fast changing circumstances in society (Bomers, 1991p.3). Learning processes of the staff are facilitated permanently and the outcomes of those learning processes can be used to improve or innovate their products or services. A learning organisation needs ‘learning employees’. Therefore, the learning organisation develops a working place where individual and collective learning is motivated. The final purpose is the transposition of the learning experiences of individuals and teams to learning-experiences of the company as a whole. Learning is a keyword in those organisations. We can make a division between single-loop-learning and double-loop-learning. Single-loop-learning means that things can be improved. You learn to do your job in a better way. Double-loop-learning is another kind of learning, it is more innovating. You learn new things. In learning organisations, both kinds of learning are used. Single-loop-learning means ‘to do the things in the right way’ (quality and efficiency, improvement learning) and double-loop-learning means ‘to do the right things’(effectiveness, innovating learning). A learning organisation has typical characteristics: the communication in a learning organisation is characterized by a good functioning feedback-system, open communication and two-sided dialogue. According to the learning culture, there is a large readiness to unlearn things, a large tolerance for mistakes, an experimental attitude, openness and dialogue and time for reflection. The organisational structure of a company is also different in a learning organisation. Employees work autonomous in multidimensional teams. The form of organisation is mostly flat.
In a learning organisation, the development of training has also a different position. The training department has to support the organisation in the learning process by creating learning conditions, by motivating workers to learn, by creating flexible multifunctional workers and by accompanying changes. The workplace is the most important learning place. Learning and working are integrated. The learning process is a shared responsibility of management, the employees and the training department. When we look to the following scheme of Baert, we see that in a learning organisation, there is interaction between different kinds of policies in the company. Depending of that kind of organisation, the training department will be participating in the strategic planning of the organisation. Another important concept in this context can be ‘learning networks’. Learning networks are organised taylor-made. Those networks are fitting the needs of the individual and the organisation. The tendency toward learning networks is developed trough four lines:
The whole concept of the ‘learning organisation’ is an ideal. The learning organisation is no reality in most companies. It is just a direction towards companies are evolving. Most organisation are changing towards this concept. Many organisations abuse also this word. If they spent a large part of their time and money to learning they call themselves already a learning organisation. For being a learning organisation, your whole organisational structure and culture has to change.
3. Trend towards learning organisation: a progress for everyone? In the trend towards a learning organisation, people have to be trained permanent. The organisational structure and culture changes and the employees have to adapt to new situations. In general, we think if an organisation wants to be successful, it has to deal with several tensions. The main tension is the balance between individual goals and organisational goals. The individual workers have also (subjective) needs while the organisation has more economical needs. It is a challenge to deal with this tension. We can say training is good if it fits both the needs of the individual and the organisation. We agree that every person wants to learn and wants to be challenged by his job. We also think that we can’t ignore the fast flow of information and new products. If your company wants to be competitive, you have to go along with the market forces. And also the workers have to be prepared to learn a lot and to be flexible. So we agree that the increasing amount of information is a progress and that we should accept the challenges. But beside the positive sides of the learning organisations, we want to mention also the more negative aspects. We will in this analysis take into account different forms of training, we will not be focussed on the in-company-training only. In the first place, is this tendency towards a lifelong learning creating an opposition among the workers. The qualification demands are increasing and all-round functions are becoming more important. In those all-round functions, the demands towards employees are higher and are overall key-qualifications. Those key-qualifications are essential. Changes in companies lead to processes pushing aside some people. Because of the changes in companies, the work is getting more complex. Only the high qualified people can do these jobs. On the other side, there are too many high qualified people on the labour-market. So companies have the possibility to hire those high qualified people to do lower qualified jobs. The lower qualified people are pushed aside in this process. Key-qualifications are for instance independence, responsibility, quality-awareness, social abilities et cetera. Those qualifications make people able to react quickly and efficient on a) changes in their jobs by means of a broader knowledge and interdisciplinary work, b) changes on the labour-market and c) transfers within the job (Van Zolingen, 1995, p. 226). But the negative aspect can be the distinction between core-employees and employees who are more at the border. The core-workers are high qualified people with a full-time job and well paid. The migrants, women, low-qualified people have to go into more marginal regions of the labour-market (Van Zolingen, 1995, p. 235). So training make the gap between higher and lower qualified people larger. The high qualified people become more qualified while the lower qualified workers fall out of the boat. According to Richard Zennet (Zennet, 1998), we see high qualified employees having a high density of work. The result can be that hey are burnt out and overworked at the age of 40-50 while the low qualified people do not find a profession. For the last category, training is provided to enter low jobs with low salaries. But here we face another problem. Training for low qualified jobs is not always good. They are often trained for very specific jobs and do not know the whole technological process. For instance, people who work in a company to make bread. Sometimes people just know their machines and do not know how to make bread. This is resulting in many failures. So people do not stay a long time in the company and have to find new jobs. Another possible problem experienced in East-Germany is ‘de-qualification’ through training. After the second world-war, high qualified women got training to become a nurse or secretary. Also elderly people like training life long. Training gives pressure. People have to achieve a life long. People have to participate in the training program. A needs-analysis is really necessary. Often, there is no involvement of the people and is a top-down approach chosen. In general , we can conclude that too much the focus is on the organisational point of view. The balance between organisation and individual needs is not equal.
In general, we suggest that organisations should pay more attention to the individual needs and their point of view. We can see some solutions on different levels. On the organisational level, we suggest that needs-analysis of the staff/workers is necessary. Every organisation should know the exact needs, goals and actual level of perforamnce of every worker. When trainingdepartment is well informed about those things, the training program can be adapted. The right training to the right people is possible. Training should only be done if it is really necessary. AFMAKEN MET TEKST VAN LIFELONGLEARNING On the societal level, we think a kind of revolution is needed In the first place, we think that the level of general education should be raised. Nowadays we see a lot of people who need training that also could be organised in the (obliged) formal educational systems. Also key-qualifications can be taught. But therefore the educational systems have to be changed. Another solution should be the creation of new jobs. The process of pushing aside low-qualified people should disappear. More people can do the job they like and would be motivated to do training. Also the appreciation of voluntary work would solve the problem partly. Nowadays, we see a lot of people that just work because they have to. They don’t like training. They would like to do other more social things to earn money, but for the moment that kind of work is not paid. But the question remains if adult educators are able to change this problem. The only thing we can do is make people of organisations more aware of their duty in the humanistic sense. They should stay critical and try to change the system. Group 5 Carme Anguera Iglesias (Spain) Introduction In almost each company there will be given a form of training. But what does the training word itself refers to? There are different forms of training e.g. when a person enters a company for the first time he has to learn a lot of things about the culture, the terminology, the behaviour of the company and of course his/her new job, but how do we call it? Is it initial training, on the job training or learning by doing? Do we call all this forms of learning as training? There are also training given to keep people up to date, to improve the situation of the company and also to learn them new things when there are changes going on. As we know there is always changes in a company (you can never step twice in the same river) in different levels. But the bigger changes as merger, new structures or aims of the company are more interesting for trainers. What is the role of the trainer beside the four main roles, namely the trainer as an administrator, a consultant, a designer or an instructor? The in-company training is by no means unproblematic and the role and the real impact of the consultant can have different forms. We‘ll analyse the tasks of the trainers with the use of the case that we worked on in class called El Punto Rojo, S.A. Our case shows that pitfalls and challenges of training plans and what kind of opportunities training can give. Policy and ideology of our training plan. Our aim is partly to introduce the more humanistic approach to the company. The main objective is to combine the personal satisfaction with the professional improvement (referring to the third object of Pilar Pineda). One of the most important thing is the motivation for the employees; the employees must be motivated to take actively part to training and learn from it. The motivation should be deep enough to guarantee the transfer, meaning that the training really effects the practice in work that it changes the work practices. The workers in El Punto Rojo must have a strong motivation to be able to accept a big change like the cultural change here where it is a question of change in the way of working. In this big change lies many risks for the individual’s wellbeing and for the company’s competence. Therefore more humanistic view in the organisation should be brought in to practice . With this "more humanistic" approach we see the individual not only as a consumer of goods in the market economy as in homo economicus human viewpoint. Individual is not a passive subject within the market forces but a active decision maker with personal needs, needs which cannot be assessed only with quantitative measures but within qualitative scale, meaning the variety of emotions and feelings of the subject. The work is just one need among many other and just one part of individual’s daily life. It is obvious that these values that has before been more or less implicit will have some contradictory consequences in the company in several levels. While working with the training plan it must be situated to the centerpoint of three different elements: 1. relation to organisation’s culture, 2. relation to organisation’s strategic plan 3. the cost-effectiveness of the plan These connections between several components should be therefore taken into account. Introducing these more holistic values into the homo economicus way of seeing the individual may be opposite what the organisation’s strategic plan says about the holistic empowerment of the individual and his/her subject. This creates one problem in implementing the ideas of the consultants; How can we make the managers to realise the more long-term objective what we have about the company and the individual? In more general level this question is also one of the most important, the problematic of making the people realise what is best for them and for the company at the same time. Again it is the question of the relationship between the needs and objectives of the individual and the collective. When we look at the scheme of organisation conception and policy (scheme 4 presented by Pilar Pineda) we can situate our objectives into the direction of competence development. The situation of El Punto Rojo is in the verge of turning into something new, there is a question of change towards something qualitative different since the Japanese growing ownership. Because of this the strategy of the company and the policy of the in-company training is been inside the company more from the adaptation to job-point of view, where the training is seen merely as an expense and adaptation to the changing environment. We as a " revolutionary " humanistic consultants see our training plan more from investment and development point of view, where the centerpoint is in competence development, though not excluding the individual’s needs within the company’s framework. Our training plan in El Punto Rojo will have several other problems keeping in mind the deep values, customs and implicit practices in the current organisation culture; therefore it is not a question of mere training but deeper and wider perspective to change the value structure in the organisation’s strategic plan. Although this is not achieved just with in-company training which is more short term practice but what is essential is to make the managers, and those people who really construct the practices and reality in the organisation, realise and understand our more humanistic approach. Other elements which must be taken into account is the relationship of the training plan with the cost-effectiveness element. It is essential and important that our training fits into the cost-effective strategy of the company. After all, the economic reality is the guiding principle of the real practice of our training plan, therefore it must be presented so that the managers inside the company realise the long-term savings where our more humanistic approach aims; after all it is the individual’s wellbeing within the market forces which is the objective of our training plan, in long term implementation of our ideas and practices. When it comes to the assessment of the employees we see the competence of the employees not just as figures and numbers; the competence is more than the effectiveness within a specific motivation, which is obviously the salary in many cases. The more subject appreciating approach of our training sees the competence of the individuals also from the emotional side; the more happy and content the subject is the more efficient and productive he/she is in labour. Therefore the assessment of the competence is to be seen also from the investment point of view. The case In this company there is a change going on, because the company will be absorbed by another culture, the Japanese culture. Some are happy with this event, others are stressed. The company decides to hire an external consultant / trainer to train the people involved in the company how to deal with the change in organisation culture and work habits. The initial proposition that the company gave us was done by reaction to the change. The change was already started when the company decided to introduce a training plan to accept the change, and also to change the attituds of the workers because they were having negative reactions, low motivation and there was a climate of threat into the company because they saw the new situation like a risk for their own position in the company. From our point of view all these reactions could be diminished if the training would be done before the change in the proactive way, because then the workers wouldn’t be in the uncomfortable situation of not knowing what is coming in. So, the training should be introduced step by step, to give information enough to the workers and also to make them aware of the situation and give them the time that they needed to accept the change. Guidelines for training plan. We refer to the scheme we used in module 4a, just replace the word intervention by training, but we see the development of the training plan in four big steps: The first step we will make is the needs analysis linked with that defining the goals. We have to take into account the three groups involved: the people already in the company (the employers), the newcomers and the company as a whole (the benefits of the company, the economical side). The possible training needs are as following: co-operative work, responsibility, solidarity, information, communication and so on. Training aims: there are different aims seen from the humanistic point of view and the economic point of view, in our aims these two aspects are integrated: - improvement of the internal communication - improvement of the quality of work - development of specific management tools - development of a module to bring together the two cultures. These company aims were given in the case. We will add some more: - provide skills, knowledge and change attitudes. - doing things to increase the personal satisfactory by professional improvement. The second step is setting up the training program with the training activities. The third step is doing the training. The fourth step is the evaluation, which should be continuous, checking the training plan’s effectiveness. Also the process of feedback from the workers, managers and trainers should be organised to get the information needed for the evaluation process . Conclusions. In this case we can see the importance of the position of the training department or consultant in the company. It is situated somewhere in between the organisation and the individual. In this position the training department or the consultants can (must?) play very difficult but important role of a mediator or a "service hatch" to pass on or to exchange information in both ways and to balance between both interest groups. Because the whole company will only profit of training if there is good balance between the mission, objectives and strategies of the organisation and the individual goals, needs and competencies of the employees. To bring in more humanistic approach into the company can help to work on this balance but only if takes into account the economic ideology of the market and the company itself. Labour Management and Organization New Trends on In-Company Training Prof. Dr. Pilar PinedaGROUP 7: Pylvanainen, M., Ruohisto, J., Vancluysen, E., Vanduffel, K. Humanistic ideologies of education in the pressure of economics Conflict between trainer and the values of a company Introduction The aim of this module was to have a review to the field of In-Company Training in order to analyze its implications and think how training can be a part of the strategic development of a company. We also visited the Sanofi, which is one of the biggest companies in medical industries in the world. The approach of this paper is to review the subject trough an educator who has humanistic way of seeing training and how does humanistic ideology meet the values of a company.
Definition of In-Company training In the beginning of the module we had a rich discussion between two definitions of In-Company Training; "Training is the systematic process through which an individual is helped to master defined tasks or areas of skill and konwledge to pre-determinated standards." (Harrison, 1989:6) "In-Company training can be defined as the process focused on eliminating the differences between the competences one employee can offer and the competences required for his job." (Edwards, 1983:103)
Adult Education as a Strategic Instrument of Company Development In the past educational system had more power to address the ideology of education that teachers thought is the best one. Education in itself included an ideology of learning and training. Teachers raised children trough one way without being so much aware of what was the direction or where it was leading. Nowadays educational institution does not control the direction or the aims of training so much. Especially adult education is becoming more instrumental. In our time companies, societies, communities and even individuals can fairly free choose their own ideology and their own values. It is not a trainer’s task to decide what is right and what is good training. Educational knowledge is used more as tool to support any kind of development. This can also be seen as consequence of individualization process. In the field of education this means for example that there is more room to found new schools with new education ideologies. Educators as individuals have also their own ideologies that can be very different than the company that is looking for training. Can educator work for the company as an instrument? If a trainer has a strong humanistic ideology, is it possible to work in a company that is very competition-orientated with a goal to gain profit? Maybe yes, if the company allows different voices to be heard, but what if the aim of training is only to support the values and goals that management has created, and not to question the goals of the company? We found four reasonable ways the trainer to react in situation.
Refusal Educator can choose not to go to work in the company and try to find another job. Of course, the ideal situation is when educator can choose the company that shares the same ideology or if the companies' goals are such that the educator wants to support the development of the company.
Influence Educator can try to influence on the ideology of the company in many ways. One way is open dialogue. Educator can create in sensitive and open way critical discussion with the management and the workers about the values of the company. Educator can also try to influence in hidden way, for instance, in the plan of the training. Of course these ways are very dangerous, both for the company and for the trainer. For the trainer there is serious threat to be fired. For the company critical awareness and discussion can lead to chaos. But even if the trainer is good at motivating the management to change their attitudes and values, there it leads to very problematic situation. The educator has no right to influence on company's ideology in manipulative way, if the trainer is supposed to respect the values of the company. Anyway one can’t say if the trainer’s point of view is any better than the company's point of view.
Enterprise with new ideology If educator can't find a proper company to work with, and if the educator has strong innovative ideas about how training should be organized, he can found a new school or set up an educational institute with own ideology. One can even try to inspire to change the course of education, like for instance Maria Montessori, who had a great impact on education by discovering that education is not something, which the teacher does, but that a natural process, which develops spontaneously in the human being. (http://www.montessori.org/mariawho.htm:) Nowadays there exists lot's of non-profit schools for students with learning disabilities. You can find training centers providing programs for children and young adults with at-risk conditions. (http://dir.yahoo.com/Education/Special_Education/ Schools/K_12 ). But these kind of institutions are not so common in the field of adult education. Maybe there could be some room for such organization, like for instance, organizations that offers vocational training for disadvantaged workers. The idea of Science of Education In postmodern society Adult Education has to be seen as an instrument to support any kind of development. The science of adult education can not choose one ideology, nor can it start supporting one political direction. Still, one can say that there has to be some kind of ideology included in the science of adult education. Today's societies are conducted by engineers and economic. There is strong argument to say that also adult education should take part of the political and ideological decision making in the society. One could say that it is responsibility of adult education to take part in political and ideological discussion about the direction of our society.
Module 4b: Labour, management and organisation: "New trends on in-company training" Group 8 - Pirjo Töllinen (SF), Emma Causa (E), Miet Vanhilderson (B), Karen Wouters (B) Introduction Starting from the experiences in our intercultural group, we can say that nowadays the economic system is the dominant force in our society which influences the other systems like politics, education, culture, … Within this economic system the competition between the different actors defines the rules of the game. As well the profit as the non-profit organisations are finally oriented on the effectiveness of the products (cost) and services (of quality). Later on we will question the predominance of the economic system and look at the relation with a more humanistic perspective. Within the context of a competitive European workforce, in-company training plays an important role to reach a high level of effectiveness in the companies. In our countries (Belgium, Finland and Spain) companies are more and more investing in the training of their staff, in order to reach their main purpose of effectiveness. We will describe the importance of training in companies by using a case study about the training department in a supermarket in Spain.
Case study We chose to make a case study of "X", a supermarket in Barcelona. One of the students in our intercultural group did already research of this company for her studies. Starting from this case, we will discuss training within organisations, treating the human and economical perspective as equally important. Therefore we will reflect on this case by asking two questions: "How is training conceived within this company?" and "Which suggestions can we formulate from a more human perspective?". The first part concerns a reflection on ‘what is’, while in the second part we give some suggestions for the future.
During our exercise we were confronted with the problem that the company did not give sufficient information. As a private organisation, one didn’t want to make the strategies public to protect the position of concurrence with other supermarkets. Therefore we won’t analyse their concrete strategies of training, but focus on their general approach towards training and the place of the training department within the organisation. "X" is a big supermarket with different products such as food, fish, meat, clothes, books, games … This supermarket belongs to a national chain of several supermarkets, which has its main office in Madrid. In company "X" (Barcelona) there are between 175 and 200 employees. As you can see in the organisation structure, the company in Barcelona is divided in four departments: sales department, marketing department, management department and the department of staff. Each department consists of one responsible manager and the staff. The chairman is situated on the top of the organisation and is working in close relation with the head of human resources and the head of the staff.
Chairman head of human resources and head of personnel
Sales management marketing ?
Figure 1: the organisation structure
How is training conceived within this company? The main aim of this company is to satisfy the clients by offering a broad scale of high quality products. Thereby they put the stress on the way of offering their products. They want to build up a trustful relationship with their clients. We can say that the culture of this organisation consists of values and ideas concerning a good relationship with the clients and between the employees. By creating such a climate they finally tend towards effectiveness and efficiency. In interaction with the culture they formulate the different aims in the strategic plan of the company, to achieve the final goal of effectiveness. Within this plan they consider training as an essential tool to reach the final goal. In-company training is seen as a need to be competitive in the market. We also recognise the importance of training in the structure of the organisation. As you can see in figure 1 the training and development department, here called human resources department, is situated on the same level as the chairman. Training is no t isolated in a separate department, but takes place in a strong interaction with the strategic planners. As we mentioned before, the main office of this company is situated in Madrid. In the central training department one constructs the training plan in co-operation with the heads of the different human resources departments. The implementation of the training plan in the companies is co-ordinated by the head of the human resources department. The managers of each department have the role of a trainer. Therefore they follow courses in Madrid. It’s interesting to notice that the in-company training is strongly integrated on the work floor. According to us it’s easier to make a clear link between work and training when the managers are the trainers. At first we think that the manager is in a good position to recognise the needs of their staff. So that the different courses are more adapted to the needs. Furthermore the manager has the possibility to follow up the implementation of the training on the workplace. This is important for the company because of the final goal of effectiveness. On the other hand we want to criticise the fact that the manager plays the role of a trainer. To work with internal trainers implies the danger that the organisation might close the door for innovative ideas from external experts. The training and learning process can also be negative influenced by the relationship between the manager and his staff. It’s not unthinkable that the employers are afraid to express their critics about the way of working. Until now we described the general approach towards training and situated the training department within the organisation. In the following part we will specify the conception of training by using two axes: One goes from adaptation to development and the other tends between cost and investment. These axes form a diagram which shows four possible conceptions of in-company training:
In general we can conclude that the major part of training efforts are oriented on promotion and retraining. The organisation conceives training as an investment, because it is an important tool to reach effectiveness. They believe the efforts, investments will bear fruit in the future. Furthermore the stress is on adaptation, not to the job as required after a change but adaptation in the sense of promotion and retraining. The organisation only demands the employees to adapt to, to meet the prescribed standards. We want to argue that it ‘s also important to recognise the innovation as part of organisation culture on all levels. In this case the innovative processes take place only in Madrid. Research, development and planning are situated in the main office. Although the managers of the different supermarkets are strongly involved in these activities, we think that it’ s a weakness not to value the innovative competence on the other levels of the organisation. The climate will be improved by supporting participation and innovation of the employees. Through the reflection on ‘what is’, the predominance of effectiveness and, more in general, the economical approach came to the front. Training is seen as an instrument to reach a competitive position in the market. In the following part we will look to the future from a more human perspective.
Which suggestions can we formulate from a more human perspective? Changes are present in our everyday life. Changes in society have also consequences to organisations that can react in two possible ways: reactive and proactive. The predominant way in our market-oriented society is ruled by the economical perspective. Within this perspective the adaptation to continuing changes is seen as necessary to survive. Furthermore training is conceived as the instrument to introduce change by informing the employees and teach them to cope with the changed work situation. In our opinion it’s more likely that people feel uncomfortable and have negative feelings towards the implemented change. Therefore in this perspective training is necessary for changing the negative attitudes towards an acceptation of the change. Harrison (1989:6) and Edwards (1983:103) define in-company training as: "the process focused on eliminating the differences between the competencies one employee can offer and the competencies required for his job. (Edwards). It’ s the systematic process through which an individual is helped to master defined tasks or areas of skill and knowledge to pre-determinated standards. (Harrison)". A missing element in the definition of Harrison is the area of attitudes. We think that in a learning process one has to take into account the attitudes as an important factor to achieve the standards. Especially in a changing context we think that attitudes, like feeling of threat and anxiety towards change, are often a hindering of the learning process. In this reflection, we only related attitudes to the process of adaptation. Within the economical perspective changing attitudes is important when negative reactions arise towards change. In our opinion the organisation should consider developing attitudes towards change as part of the whole organisation culture, instead of only reacting on negative attitudes afterwards. This is related to the more human perspective. According to us, starting from a more human perspective the orientation towards change has to be different. Instead of working in a reactive way, the company has to be proactive. This implicates another kind of organisation culture where the innovative competencies of the employees are recognised. As we mentioned above implementing change often goes hand in hand with negative reactions. If employees are involved in the process of development and innovation, they feel committed to the organisation, their work and the new tendencies. As a consequence, training isn’t seen as a tool to introduce change and change attitudes, but it ‘s an instrument to generate change. Here the main aim of training is development instead of adaptation. As we mentioned before, in our case study we recognise mainly the economical approach. The major part of training activities is oriented towards adapting to changes in order to survive in the competitive market. We also see some elements of the human perspective. Within the organisation the stress is on developing a good climate between the employees, the managers and clients. They also create possibilities for the employees to follow courses according to their interests. Even though the company finally tends towards effectiveness and profit, they find it important to invest in improving the knowledge and skills of the employees without consider it as a waste of money. This investment will improve the personal benefits of the employees, for instance motivation, personal enrichment, … In the long term these benefits will influence the organisational level in terms of culture, functioning, quality, … Starting from the human perspective we think it’s important to search for a balance between adaptation and development. On the one hand there are changes within the economical market, like the change towards a common currency (Euro) that the company has to adapt. During the implementation of the change, they have to take into account the feelings and attitudes of the employees. On the other hand they have to work on a culture where development is not seen as a threat. It’s about creating a learning environment where the employees can participate in. As a conclusion we want to stress the importance of combining the training objectives of the company and the employee. In-company training can have three possible objectives:
The main interests of most companies are translated in the first two objectives. We think that the adult educator has an important role to play in the third, personal objective, by making the managers aware of its importance. |
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