Essay Sample on Shift from Training to Performance

Introduction

The 21st century has seen much development and organizations have embarked on using modern strategies. This has led to introduction and adoption of transformative changes in the operation and management of the organizations. Although change is most often received in disdain and resistance, the force behind it can never be ignored. It is a result of this that organizations dedicate their resources in setting the right foundation for the change. Through proper learning techniques, firms are eying performance improvement in order to increase their productivity. In the current business set up, a mindset shift from the normal training to performance is critical. Organizations should focus on career development and growth of their employees. After the traditional training, technology development has led to performance based learning. It is important to note that most employees are focused on developing their careers as opposed to just earning. The companies on the other hand are dedicated to improve their performance which would result in high productivity.

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The intuitive concept, Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve can be credited to the shift from training to performance. The theory illustrated that much of what is trained in class is forgotten within 20 minutes (Chiva, Ghauri & Alegre, 2014). This shows that training is not effective in organizations and there is need to adopt a performance based approach. This paper describes the shift from training to performance by providing a rationale for occurrence in addition to discussing its importance to global training and development field. Organizational learning is a global phenomenon and its impact on training is momentous.

Overview of Training and Performance

Training has been an important aspect in development of organizations. It brings about a perpetual improvement to the work performed from the acquired skills and knowledge. This traditional improvement tool have assisted many organizations in increasing their profits. Investing in training programs have resulted to positive returns for many firms. A study carried out in the United States revealed that publicly trading firms that invested in training had 86 percent higher return on stockholders than the ones that least invested in it.

Performance has become an unavoidable evolution force in the business world. Both small and large organizations have embraced this revolution. The hall mark of development is an efficient operation which translates to productivity. Training functions introduced performance improvement in the 1990s, a move that generated much support (Argote & Miron, 2011). Decentralization of learning was an incredible initiative. The traditional training style was centralized and managers believed in tailor made classes where employees from various departments competed for skills.

Rationale for Occurrence of the Shift

The need to improve organizational efficiency was the driving force for the shift. Technological development was imminent and the need to stay relevant in the ever changing world was a huge motivating factor. The inadequacies of training had to be mitigated through a holistic approach. Improving performance by training was proving inefficient and a better package delivery was needed. The change in behavior was more significant in bringing improvement than training. In fact, training can never solve all problems in an organization. The fact that training have no direct effect to the organizational learning may be attributed to adoption of performance based learning. The changing nature of the workforce encompassed with the dynamics of leadership and employee sustainability has led to drastic changes in organizational learning.

With advancement of technology, competition is increasing resulting to the need for transformation. In fact, it is factual that retaining a competent and skilled workforce results to higher productivity and relevancy in the industry. Whereas the culture of training is centered on instructors offering learning to employees, performance is generally centered on the employees themselves. This clearly shows that performance initiatives are more likely to be effective. This kind of learning is continuous and takes place everywhere and anytime. Employees make it their responsibility to acquire quality knowledge under their own initiative.

Organizational Learning and Impact on Training

Basically, organizational learning entails acquiring knowledge for a specific purpose. On acquisition of the knowledge, application of the same is done to achieve a specific objective. The need to focus on delivery to achieve an organization's strategic plan motivates organizational learning. Employees' competence is essential in cutting costs of operations but at the same time increasing productivity. For development and innovation to take place, organizational learning becomes the link. Workers ought to innovate new and efficient methods of performing their duties. Acquiring new skills enhances the availability of competent human resource and eventual success of the organization (Garcia, Jimenez & Gutierrez, 2012). Organizational learning could take the form of a holistic entity as well as community focused. The former involves cognitive style of learning while the latter focusses on creation of knowledge and skills from the organization's stakeholders.

Organizations are focused on a supportive and committed workforce. To achieve this, learning is critical. Moreover bringing job satisfaction in order to have efficient team in the work environment requires investing on education. It is factual from various research that organizations that have introduced continuous learning are ranked higher in supportive team. When an employee is taken through organizational training, he/she is most likely to feel satisfied with the job and will thus offer much to the firm. This will result from improved performance. It should however be noted that organizational learning could have positive as well as detrimental effects. If employees perceive their training is motivated by their inadequacies then they will tend to perform poorly. The vice versa is true with those perceiving their learning as a way of boosting skills.

Changes in Learning and Instruction

In a world where almost everything is changing, learning and instruction ought to rebrand and adopt new technology to keep up with the development. Today's complex of various aspects have offered a myriad of challenges requiring the education system to be innovative. Globalization has had a big impact in the world of learning. Firstly, competition has become intense and organization's goals and objectives require much more than the traditional training in order to remain relevant. Secondly, the increased costs of production requires efficient and optimal use of the limited resources.

The need to ensure there is results improvement is a motivating factor for the changes. Scholars have identified that learning while working is more resourceful than training before getting the job (Argote, 2012). While traditional training entails event orientation, performance approach is process oriented resulting to more productive results. Finally, in schools, the goal to learning is instilling of information to students. However much of his knowledge is theoretical and the modern world requires practicality. Whereas the teacher engages the students solely, his convergent aspect is not fully transformative.

In order to bridge this expectation gap, there was need of reforms. These reforms were enhanced by introduction of performance approach that is more divergent as opposed to training. The self-learning approach enabled the learner to have a self-drive resulting to higher performance. The active participation of learners enhances innovation through more flexibility. Employers have in some instances criticized learning institutions for producing unqualified graduates. The increased demand of quality by the job world from educators has enabled the shift to a better learning approach.

Conclusion

Every organization is dedicated to improve its performance and achieve its goals and objectives. Perpetual learning is critical in order to achieve the set targets. As a result, researchers have embarked on finding the most effective learning way. Although, training has shown improved performance, the current modern world has seen drastic changes. It is these changes that have motivated innovation of performance based learning to increase productivity. Improved performance in the job by employees should be a priority of every organization. Supporting performance in organization by employees exceeds the traditional training. It entails inclusion of resources and tools that complement field training in order to assist employees achieve and go beyond expectations. Organizations have become dynamic and knowledge intensive making traditional training ineffective. To wrap it up, it is factual that the reforms in organizational learning are both essential and a move to the right direction.

References

Argote, L. (2012). Organizational learning: Creating, retaining and transferring knowledge. Springer Science & Business Media.

Argote, L., & Miron-Spektor, E. (2011). Organizational learning: From experience to knowledge. Organization science, 22(5), 1123-1137.

Chiva, R., Ghauri, P., & Alegre, J. (2014). Organizational learning, innovation and internationalization: A complex system model. British Journal of Management, 25(4), 687-705.

Garcia-Morales, V. J., Jimenez-Barrionuevo, M. M., & Gutierrez-Gutierrez, L. (2012). Transformational leadership influence on organizational performance through organizational learning and innovation. Journal of business research, 65(7), 1040-1050.