Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice

CHAPTER 10: OTHER DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS 10.1 • THE INDIRECT FACTORS • THE PRODUCT • THE HR DEVELOPER AS A DESIGNER Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice By Brian Delahaye

THE INDIRECT FACTORS 10.3 • The indirect factors are the second set of considerations when • designing a learning experience for adult learners. While these factors are indirect, they do not lack importance. Unfortunately, the designer often finds that balancing and negotiating these factors takes up considerable time. These factors are: • strategic orientation • organisational culture • key stakeholders • resources • designer’s personal frame of reference. Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice By Brian Delahaye

STRATEGIC ORIENTATION 10.4 The developmental designs are usually quite different for the legitimate system and the shadow system of the organisation. The legitimate system gives much more emphasis to programmed knowledge as this is what gives the organisation its current competitive edge. Further, the conventional strategic plan often defines the learning outcomes needed and also the preferred learning strategies to be used, depending on the type of strategy (see Chapter 4). See ‘A closer look’ on page 266). The shadow system needs all the learning outcomes defined in the HLO (see Chapter 9). See ‘A closer look’ on page 267. Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice By Brian Delahaye

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE 10.5 In every organisation, there are patterns of beliefs, values, rituals and practices that combine into shared meanings. These shared meanings create common understandings between members and this is called organisational culture. Organisational culture can have a subtle yet pervasive effect on the behaviour and decision making in the organisation — including the HRD process. Organisational culture has to be considered when designing learning programs. See ‘A closer look’ on page 268. Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice By Brian Delahaye

KEY STAKEHOLDERS 10.6 Key stakeholders have political power and a good knowledge of organisational procedures and processes (including those defined by the organisational culture). Key stakeholders who also have legitimate power tend to be the ‘movers and shakers’ within the organisation. HR developers, whether in the role of investigator, designer, implementor or evaluator, should be aware of the key stakeholders and especially key stakeholders with legitimate power. See ‘A closer look’ on page 269. Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice By Brian Delahaye

RESOURCES 10.7 • The resources available to the designer often seem to be a constraint on design, but these assets can also be an advantage. • The tyranny of time. Time can be a problem in two ways. Firstly, there is always so many learning outcomes to be achieved and not enough time. Secondly, many managers do not realise how time consuming learning can be. • The tyranny of numbers. Simply, the more people who are on a learning program, the less the unstructured strategies can be used. • Physical resources. This is not just a matter of having the resources but also having the funding to hire or purchase equipment and material. • Suitably qualified HR developers are needed to conduct certain learning strategies, particularly the unstructured ones. Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice By Brian Delahaye

DESIGNER’S PERSONAL FRAME OF REFERENCE 10.8 Because it resides within, the designer often overlooks her or his personal frame of reference. Yet, as discussed in Chapter 2, one’s frame of reference can have a significant impact on decisions and actions. Therefore, the designers should be very aware of their personal values and beliefs and the possible impact — both positive and negative — these may have on design decisions. Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice By Brian Delahaye

THE PRODUCT — THE LEGITIMATE SYSTEM 10.10 • The result of the designer’s work is most obviously seen in the legitimate system. The legitimate system tends to be interested in learning episodes that concentrate on instrumental learning with some communicative learning. For the legitimate system, the designer provides a series of plans including: • the program and session plans • the resource plan • the product marketing plan • the budget • the evaluation plan. Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice By Brian Delahaye

PROGRAM AND SESSION PLANS 10.11 • The program and session plans explain the content to be covered in the learning experience, the learning strategies to be used and the expected assessment. A program is made up of a series of sessions that are presented in a specific order. • In a program, the sequencing of sessions is important. In sequencing, consideration should be given to: • using building blocks • moving from simple to complex • assuring transfer of learning • incorporating both informational and motivational feedback. • Programs can be called ‘training courses’ — information and skills and use of theory and skill sessions — or ‘workshops — programmed knowledge and simpler levels of task and relationship categories. Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice By Brian Delahaye

THE RESOURCE PLAN 10.12 • The resource plan covers all those physical and human resources needed to mount the program. This would include: • the internal and external HR developers and guest speakers • training rooms, meeting rooms and even accommodation • equipment and training aids needed • stationary and other material. • In addition to listing the quantities, the plan should indicate when the resources are needed. Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice By Brian Delahaye

THE PRODUCT MARKETING PLAN 10.13 The product marketing plan identifies the people in the five buying roles (initiator, influencer, decider, purchaser and user) and also their location and what benefit the product will bring to each of them. Based on this information, the promotional tactics can be decided. The promotional tactics include the advertising content and the type of media to be used. Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice By Brian Delahaye

THE BUDGET 10.14 For a single product (e.g. a learning program), the budget consists of: $ the expected income — an estimate of the income that the program is expected to generate $ the cash expenditures — all items on which the organisation will spend cash (e.g. payment of external consultants, hire of training aids) $ the opportunity cost expenditures — all those disbursements that the organisation has already made a commitment to, that would have been used on work other than the learning program (e.g. the wages of the learners). Not all organisations include opportunity costs in budgets. Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice By Brian Delahaye

THE EVALUATION PLAN 10.15 The final, but not least important, task of the designer is to plan how the learning program is to be evaluated. Evaluation is discussed in Chapter 13. Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice By Brian Delahaye

THE PRODUCT — THE SHADOW SYSTEM 10.16 • Learning in the shadow system is highly individualised by being initially focused on the learner concerned. However, this learning establishes long-term benefits for the organisation and is part of the knowledge storage process (see Chapter 14). • There are three domains of learning that occur in the shadow system: • learning transfer • extended learning • creating new knowledge. Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice By Brian Delahaye

LEARNING TRANSFER 10.17 • The HR developer as the designer must avoid the trap of encapsulation. This occurs when the learning does not transfer back to the workplace. • A positive transfer climate occurs after the learning program and back in the workplace when the learner: • is provided with opportunities to reinforce and further develop the ‘routinised problem solving’ knowledge learnt in the program • is given both informational and motivational feedback in the workplace • operates in a supportive atmosphere. Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice By Brian Delahaye

EXTENDED LEARNING 10.18 • The extended learning phase is the responsibility of the learner and the supervisor. • Extended learning is achieved through the combination of: • having opportunities to become engaged in tasks of more complexity and accountability • being given informational and motivational feedback • being given opportunities to observe models of expert performance • being encouraged to develop expertise using the process of successive approximations. Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice By Brian Delahaye

CREATING NEW KNOWLEDGE 10.19 The transfer of learning and the extended learning phases tend to create reservoirs of already known knowledge — knowledge that is used by the legitimate system to conduct everyday activities. Supervisors need to go further than this and develop an organisational climate that encourages staff to create new knowledge using all the knowledge creation processes of externalisation, combination, internalisation and socialisation. This learning climate is designed to create a learning community. This will be discussed further in Chapter 14. Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice By Brian Delahaye

THE HR DEVELOPER AS A DESIGNER 10.21 For the HR developer, the role of the designer is quite wide and complex. The separate needs of the legitimate system and the shadow system have to be considered. For a checklist of the designer’s actions in the legitimate system see Figure 10.2 on pages 281 and 282 of the textbook. Certainly in most organisations the designer’s role is more evident in the legitimate system. However, to survive in today’s business environment, organisations have to ensure that the designer invests significant time in the learning needs of the shadow system. Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice By Brian Delahaye

Human Resource Development: Principles and Practice