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THE FIRST CULTURE 
  CHAPTER 4 
LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT 
1. STRATEGIC LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT 
1. Employees become more motivated if they are given development opportunities.
Employees become more committed if they are given right learning opportunities. Employees
become more engaged if they are given right training.

Hence, every organization needs plans and actions for learning and development.

2. Learning and development strategies and practices aim to ensure that people in the
organisation acquire and develop the knowledge, skills and competencies they need to carry
out their work effectively and advance their careers to their own benefit and that of the
organisation.
3. Strategic L&D is an approach to helping people to learn and develop that is concerned
with how the organisation’s goals will be achieved through its human resources by means of
integrated L&D strategies, policies and practices.

Learning and development defined 

4. Learning and development is defined as the process of ensuring that the organisation
has the knowledgeable, skilled and engaged workforce it needs.

It involves facilitating the acquisition by individuals and teams of knowledge and skills
through experience, learning events and programmes provided by the organisation, guidance
and coaching provided by line managers and others, and self-directed learning activities
carried out by individuals.

The components of L&D are: 

5. Learning– the process by which a person acquires and develops knowledge, skills,
capabilities, behaviours and attitudes. It involves the modification of behaviour through
experience as well as more formal methods of helping people to learn within or outside the
workplace.
6. Development – the growth or realization of a person’s ability and potential through the
provision of learning and educational experiences.
7. Training– the systematic application of formal processes to impart knowledge and help
people to acquire the skills necessary for them to perform their jobs satisfactorily.
8. Education– the development of the knowledge, values and understanding required in all
aspects of life rather than the knowledge and skills relating to particular areas of activity.
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9. Management development is concerned with improving the performance of managers in

their present roles, preparing them to take on greater responsibilities in the future and also
developing their leadership skills.
10. Learning Organization is one that continually improves by rapidly creating and refining
the capabilities required for future success.
11. Learning is the process by which a person constructs new knowledge, skills and
capabilities, whereas training is one of several responses an organisation can undertake to
promote learning.

Learning is what individuals do; training is what organisations do to individuals.

Strategies for learning culture 

12. A learning culture is one in which learning is recognized by top management, line
managers and employees generally as an essential organizational process to which they are
committed and in which they engage continuously.
13. Organizational learning strategies aim to improve organizational effectiveness through
the acquisition and development of knowledge, understanding, insights, techniques and
practices.
14. Individual learning comprises the processes and programmes used to increase the
capabilities of individual employees.
15. Strategies for individual learning are driven by the organisation’s human resource
requirements, which are expressed in terms of the skills and behaviours required to achieve
business goals.

2. THE PROCESS OF LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT  
The practice of learning and development should be based on an understanding of learning
theory and the processes involved in learning and development. These processes are complex
and varied.

How people learn: Learning Theory 

16. Reinforcement theory – based on the work of Skinner (1974) this expresses the belief
that changes in behaviour take place as a result of an individual’s response to events or
stimuli and the ensuing consequences (rewards or punishments).
17. Individuals can be ‘conditioned’ to repeat the behaviour by positive reinforcement in the
form of feedback and knowledge of results. This is known as ‘operant conditioning’.
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18. Cognitive learning theory – learning involves gaining knowledge and understanding by
absorbing information in the form of principles, concepts and facts and then internalizing it.
Learners can be regarded as powerful information-processing machines.

19. Experiential learning theory – experiential learning takes place when people learn from
their experience by absorbing and reflecting on it so that it can be understood and applied.
Thus people become active agents of their own learning.

20. Social learning theory – this states that effective learning requires social interaction.
Wenger (1998) suggested that we all participate in ‘communities of practice’ (groups of
people with shared expertise who work together) and that these are our primary sources of
learning.

Kolb’s learning style inventory (1974) 

21. Concrete experience – this can be planned or accidental.

22. Reflective observation – this involves actively thinking about the experience and its
significance.
25. Abstract conceptualization (theorizing) – generalizing from experience to develop
various concepts and ideas that can be applied when similar situations are encountered.
26. Active experimentation – testing the concepts or ideas in new situations. This gives rise
to a new concrete experience and the cycle begins again.

The Honey and Mumford learning styles(1996) 

27. Activists– who involve themselves fully without bias in new experiences and revel in
new challenges.
28. Reflectors – who stand back and observe new experiences from different angles. They
collect data, reflect on it and then come to a conclusion.
29. Theorists– who adapt and apply their observations in the form of logical theories. They
tend to be perfectionists.
30. Pragmatists – who are keen to try out new ideas, approaches and concepts to see if they
work?

Use of learning style theory 

31. Learning style theory can be used in the design and conduct of learning events or
personal development programmes.

Learning situations can be set up to fit the learning style of participant.

The problem is that people do not necessarily have a single learning style and there certainly
will be a large range of styles in any learning group.
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3. THE PRACTICE OF LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT 
32. It covers how learning needs are identified, the basic approaches of workplace learning
and self-directed learning, how workshop learning can be enhanced through activities such as
coaching and mentoring, training techniques and programmes, the concept of blended
learning and how learning can be evaluated.

Identifying learning needs 

33. Three areas are interconnected,

The analysis of corporate needs will lead to the identification of collective learning needs
in different departments, functions or occupations, while these in turn will indicate what
individual employees need to learn. The process operates in reverse. As the needs of
individual employees are analysed separately, common needs emerge, which can be dealt
with on a group basis. The sum of group and individual needs will help to define corporate
needs, although there may be some overarching learning requirements that can be related
only to the company as a whole to attain its business goals.

Gap analysis 

34. Learning needs analysis is often described as the process of identifying the learning gap
– the gap between what is and what should be.
35. Gap analysis involves identifying the gap between what people know and can do and
what they should know and be able to do.

Analysis of business and workforce plans 

36. Business and workforce plans should indicate in general terms the types of skills and
competencies that may be required in the future and the numbers of people with those skills
and competencies who will be needed.

Surveys 

37. Special surveys or an interviewing programme can obtain the views of managers and
other employees on what they need to learn.

Performance and development reviews 

38. Performance management processes should be a prime source of information about

individual learning and development needs.
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Role analysis 

39. Role analysis is the basis for preparing role profiles that provide a framework for
analysing and identifying learning needs. Role profiles set out the key result areas of the role
but, importantly, also define the competencies required to perform it.

Skills analysis 

40. Skills analysis determines the skills required to achieve an acceptable standard of
performance. It is mainly used for technical, craft, manual and office jobs to provide the basis
for devising learning and training programmes.

Approaches to learning and development 

(Workplace learning, Self-directed learning,Blended learning)

Workplace learning 

41. Workplace learning is experiential learning. It is learning by doing and by reflecting on

experience so that it can be understood and applied.
42. A difficulty is that workplace learning depends largely on the willingness and ability of
line managers to take responsibility for it.

Self‐directed learning 
43. Self-directed learning is based on a process of recording achievement and action
planning, which means that individuals review what they have learnt, what they have
achieved, what their goals are, how they are going to achieve those goals and what new
learning they need to acquire.

Blended learning 

44. Blended learning is the use of a combination of learning methods to increase the overall
effectiveness of the learning process by providing for different parts of the learning mix to
complement and support one another.

Enhancing workplace learning 

45. Experiential learning in the workplace is important but it should not be left to chance. It
needs to be enhanced by such means as induction learning, planned experience, coaching,
mentoring, e-learning and personal development planning.
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46. Induction training is provided to new employees. Most new starters other than those on
formal training schemes will learn on-the-job, although this may be supplemented with
special off-the-job courses to develop particular skills or knowledge.

47. Planned experience is the process of deciding on a sequence of experience that will
enable people to obtain the knowledge and skills required in their jobs and prepare them to
take on increased responsibilities.

48. Coaching is a personal (usually one-to-one) approach to helping people develop their
skills and knowledge and improve their performance.

49. Mentoring is the process of using specially selected and trained individuals to provide
guidance, pragmatic advice and continuing support that will help the person or persons
allocated to them to learn and develop.

50. E-learning involves the use of computer, networked and web-based technology to
provide learning material and guidance to individual employees.

51. Personal development planning is carried out by individuals with guidance,

encouragement and help from their managers, usually on the basis of performance and
development reviews.

Training 
52. Training is the use of systematic and planned instruction activities to promote learning.
53. The conventional training model has a tendency to ‘emphasise subject-specific
knowledge, rather than trying to build core learning abilities.

Transferring training 

54. Training can sometimes seem to be remote from reality and the skills and knowledge
acquired can appear to be irrelevant. Transfer of learning problems often occur after
management or supervisory training, but even the manual skills learnt in a training centre can
be difficult to transfer.
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Systematic training 

55. Training should be systematic in that it is specifically designed, planned and

implemented to meet defined needs.

The concept was originally developed for the industrial training boards in the 1960s consists
of a simple four-stage model:

1. Identify training needs.

2. Decide what sort of training is required to satisfy these needs.
3. Use experienced and trained trainers to implement training.
4. Follow up and evaluate training to ensure that it is effective.

Just‐in‐time training 

56. Just-in-time training is training that is closely linked to the pressing and relevant needs
of people by its association with immediate or imminent work activities.
Bite‐sized training 
57. Bite-sized training involves the provision of opportunities to acquire a specific skill or a
particular piece of knowledge in a short training session focused on one activity, such as
using a particular piece of software, giving feedback, or handling an enquiry about a product
or service of the company.
58. Training programmes or events can be concerned with any of the following:
manual skills, including apprenticeships;
IT skills;
team leader or supervisory training;
management training;
interpersonal skills, e.g. leadership, team building, group dynamics,
neurolinguisticprogramming;
personal skills, e.g. assertiveness, coaching, communicating, time management;
training in organisational procedures or practices, e.g. induction, health and safety,
performance management, equal opportunity or managing diversity policy and
practice.
Planning and delivering learning events 
59. The process of planning and delivering learning events and programmes is described by
the ADDIE model, which has five phases: analysis, design, development, implementation and
evaluation.
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Five phases: analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation.

60. In the analysis phase the learning goals and objectives are established and the learning
environment and learner’s existing knowledge and skills are identified.
61. The design phase deals with subject matter analysis, the programme outline and the use
of learning aids and assessment instruments.
62. In the development phase the detailed programme is constructed as conceived in the
design phase.
63. Implementation phase
The programme is implemented as planned.
64. Evaluation phase
Each session is evaluated by the programme director and, at the end, by participants. The
impact of the programme on performance is measured and the degree to which it met
expectations assessed.
Evaluation of learning 
65. Evaluation is an integral feature of learning activities. In essence, it is the comparison of
objectives with outcomes to answer the question of how far the event has achieved its
purpose.
Evaluation can take place at different levels, starting with immediate reactions to the
learning event and completed with an assessment of the impact it has had onorganisational
performance.
66. The Kirkpatrick Model is the worldwide standard for evaluating the effectiveness of
training. It considers the value of any type of training, formal or informal, across four levels.
Level 1: Reaction
The degree to which participants find the training favorable, engaging and relevant to their
jobs
Level 2: Learning
The degree to which participants acquire the intended knowledge, skills, attitude, confidence
and commitment based on their participation in the training
Level 3: Behaviour
The degree to which participants apply what they learned during training when they are back
on the job
Level 4: Results
The degree to which targeted outcomes occur as a result of the training and the support and
accountability package