Learning Transfer: Stakeholders' Responsibilities PDF

Learning Transfer: Stakeholders’ Responsibilities Rajan was manager of the Operational Support Department at XYZ company. Operational Support did a little of everything for XYZ: customer account opening and maintenance, records retention, data entry, account servicing, and...

Learning Transfer: Stakeholders’ Responsibilities Rajan was manager of the Operational Support Department at XYZ company. Operational Support did a little of everything for XYZ: customer account opening and maintenance, records retention, data entry, account servicing, and similar work. There were just over 50 employees in the unit, four of whom were supervisors to the various units. Manish was the Procedures Unit supervisor. He was promoted to this position ten months ago. The Procedures Unit was responsible for producing procedural memos and guidelines and distributing these documents to the field offices and other staff groups. Before becoming the supervisor, Manish worked in the unit as a procedures clerk for three years. As a clerk, he performed well. However, as a supervisor, Manish left a lot to be desired. Rajan knew there were problems in the Procedures Unit because procedures were often published late and with many errors. Frequently procedures had to be recalled, revised, and reissued. In addition, Rajan knew that Manish had a difficult time keeping people: the quit rate and absenteeism rate in his unit seemed to be much higher than for the other units in the department. He knew something needed to be done, so he contacted the Learning and Development Department to enroll Manish in one of the supervisory training programs they offered. Rajan came to know that the Advanced Supervisory Techniques program was scheduled in two weeks. He nominated Manish to this program without informing Manish about this nomination. Manish received an email from L&D department stating that he was to attend the training program. Manish was surprised and confused by the email. He wondered why he was supposed to attend a program. He saw Rajan later in the morning and told him about training memo and asked him “Do you know anything about it?” Rajan, in a rush, smiled and said in passing “Well I saw they were offering this course. I thought you might like to attend, so I nominated you. Look, top management is on a training kick,” he continued: “Just go and don’t worry about it.” A few days later, Manish received a second mail from the L&D Department, stating that he needed to do some pre-class reading in a booklet which was enclosed. Near the end of the day, he began to skim through it. Rajan noticed Manish reading and asked what he was doing. “It’s some reading I have to do for that training class you put me in,” Manish explained. Rajan paused for a moment. “That’s homework, not work-work,” he told Manish. “You’ve still got a pile of materials to process by next week. Better get back to work.” After Rajan moved on, Manish thought to himself: “This `homework’ is going to become `no-work.’” Another week passed, and the starting day for the training arrived. Manish showed up for class, somewhat angry about the interruption to his routine and tense about what the training would be like and what it would cover. For the next week, Manish came to the class regularly. The program appeared nice. Most of the material was concerned managing, motivating, communicating, and coaching the employees. At the end of the week, Manish felt as if he had picked up a few ideas and techniques that he could see using back on the job. Indeed, he was excited about trying a couple. Maish returned to work the following Monday. Noticing that Manish was in, Rajan asked in passing: “Glad you’re back. How was vacation? By the time Manish realized he was serious, he was already gone. It took Manish another two days to get things back under some control. He decided to try out one of the training ideas the next day. When he came in, he started making a daily “to do” list and sorting his work into Critical, Important, and Reserve folders. Rajan noticed that and asked what he was doing. “It’s something I learned in that training program last week. It’s called `work priority management.’ You see, what you do is …” Rajan cut him off. “Yeah, I’m sure it’s interesting but you’ve got many procedures to get to. Let’s see that paper move, not this.” Manish bristled. After about half an hour, he noticed that one of his subordinates was having some difficulty with an operation. Deciding to try some coaching skills he saw in the training; he began working with the employee. Rajan, walking through the area, noticed he was spending time with the employee. In as mocking tone, he asked him “What are you doing, Manish?” Some more of that training stuff?” The employee heard it too. Manish had enough. Feeling angry and frustrated. Your teamwork: This case has many issues. But think from transfer of learning to the workplace. What steps should be taken by the participant, his manager and L&D department to ensure training transfer in various phases of training - pre-training, during training and post-training to ensure transfer of learning?