Search results

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/eb002147. When citing the article, please cite: Andrzej Huczynski, (1983), “Training Designs for Organisational Change”, Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 7 Iss: 3, pp. 24 - 27.

The question of how to get students to apply new ideas, skills and knowledge to their own work situations has been a continuing problem in management and supervisory training. Organisations complain that, despite spending large sums of money on staff training and development, no perceptible changes in on‐the‐job performance occur. Tutors reply that the subject matter they teach is both useful and relevant, but that either the individual student chooses not to apply what he has learned, or, if he does, the organisation either obstructs his attempts at innovation, or else merely fails to support him. In recent years, research has focused increasingly on the organisation's role in utilising the product of its staff training and development activities (see Vandenput; Temporal; Huczynski.

Whatever diverse aims and objectives company training policy may have, there tends to be a general agreement on the need to ensure that any new ideas, skills, knowledge or attitudes which are presented to trainees on training courses are actually transferred back into their work situations. As a result of the author's research, we now know more about the key factors which influence the transfer of training. A great deal of this research has focused on variables in the trainee's own work situation which appear to influence training transfer. The research has stressed the need for the returning course member to have developed interpersonal transfer skills, so as to enable him to act as an individual change agent. The results have also emphasised the important role played by the trainee's immediate boss with respect to the application of the learning within the organisation.

The development of interpersonal skills continues to be a key area of management training. There is a need for managers at all levels to understand the importance of interpersonal relationships, and to be able to establish and develop constructive relationships that contribute significantly to organisational effectiveness. There is now a great deal of research and theory, from psychology and social psychology, on the nature of relationships in organisations. This has been translated in several ways into attempts to change the behaviour of managers. Many courses have tried to change attitudes and knowledge, and have given participants sound general guidelines about what they should do to improve human relations and the effective use of human resources in organisations.

Employee absence costs British industry £5 billion per year; 200 million working days are lost annually. The average shopfloor worker takes eleven days off each year. In their book, Managing Employee Absence for a Competitive Edge, the authors recommend a systematic seven‐step approach to absence control called ALIEDIM. The framework stands for Assess, Locate, Identify, Evaluate, Design, Implement and Monitor the company′s absence control procedure. The first step of assessing an organisation′s absence problem is examined. How big is it compared with similar firms in the industry? The benchmarking approach can indicate whether an expensive and time‐consuming programme of absence reduction will be cost‐effective. Internal and external benchmarking approaches are described in turn with examples, and the advantages and disadvantages of each are summarised.

Summarizes part of the findings of the author′s research into the popularity of management ideas. Taking a historical perspective, the six families of popular management ideas of the last century – bureaucracy, scientific management, classical management, human relations, neo‐human relations and guru theory were identified. Following an analysis of these ideas, 12 recurring features which are found in the majority of them were discovered. These features were labelled communicability, changeable human nature, individual focus, control, steps and principles, universal application, applicability, authorization, self‐confirmation, unitary perspective, contribution‐ownership potential and leadership focus. Defines and describes each characteristic briefly, and relates it to the action which management consultants need to take if they are successfully to influence managers to adopt their ideas and prescriptions.

An evaluation of management development courses for senior officers in the Health Service has been sponsored by the DHSS at the Polytechnic of Central London.

The conclusions from a research study of the organisational change methods available to managers are presented here. New management ideas, approaches and programmes should be judged on their merits and not dismissed as fads or panaceas. There is substantial evidence that many successful companies are systematically incorporating new ideas, on a rotating basis, into their general strategic approach and benefit from doing so. The reasons for introducing change are detailed.

The very practical issue of calculating the costs to the company of employee absence is discussed. The article is based on the research carried out by the authors of their recently published book, Managing Employee Absence for a Competitive Edge, an acronym for the seven‐step approach to controlling absence in the organisation. The “A” stands for the assessment and costing of absence, the topic of this article. The remaining steps of the ALIEDIM approach are also described to set the article in context.

The fact that a management training course is run on an in‐company basis rather than outside the organization does not guarantee that any of the learning acquired by course members will automatically be transferred back into the trainee's work situation. While many companies are prepared to devote considerable resources to helping their staff acquire new skills and knowledge, they frequently neglect to assist them in aplying this new learning back into their work. Frequently, disappointed with the low levels of learning transfer from traditional courses, many firms have reverted to work‐oriented, project‐based types of training programmes in the hope of ensuring that at least some of the training effort is translated back into improved trainee performance. However, in many cases the subject matter of the training may make it unsuited to this approach. Alternatively, an organization may wish to retain its existing in‐company training scheme, but would like to improve it in some way so as to enhance the likelihood of staff changing their work behaviour in the direction intended by the course.