65

40
Learning and
Development
Strategy

Key concepts and terms

Learning culture Learning and development strategy
Learning organization Strategic human resource development

Learning outcomes
On completing this chapter you should be able to define these key concepts. You should also kn

• The features of a learning and •

Learning and development
development strategy philosophy
• The contents of a learning and development
The nature
strategy
of a learning culture
The concept of the learning organization
Howandlearning
its relevance
and development activities contribute to
•
654 Learning and
Development

Introduction
Learning and development strategy represents the approach an organization adopts to ensure
that now and in the future, learning and development activities support the achievement of its
goals by developing the skills and capacities of individuals and teams. It can be described
simi- larly as strategic human resource development, defined as follows.

Strategic human resource development defined, Walton (1999)

Strategic human resource development involves introducing, eliminating, modifying, directing and guidin
SOURCE

In this chapter the term ‘learning and development strategy’ is used as it represents more
accu- rately current thinking on this subject. The chapter covers the features and basis of
such a strategy and the concepts of a learning culture and the learning organization that are
associ- ated with the strategy. It is completed with a discussion of the impact learning and
develop- ment activities make on organizational performance.

Features of a learning and development strategy

A learning and development strategy should be business-led in the sense that it is designed to
support the achievement of business goals by promoting human capital advantage. But it
should also be people-led, which means taking into account the needs and aspiration of
people to grow and develop. Achieving the latter aim, of course, supports the achievement
of the former.
Learning and development strategy is underpinned by a philosophy and its purpose is to
oper- ationalize that philosophy. It is fundamentally concerned with creating a learning
culture that will encourage learning and will provide the basis for planning and
implementing learning activities and programmes. This concept of a learning culture is
associated with that of the learning organization.
 Learning and Development
Strategy 655

Learning and development philosophy

A learning and development philosophy expresses the beliefs of an organization on the role
of learning and development, its importance and how it should take place. It can be
expressed in the following terms:
• Learning and development activities make a major contribution to the successful
attainment of the organization’s objectives, and investment in them benefits all the
stakeholders of the organization.
• Learning and development plans and programmes should be integrated with and
support the achievement of business and human resource strategies.
• Learning and development should be performance-related – designed to achieve
speci- fied improvements in corporate, functional, team and individual
performance, and make a major contribution to bottom-line results.
• Everyone in the organization should be encouraged and given the opportunity to learn
– to develop their skills and knowledge to the maximum of their capacity.
• Personal development processes provide the framework for individual and self-
directed learning.
• While the need to invest in learning and development is recognized, the prime respon-
sibility for development rests with individual employees, who will be given the guid-
ance and support of their manager and, as necessary, members of the HR department.

Contents of the learning and development strategy

The learning and development strategy should incorporate the elements set out below.

Elements of the learning and development strategy

• The learning and development philosophy of the organization.
• The aims of the learning and development strategy.
• The priorities for learning and development.
• How, broadly, it is intended these aims will be achieved through the creation
of a learning culture, formal learning and development programmes,
coaching, personal development planning, and self-directed learning.
• The responsibilities for learning and development as shared between top
man- agement, line management, individual employees, and members of
the HR or learning and development function.
656 Learning and
Development

• The resources required for learning and development – financial budgets,

train- ing facilities, external help.
• The success criteria for learning and development.
• How the effectiveness of learning and development in meeting these criteria
will be measured and evaluated.

Learning culture
A learning culture is one that promotes learning because it 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.
Reynolds (2004) describes a learning culture as a ‘growth medium’, which will
‘encourage employees to commit to a range of positive discretionary behaviours, including
learning’ and which has the following characteristics: empowerment not supervision, self-
managed learning not instruction, long-term capacity building not short-term fixes. He
suggests that to create a learning culture it is necessary to develop organizational practices
that raise commitment amongst employees and ‘give employees a sense of purpose in the
workplace, grant employees opportunities to act upon their commitment, and offer practical
support to learning’.

Developing a learning culture, Reynolds (2004)

Develop and share the vision – belief in a desired and emerging future.
Empower employees – provide‘supported autonomy’; freedom for employ- ees to manage their work with
Adopt a facilitative style of management in which responsibility for deci- sion making is ceded as far as po
Provide employees with a supportive learning environment where learn- ing capabilities can be discovere
Use coaching techniques to draw out the talents of others by encouraging employees to identify options an
SOURCE

Guide employees through their work challenges and provide them with time, resources and, crucially, fe
 Learning and Development
Strategy 657

7. Recognize the importance of managers acting as role models: ‘The

new way of thinking and behaving may be so different that you must
see what it looks like before you can imagine yourself doing it. You
must see the new behaviour and attitudes in others with whom you
can identify’ (Schein, 1990).
8. Encourage networks – communities of practice.
9. Align systems to vision – get rid of bureaucratic systems that
produce problems rather than facilitate work.

The learning organization

The concept of the learning organization has caught the imagination of many people since it
was first popularized by Senge (1990) who described it as follows.

The learning organization, as defined by Senge (1990)

The learning organization is one ‘where people continually expand their capac- ity to create the results
SOURCE

Pedler et al (1991) state that a learning organization is one ‘which facilitates the learning of
all its members and continually transforms itself ’. Wick and Leon (1995) refer to a learning
organ- ization as one that ‘continually improves by rapidly creating and refining the
capabilities required for future success’.
As Harrison (2000) comments, the notion of the learning organization remains persuasive
because of its ‘rationality, human attractiveness and presumed potential to aid organizational
effectiveness and advancement’. However, Scarborough et al (1999) argue that ‘the
dominant perspective [of the learning organization concept] is that of organization systems
and design’.
658 Learning and
Development
Little attention seems to be paid to what individuals want to learn or how they learn. The
idea that individuals should be enabled to invest in their own development seems to have
escaped learning organization theorists who are more inclined to focus on the imposition of
learning by the organization, rather than creating a climate conducive to learning. This is a
learning culture, a concept that has much more to offer than that of the learning
organization.
Viewing organizations as learning systems is a limited notion. Argyris and Schon (1996)
contend that organizations are products of visions, ideas, norms and beliefs so that their
shape is much more fragile than the organization’s material structure. People act as learning
agents for the organization in ways that cannot easily be systematized. They are not only
individual learners but also have the capacity to learn collaboratively. Organization
learning theory, as described in Chapter 44, analyses how this happens and leads to the
belief that it is the culture and environment that are important, not the systems approach
implied by the concept of the learning organization.
The notion of a learning organization is somewhat nebulous. It incorporates miscellaneous
ideas about human resource development, systematic training, action learning, organizational
development and knowledge management, with an infusion of the precepts of total quality
management. But they do not add up to a convincing whole. Easterby-Smith (1997) argues
that attempts to create a single best practice framework for understanding the learning organi-
zation are fundamentally flawed. There are other problems with the concept: it is idealistic,
knowledge management models are beginning to supersede it, few organizations can meet
the criteria and there is little evidence of successful learning organizations. Prescriptions
from training specialists and management consultants abound but, as Sloman (1999)
asserts, they often fail to recognize that learning is a continuous process, not a set of
discrete training activities.
Burgoyne (1999), one of the earlier exponents of the learning organization notion, has admit-
ted that there has been some confusion about it and that there have been substantial naiveties
in most of the early thinking. He believes that the concept should be integrated with knowl-
edge management initiatives so that different forms of knowledge can be linked, fed by
organi- zational learning and used in adding value.

The contribution of learning and

development to organizational performance
Studies on the relationship between learning and development activities and organizational
performance have included those by Benabou (1996) and Clarke (2004). The research by
Benabou examined the impact of various training programmes on the business and financial
results at 50 Canadian organizations. The conclusion reached was that in most cases a well-
designed training programme can be linked to improvements in business results and that
 Learning and Development
Strategy 659
return on investment in training programmes is very high. But Benabou referred to the
follow- ing limitations.

Limitations of research into the link between learning

and development and performance, Benabou (1996)
Regardless of the approach taken, the effects of an HRD program cannot be
pinpointed with complete accuracy. The findings provide evidence that posi-
tive results stemmed from training programs, but not the clear proof that only
SOURCE

a control group would have provided. Considering the methodology used

(multiple raters and instruments, experts, warnings to subtract effects of other
factors that influence overall results), the researchers are confident, however,
that assessors provided reliable estimates. The objective of measuring
business results and the costs and benefits of training is to get people in the
HRD field to think rigorously about the costs and effects of what they are
doing. This level of training evaluation provides a fair and objective
approach to making deci- sions about people and programs, even with
conservative data and known lim- itations. But trainers must be humble
when presenting documented benefits. Organizational results are rarely
achieved solely through training. The findings here support the view that
for training to have positive effects, supporting structures must be in place
throughout the organization. The study also found that business results are
easier to evaluate when organizations conduct a thor- ough needs assessment
before developing and delivering training.

A national survey of training evaluation in specialized healthcare organizations (hospices)

conducted by Clarke (2004) showed that while there appeared to be some links between
train- ing and performance it was not possible to reach firm conclusions about causality.
However, the study reached the important finding that where organizations undertake
assessment of their training and development (both formal and informal learning) then
there is a greater belief in the positive impact training and development has in the
organization.
While it is possible and highly desirable to evaluate learning, as described in Chapter 42,
estab- lishing a link between learning and organizational performance is problematic. It may
be dif- ficult to distinguish between cause and effect. Hendry and Pettigrew (1986) warn
that it is risky to adopt simplistic views that training leads to improved business performance
because it is more likely that successful companies will under certain conditions increase
their training budget. A further complication was identified by Tsang (1997), who made
the following comment.
660 Learning and
Development

Conditions required for learning and development to improve performance,

Setting aside the complexities of putting the lessons learnt into practice (ie the problem of implementation
SOURCE

Harrison (2005) posed the question on what the learning and development implications of
such research are and answered it as follows.

The implications of learning and development research, Harrison (2005)

It has not yet yielded enough clear evidence of a direct link between individual learning and improvement
SOURCE

Learning and development strategy – key learning poin

The features of a learning anddesigned to support the achievement of

development strategybusiness goals by promoting human capital
A learning and development strategy shouldadvantage. But it should also be people-led, be business-
 Learning and Development
Strategy 661

Learning and development strategy – key

learning points (continued)
and aspirations of people to grow and process to which they are committed and
develop. in which they engage continuously.
Learning and development The concept of the learning
philosophy organization and its relevance
A learning and development philosophy A learning organization is one ‘which
expresses the beliefs of an organization on facili- tates the learning of all its
the role of learning and development, its members and continually transforms itself
importance and how it should take place. ’ (Pedler et al, 1991). However, the
The contents of a notion of a learning organization is
learning and somewhat nebulous.
development strategy How learning and development
The aims and priorities of the strategy, activities contribute to firm
how it is to be achieved, performance
responsibilities and resources and success While it is possible and highly desirable to
criteria. evaluate learning, establishing a link
The nature of a learning between learning and organizational per-
culture formance is problematic, although research
has shown that learning and development
A learning culture is one that promotes
can be a crucial intervening factor.
learning because it is recognized by top
management, line managers and
employees generally as an essential
organizational

Questions
662 Learning and
Development
1. You have been asked to deliver a session at a students’ evening in your CIPD branch
on the gap between learning and development strategy and practice and what can be
done about it. It has been suggested that it would be helpful to those attending if you
referred to the lessons learnt from research. Prepare the session outline.
2. From your chief executive to the head of learning and development: ‘We need to
be certain that our learning and development strategy supports the achievement of
the business strategy. In what ways can it do this?’
3. From a friend studying human resource management: ‘I note that everyone is now
talking about “learning and development”. I gather that they used to talk about
“human
 Learning and Development
Strategy 663

Questions (continued)

resource development” (many still do) and training (also still common). Has there been some sort of prog

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