Editorial
Article Type: Editorial From: Development and Learning in Organizations, Volume 23, Issue 5
Organizations in many parts of the world continue to feel the reverberations from the global financial crisis that first became widely visible back in September 2008. In this kind of turbulence, learning and development can so often find itself at best on the back foot and at worst, off the strategic agenda all together. This issue provides you with a host of creative ideas to keep learning and development centre stage and adding value to your organization.
Starting from the UK, Arif Ahmed kicks things off with some challenging questions for HR and L&D professionals. He argues for more intelligent responses to the crisis than the all too common “redundancies across the board”. You will find some suggestions on how to retain the knowledge and skills that will enable an organization to survive and thrive.
Professor Rao also calls for a more learning based response to economic recession. Whilst his focus is on the Indian IT sector his timely reminders of some of the downsides to sacking people (and the benefits that can be gained by retaining them) are applicable to most organizations.
Few organizations predicted the scale and complexity of the current recession, which highlights the critical need for a flexible and innovative workforce. Milton Mayfield, from the USA, outlines an approach to “garden variety creativity” – a way of engaging the whole workforce in constantly questioning and improving everything they do. His process chart is particularly helpful.
Based on research in Australia, Tom Short tackles the ever thorny issue of evaluation. When budgets are tight, business leaders will be looking ever more closely at their investment decisions. Highlighting what he calls the “evaluation vacuum”, he provides a checklist of nine points against which you can assess your current strategies and methods.
Our final authored piece shines a spotlight on the organizational benefits that can result from having a clear focus on managerial health. Clinton Longenecker, Robert Yonker and Laura McGoldrick share their research with high performing managers. I wonder how many of us could answer in the affirmative the questions linked to the five recommended practices?
The review pieces begin with “Engaging the staff in a real relationship– are employees genuinely motivated or merely satisfied?”. The core of this article lies in how good staff surveys, regularly done, can be an effective tool in figuring out what needs to change to increase employee engagement. The results are illustrated through interesting case studies from UK and USA organizations.
“Why SMEs shouldn’t neglect e-learning – collaboration for tacit knowledge transfer” looks at how SMEs can more effectively utilize technology when thinking about strategies for learning. It highlights the opportunities that exist for them to create more collaborative and individually focused learning that really meets their needs.
As our final piece, we have an illuminating case study on how to manage a talent pipeline in “Ireland’s Kentz hones skills at every level– company builds for the future”. Despite the current lack-lustre state of the construction sector, this organization continues to invest in building the skills and experience, both technical and managerial, it will need for the future. Their use of mentors is of particular merit and their commitment to the long term is commendable.
Anne GimsonStrategic Developments International UK. E-mail: anne@stratdevint.com
