Recognize and Incorporate Learning and Development in the Organization.

Organizations use unique learning and development styles. Like as individuals, organizations do their learning with accordance to the current business environment through their choices (Kolb, Osland and Rubin, 1995).  Therefore it is important to recognize the ideal learning method in the organization. Employer may assume that learning is only a matter of training that given to the employees to get the job done. But this assumption can be entirely inaccurate and may be risky when in facing the increasing competition in the market (Garvin, Edmondson and Gino, 2008).

Learning organizations shall be careful when creating such environment to use their own models and assumptions before they take actions (Schein 1992). In order to establish it, the trainer and the trainee should have a mutual understand when training is conducted. The access to the associated departments of his working environment should be given to the trainee. This connection is created by the trainer (Schein 1992).

 In the organization I am working,  when a training session is conducted to a cabin crew member, he or she will be assigned to visit and work in associated departments such as airport ground handling department, in-flight catering division and airport security division. This way of training makes a cabin crew member customer- centric and establishes more confidence, when he or she is assigned for actual duty. Also the trainee will get a broad idea of how other departments are inter-related when delivering the product to the customer.

The mentioned method of effective training can be further described by David Kolb’s (1984) learning cycle. 

 

Figure 01: Kolb’s learning cycle

Source: (Kolb’s 1995)

Any learning organization practices these 4 important steps in training. These steps can be further described by following examples;

·         Concrete Experience: The trainers of in-flight department holds minimum of 20 years of flying experience in the airline in order to become a certify trainer. The vast knowledge and the experience in the subject that they carry and share with the trainee shall help him or her to be confident when performing duties in-flight.

·         Observation and reflection: When performing duties in-flight and gaining experience, the trainee will be reviewed and assessed on-board by the trainer on the knowledge of learned principles.

·         Formation of abstract concepts and generalizations: The trainee then will be guided to clarify the experience received in-flight against the knowledge that he or she gained from the training. This will help the trainee to further abstract necessary information.

·         Testing implications of concepts in new situation: One of the best way to learn is having an ‘on the job training’ while theories are taught in the class room. It also gives the trainee an opportunity to apply the theories on what he or she learnt in the class room environment.

 

Based on Kolb’s learning theory, in order to recognize the exact learning styles, Honey and Mumford’s learning style questionnaire is used often (Maric, et al 2015).  Honey and Mumford (1986) explains about 04 styles of learning. Which are Activist, Reflector, Theorist and Pragmatist. Each style has special talents that describes as follows;

Activist

·         Learns from new experiences/problems and opportunities.

·         Able to engage in short activities such as business games, role playing exercise and competitive tasks.

·         They are thrown in at the deep end with a task they think is difficult.

Reflectors

·         Encouraged to watch/think and chew over activities.

·         Allowed to think before acting, to understand before commenting.

·         Able to reach the decision in their own time without pressure and tight deadlines.

Theorists

·         Has time to explore methodically the associations and inter-relationships between ideas, events and situations.

·         They are in structured situations with clear purposes.

·         They are intellectually stretched.

Pragmatists

·         There is an obvious link between the subject matter and a problem or opportunity on the job.

·         There are shown techniques for doing things with obvious practical advantages currently applicable to their own job.

·         Able to concentrate on practical issues.

Figure 02: Connection between Kolb’s learning cycle and Honey and Mumford’s learning styles

Source: Atkinson (2017).

 

Based on the above styles, these characters can be identifies in inflight department;

Activists: Flight Attendant.

Reflectors: In-flight cabin services supervisor.

Theorists: In-flight cabin manager.

Pragmatists: In-flight Safety/Service instructor.

  

References

Atkinson, T.H (2017). Paving the way. [Online]. Available at <https://tracyharringtonatkinson.com/honey-mumford-2/>. [Accessed on 23^rd may 2020].

Garvin, D.A., Edmondson, A.C. and Gino, F. (2008). Is yours a learning organization? [Online].Available at < https://hbr.org/2008/03/is-yours-a-learning-organization?referral=03758&cm_vc=rr_item_page.top_right>. [Accessed on 20^th May 2020]

Kolb, D.A., Osland, J.S. and Rubin, I.M. (1995).Organizational behavior: an experiential approach.6^th Ed. New Jersey, Prentice hall [Online].  Available at< https://archive.org/stream/organizationalbe0000kolb_ed6#page/n3/mode/2up>. [Accessed on 20^th May 2020]

Kolb, D.A., Osland, J.S. and Rubin, I.M. (1995).Organizational behavior: an experiential approach.6^th Ed. New Jersey, Prentice hall, p.49 [Online].  Available at< https://archive.org/stream/organizationalbe0000kolb_ed6#page/n3/mode/2up>. [Accessed on 20^th May 2020]

Maric, M., Penger, S. Todorvic, I., Durian, N. and Pintar, R. (2015). Differences in learning styles: A comparison of Slovenian Universities. 7^th world conference on educational sciences.Novotel Athens convention center, Athens, 05-07 February. [Online]. Available at <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280875743_Differences_in_Learning_Styles_A_comparison_of_Slovenian_Universities>. [Accessed on 22^nd May 2020].

Mumford, A. (1986). Handbook of management development. 2^nd Ed. [Online]. Available at < https://archive.org/stream/handbookofmanage00mumf?ref=ol#page/114/mode/2up>. [Accessed on 23^rd May 2020]

Schein, E.H. (1992).Organizational culture and leadership.2^nd Ed.California, Jossey-Bass [Online]. Available at < https://archive.org/stream/organizationalcu00sche_0?ref=ol#page/n7/mode/2up>. [Accessed on 20^th May 2020].

Schein, E.H. (1992).Organizational culture and leadership.2^nd Ed.California, Jossey-Bass [Online]. Available at < https://archive.org/stream/organizationalcu00sche_0?ref=ol#page/n7/mode/2up>. [Accessed on 20^th May 2020].