Team Learning In Human Resource Development

Importance of Team Learning in Human Resource Development

Discuss about th Team Learning in Human Resource Development.

Human resource development refers to the process of helping the employees of an organization to develop their personal and organizational skills. This process initiates positive change in the personnel recruitment in the management of an organization and due to this process, the efficiency in an organization also increases. Human resource is the most important asset of the organization and development of that asset will always result in driving benefit for the company. Team learning in an organization refers to the process of learning in an organization collectively. Under this process, all individuals who are recruited in an organization are collaborated with a view to shares their opinions and learn together (Armstrong, and Taylor 2014).

The essay further includes an explanation of the activities of human resource development with respect to team learning process. It provides a critique and reflection on the essence of team learning process implementation in an organization.

The concept of team learning is concerned and made focused on the potential and the abilities of the group which is working as a team. The term involves an interaction of the team mates and also learning from each other and the tasks allotted to them. In this concept learning process is executed by the transfer of skills by observing subordinates in action, solving the issues collectively, experimentation questioning assumptions and monitoring and reviewing the results as a group. Team learning is the concept which aids the team mates and the group as a whole through various ways (Burke 2017). For instance, the prior skills, potential and experience enhancing is shared which lead to an enhancement in the learning experience for the team. In this methodology, the team mates are forced to be present, promote and negotiate their views and ideas so as to increase the retention.

The below executed is the critical analysis, which has been conducted on the team learning and involves the following arguments. It has been noted that one of the biggest advantages of team learning is that there is an equal division of labor (Cummings, and Worley 2014). So there will be a reduction in the issues due to the monitoring of the tasks of each and every individual, as the leader is required to check the aspects of the team project only. Smaller tasks will be requiring less time and expense and working in a team will cut down the both the aspects and work load will also be reduced significantly. But at the same time, it has also been observed that working in teams can also be problematic. In case of any error or crisis, it will be very much easier for the team member to point out the finger at the other employee and indulge in the blame game. Things become more difficult when one is doing correct things and other makes a mistake and this mistake affects and reflects the working of the team (Herisi, & Khodabakhsh 2011).

Benefits and Challenges of Team Learning

Sharing of responsibilities can be done when due to some reason the project fails. The team will stand by one another in such a manner that they will be able to take the responsibility and shoulder the blame. Those teams who resort, pointing fingers at the other while they are facing a crisis, this dictates lack of team spirit (Joo, McLean, and Yang 2013). Whereas, it has also been noticed that, it is very much challenging to work in a team when each and every-one is not trying to give their best efforts and this can be proven problematic for the team productivity. There are two type of individuals in a team, the one who is working for long hours and the others are those are laid back and do not adhere to any of their tasks and deadlines. And this is due to these lazy individuals that the team suffers failure (Kumpikaite 2008).

It is of very much essential for a team mate to communicate with the other team members and also with the superiors so as to attain the success. If an individual is working on a task, then also there will be a need of providing updates to the team leads and the other team mates. This regular communication process will tend to bring an enhancement in the interaction skills of the individual (McGuire 2014). But in some cases, it has also been observed that the communication process which occurs and creates exchanges of ideas and thoughts will become a reason for some issues. As each and every individual have different perceptions and opinions, distinct sets of thoughts and ideas and things can go incredibly wrong when there will be differences in the working and thinking methods. For instance, there are many individuals which have a habit of working in advance whereas some belief in working last minute. And this develops chances of clashes in the ideas (Noruzy, et. al., 2013).

Though being a leader, the leaders working with a team also gets a number of challenges and which will enable the leader to upgrade the skills and potential. The team leader acts as a link between the team members and bridging the communication gaps between the employees will enable the leaders to enhance their interaction skills. But in some cases, there can be a possibility of a biased leader, means he can be partial towards some individuals (Rock 2014). This will degrade his image and also there will be chances of conflicts and issues among the team mates. Moreover, this will also affect the performance of the individual and also of the team. Also, there can be chances of having an overbearing leader and authoritative leader, who will not be willing to listen to the team mates. These types of leaders do not even consider the ideas and thoughts of the team members and by which the team will get demotivated and lack of determination and dedication level will be observed. This will reduce the productivity and performance level of the team members (Schaubroeck, et. al.,  2016).

Effective Implementation of Team Learning

As per my opinion team learning is important for the management to function well in an organization. It is a collaborative effort which leads to the fulfillment of organization objective. Under the process of team learning, all the employees of the organization are aligned together in a group so that the conflicts are resolved easily and discussion are practiced in the organization. According to me, team learning is not mandatory for a particular organization but it is important for all organizations having optimum recruits. It also helps the management  to effectively communicate with their employees and seek to their problems and ideas as well. Team learning is not a sole process instead it is a collective process which includes many activities. In my views, every organization should implement this process in their organizational culture so that collective learning is initiated along with which the employees become familiar with the environment and easily open up as well.

The process is implemented in an organization by using a tool that is learning agenda. Learning agenda refers to the process of setting up questions that identify the needs and aspects which shall be learned through the process. The process is based on three major parts that are: set of learning questions, set of activities to solve the questions and a plan to share and circulate the following information. Learning agendas are the basic set of plans on the basis of which the whole program of team learning works. Teamwork collectively helps the organization to improve its efficiency and it also helps the organization understanding the human resource management system adequately.

According to the Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, the team learning process is defined as a discipline that starts with a "dialogue" which means the capacity of the members of an organization to collectively provide assumptions on a case and ends at a genuine process of "thinking together." This process is important in an organization because no individual is left alone in the task given by the management and the process of fundamental learning unit is formalized in the modernized organizational structure (Heathfield 2016). Lastly, as per my understandings, every person in their respective personal lives also gets to enjoy the usefulness and essence of team learning. As this process helps them individually to adapt with people of different natures and share and receive ideas of people coming from different communities. The human resource behavior is improved with the initiation of this process (Gold, et. al., 2013).

With the above-mentioned analysis, the fact that shall be noted is that team work is the essence of efficient management in an organization. The process of team works provides a positive impact on the human resource development of an organization, it has the potential to create and change a complex organization culture into a simple organizational culture. Participation of team in learning and development phase helps the organization to share views and initiate development of the whole team, not just one person. Thus, it shall be noted that every organization shall take the initiative to develop and implement team learning in their organization system so as to improve its efficiency.

References

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Burke, W.W., 2017. Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.

Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C.G., 2014. Organization development and change. Cengage learning.

Gold, J., Holden, R., Iles, P., Stewart, J. and Beardwell, J. eds., 2013. Human resource development: Theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan.

Heathfield, S. M., 2016. What Is Human Resource Development (HRD)?. Viewed on September 13, 2017 from https://www.thebalance.com/what-is-human-resource-development-hrd-1918142

Herisi, M. M., & Khodabakhsh, M., 2011. Learning Organizations and Human Resource Development. Viewed on September 13, 2017 from https://www.wbiconpro.com/472-Mahboubeh.pdf

Joo, B.K., McLean, G.N. and Yang, B., 2013. Creativity and human resource development: An integrative literature review and a conceptual framework for future research. Human Resource Development Review, 12(4), pp.390-421.

Kumpikaite, V., 2008. Human resource development in learning organization. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 9(1). Pp. 25-31

McGuire, D., 2014. Human resource development. Sage.

Noruzy, A., Dalfard, V.M., Azhdari, B., Nazari-Shirkouhi, S. and Rezazadeh, A., 2013. Relations between transformational leadership, organizational learning, knowledge management, organizational innovation, and organizational performance: an empirical investigation of manufacturing firms. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, pp.1-13.

Rock, D., 2014. Quiet leadership. HarperCollins e-books.

Schaubroeck, J., Carmeli, A., Bhatia, S. and Paz, E., 2016. Enabling team learning when members are prone to contentious communication: The role of team leader coaching. human relations, 69(8), pp.1709-1727.