Linkages between personal development process and the transfer of learning.
Zirra, Daniela
Abstract: Knowledge transfer is one of the core elements in the
development of the individual growth process at high quality parameters,
regardless the field of activity. The development of knowledge-based
economy has generated a strong perception in favour of accelerating and
increasing importance of actions resulting in new knowledge being
assimilated, having a high degree of applicability within practical
life. One of the most favourable environments for the achievement of
knowledge transfer is an university, since this pays considerable
efforts in meeting the highly dynamic conditions of labour market,
particularly managerial staff active in the industrial sector, within
the context of economic globalisation.
Key words: personal development, transfer of learning, lifelong
learning, human resources development.
1. INTRODUCTION Considering the current stage of economic
development, the core features of human resources, mainly managerial
staff, are creativeness, team work abilities, communication and
negotiation abilities, capacity to adapt to fast changes, willingness
and continuous learning skills, entrepreneurship, abilities for drawing
up viable projects and their effective implementation, etc.
All the requirements outlined above are fundamental prerequisites
for increasing the economic performance of organisations and company
management quality, against the background of a raising competition at
national and international levels. The priorities entailed by Romania EU
accession require the establishment of human resource conditions and
infrastructure, needed for the absorption and management of structural
instruments, including here highly qualified managerial staff.
The higher educational environment, as an area for dissemination
and accumulation of new knowledge, due to teaching and scientific
activities developed here, is one of the most favourable fields for
conducting knowledge transfer. Hence, universities, mainly those in the
economic and technical fields, must meet the requirements of businesses
in terms of demand for managerial level staff training and they need to
widen their educational range, providing flexible and updated lifelong
training services, depending on the dynamics of the information required
for achieving high and competitive economic performance.
2. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT REQUIREMENTS
The current outstanding feature of the Romanian business
environment is the increase and diversification of company development
opportunities, concomitantly with an increased competition. Thus,
reaching a high performance level is conditional upon the human resource
development pace (Greenaway, 2007) and upon the quality of the adult
training process, within which personal development (PD) holds a central
position.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
But one should take into consideration that individual development
is affected by several influence factors, which may be classified within
three main categories (figure 1). The first category, life-long learning
opportunities (LLO), is an outcome of the interaction between labour
employers demand (LED) and educational system supply (ESS). The second
category is the outcome of qualifications, abilities and skills (QAS),
on demand in the labour market, triggered by the need of the
organisation to adapt to the change within the economic and social
environment (ESE). The third category, educational policies and
infrastructure (EPI), is the outcome of educational strategies
correlated with the demands of the business environment.
3. LLS AS A KEY FACTOR FOR PD
A performing life-long learning system (LLS), within which transfer
of learning is achieved, has to comply with several principles:
* solid anchorage into economic and social facts;
* modular and flexible structure, able to stimulate the
participation of employees and the interest of employers;
* able to facilitate the achievement of one's career
development objectives and knowledge level of employees;
* a coherent monitoring, evaluation and control procedure of
learning/teaching process;
* correlation of LLS objectives with the educational strategies at
various levels.
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
The evolution of lifelong learning processes, at least up to a
certain individual development level, takes the form of a spiral, which
has to be an ascending one, in four steps or stages (figure 2). The
first step consists in establishing the human resource development
objectives (HRD) within organisations, taking into account the overall
economic development and performance raising strategy. Also, it is this
stage when the own development objectives of employees' career are
outlined (PCD).
In order to reach the objectives previously stated, a transfer of
learning takes place in the second stage (ILO, 2007), using either the
own lifelong learning system (LLS), should this having been created
within the organisation, or an external system, which may be an
university providing training services, a specialist company or a large
sized company, with the same object of activity, but which has its own
department specialising in lifelong training of the staff. The third
step is probably the most difficult one, since it is the stage when the
new knowledge, accumulated during the training period, applies
effectively to practical activities, securing their capitalisation (NKV)
with the aim of raising individual performances, and implicitly those of
the organisations.
During the last stage, it takes place the outcome of new knowledge
capitalisation (Zirra, 2005). At company level, evaluation is conducted
by means of specific indicators measuring economic efficiency level
(EL), such as profit earning capacity, rate of return (since here we may
think that the costs incurred by the attending all the training modules
become investment), the turnover rate increase percentage, labour
productivity, etc.
In case of individuals, the evaluation of the knowledge
accumulation outcomes is a difficult aspect, as it requires
quantification of personal development level, achieved following the
attendance of the training modules, which induces a rather high
subjectivity degree, as well as the effectiveness of the transfer of
learning.
Three situations could be outlined at the end of this cycle
consisting of four stages:
* the level of the indicators used for evaluation purposes is
higher than during the previous time period, which means that the
objectives set for the first stage have been achieved, for the company
and for the employee (nevertheless, there are situations when personal
development has taken place, but the positive outcomes in relation to
career occur at a later stage);
* the values calculated for the evaluation indicators are equal to
those from the previous time period, which means that the level of
economic performance and individual development is preserved, which is
not a positive aspect, but either it does not generate loss (we may
conclude by saying that the resources used could have been allotted more
effectively in implementing other decisions);
* the value of the indicators is below the level prior to
undergoing through the learning process, which is evidence to resource
mismanagement, since either knowledge transfer has been ineffective, or
the knowledge modules chosen do not match the personal and/or group
needs, or the system chosen is not compliant with the principles of a
well performing lifelong learning system.
Starting from the outcomes of the evaluation, new objectives for
the development of the organisation and individuals are set, and the
process resumes at a different level.
The core factor which one should bear in mind that a high value of
knowledge transfer effectiveness is mainly conditional upon securing
balance among the real needs of individuals/employees, social groups
(including here companies) and communities, as well as on the resources
available for this purpose, on one side, and practical possibilities, on
the other side, to meet these needs by the providers of educational;
services (George, 2005).
4. HRD-PROJECT
The Human Resources Development Project
Phare/2004/016-772.04.02.02.01.01.811, named "Today Managers,
Entrepreneurs Tomorrow! Project for entrepreneurial and managerial
skills development" itself is promoting the increase the on-site
productivity of the employees, for keeping a high quality of the job
positions provided and for increasing the competitiveness and
adaptability of the work force. A special consideration is given to the
other goal of the project, respectively the need of diminishing the
discrepancies between the demand and the supply of work, in connection
with the new provocations generated by the necessity of training the
human resources for work in EU, in a knowledge-based economy. The
specific objectives to be achieved in project implementation are: to
increase the on-site management and entrepreneurial skills of the
employees in all the managing levels of occupation; to develop the
adaptability and mobility of these persons and preparing the industrial
private enterprises from the industrial sector for working in EU (Zirra,
2006); drawing up a training support in a full and complex package, in
accordance with the most modern learning methods, and with the training
and learning necessities generated by the rapid changes intervening in
the social-economic environment; the deployment of applications in
cooperation with the course participants, considering mainly the
development of the entrepreneurial spirit and the improvement of the
management quality.
5. CONCLUSION
The current requirements related to the pace and level of human
resources development is directly connected to the evolution of
manufacturing processes and technologies, as well as to the tendencies
within the educational field. In order, for the ratio among these
elements not to generate disturbances into the economic performance
level, the following aspects need to be achieved: the education service
offer has to be steadily updated, in keeping with the demand of
abilities and competences in the labour market and it should even
anticipate the developments of the real economy; the human resource
policies within universities should be inter-linked with the staff
training strategies within businesses; the promotion of lifelong
learning in all economic and social fields is a continuous need for
everyone.
6. REFERENCES
George, J. (2005). Vision for an Innovative Information
Society-eLearning-The Best Mode, Proceedings of the second International
Conference on eLearning For Knowledge-Based Society, pp. 13.1-13.6,
Thailand, August 4-7, Bangkok
Greenaway, R. (2007). Leadership Training: 10 Tips for Programme
Design, Available from:
http://www.reviewing.co.uk/articles/leadership-training.htm Accessed:
2007-01-29
International Labour Office (2007), Learning and Training for Work
in the Knowledge Society, pp. 9-15, Available from:
http://www-ilomirror.cornell.edu/public/english/employment/
skills/recomm/report/ch_1.htm Accessed: 2007-03-11
Zirra, D. (2005). Employment and unemployment in economic
neoliberalism, Ed. Universitara, ISBN 973-7787-84-6, Bucharest
Zirra, D. (2006). Education and Competitiveness in contemporary
business world, Proceedings of The 2006 International Conference of
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ASE, Bucharest
