HRMN 406: Project Deliverable 1

Chapter 2

The Organization

Survival is the goal of every organization!

Chapter Two Learning Objectives

Readers will achieve the following learning objectives after reading Chapter Two.

1 Explain the purpose of a vision statement. 2 Identify and describe the benefits of a vision statement. 3 Differentiate between a vision for an organization and a vision for

an organization’s training program. 4 Discuss the role, function, and benefits of goals. 5 Define SMART goals and explain the benefits of SMART goals. 6 Discuss the role, function, and benefits of training goals. 7 Define and describe what strategy means for an organization. 8 Differentiate between the different types of strategies. 9 Explain the benefits of using the concept of strategy.

Learning Objective #1: Explain the Purpose of a Vision Statement

A vision functions like a goal by providing focus in attaining an as yet unreached destination. A vision represents a broad strategic position that the organization seeks to reach within a 3–5-year time frame. Goals are more specific, and the time frame for a goal is typically one year.

Vision statements are often one-sentence statements intended to pro- vide readers with a general understanding of what the organization seeks to become at some future date. A vision provides focus and represents a guide for all organizational activities to follow.

Vision statements are strategic, in that a vision provides a world view of what leaders want the organization to become. Though often 3–5 years out into the

C o p y r i g h t 2 0 1 9 . R o u t l e d g e .

A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d . M a y n o t b e r e p r o d u c e d i n a n y f o r m w i t h o u t p e r m i s s i o n f r o m t h e p u b l i s h e r , e x c e p t f a i r u s e s p e r m i t t e d u n d e r U . S . o r a p p l i c a b l e c o p y r i g h t l a w .

EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 8/16/2022 5:52 PM via UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND GLOBAL CAMPUS AN: 1881039 ; Stanley C. Ross.; Training and Development in Organizations : An Essential Guide For Trainers Account: s4264928.main.eds

Book: Stanley C. Ross. (2019). Training and Development in Organizations: An Essential Guide For Trainers. Routledge.

Link: https://eds-s-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.umgc.edu/eds/ebookviewer/ebook?sid=ceb41bf3-5b30-4d26-94f2- dcc2466287f2%40redis&ppid=pp_15&vid=0&format=EB

16 The Organization

future, organizations that operate in a dynamic competitive environment will likely use a 2–3-year time frame to reach the destination envisioned.

Visions symbolize dynamic statements that represent the organization’s view of what it is possible to achieve. Because the future represents the unknown and unpredictability, the further out in time, the less predictable are the competitive and economic conditions. Organizations modify vision statements as they move forward to calibrate the vision with what is achiev- able within the circumstances confronting leaders.

For individuals, a vision states the individual’s destination point within a 3–5-year time frame, though shorter time frames are often common, as the individual’s circumstances may vary.

Learning Objective #2: Identify and Describe the Benefits of a Vision Statement

There are several benefits associated with using a vision statement. These benefits are not mutually exclusive, but I have separated each to offer greater clarity for the reader. In no particular order of importance, these points provide insights as to why organizations benefit from developing a vision statement.

1 The Process of Formulating a Vision Offers Clarity on Providing Direction • Many members of an organization hold differing views as to a future

destination for the organization. The process of formulating a vision statement aids everyone in developing a world view of what is real- istic and attainable.

2 Vision Statements Provide Focus • A vision aids organizational members in providing direction, some-

thing to guide their actions. Without a vision, members are more likely to pursue personal aims to the detriment of the organization.

3 Sense of Purpose • A vision provides a rationale to justify organizational members’

actions. Absent a vision, and members offer their personal views as to the value of their work effort.

4 Strategic View • Organizational members mostly focus on the day-to-day details of

their work. A vision offers a “big picture” or strategic context that is often missing. A strategic view is beneficial because the member can articulate their role and contribution in the organization’s efforts to achieve the vision.

5 Motivates and Inspires • A well-articulated vision can motivate and inspire an organization’s

workforce simply because a vision represents a realistic, dream- like state that everyone believes is achievable. Everyone wants

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The Organization 17

to actually achieve a great dream because then the individual is better off.

6 Goal-Oriented • A vision statement has the form of a goal without the specif-

ics associated with goals. A vision encourages the development or strengthening of the value of being goal-oriented, which helps keep organizational members focused on the destination.

7 Provides a Common Frame of Reference • Organizations benefit when employees work together. A vision provides

a unifying statement giving everyone a sense of purpose that serves to justify everyone’s work and commitment to reaching the end destination.

8 Tangible Guide • A well-articulated vision provides workers with a useful frame of ref-

erence to compare and contrast intentions and actions with expecta- tions. A vision represents the means to ensure that workers’ actions dovetail with the actions necessary to achieve the vision.

Learning Objective #3: Differentiate between an Organization’s Vision and a Training Vision

An organization’s vision and a vision for training serve the same purposes, though a training vision covers a narrower focus. Each type of vision repre- sents a sought-after endpoint. Each vision provides a strategic world view that represents a focus point to reach. Both types of vision symbolize a condition that puts the organization in a better competitive position. The vision for training is linked to the organizational vision, largely because training pro- vides the knowledge, skills, experiences, and improvements to the abilities of the workforce, with the goal of achieving the organization’s vision.

A training vision provides focus in selecting the types of training important to the organization’s pursuit of the organizational vision. That is, the forms of training the organization needs to emphasize, the preferred instructional methods to utilize in training, along with the level and range of complexity in the selection of learning objectives.

• Types of Training: this can emphasize certain knowledge and skills to develop, legal issues, leadership development, technical performance, or talent development.

• Forms of Training: examples of different forms of training include class- room, online, small groups, and one-on-one.

• Instructional Methods: examples include lectures, PowerPoint, video, self-paced, workbooks, role playing, etc.

• Learning Objectives: during each training session, trainers and the organ- ization expect trainees to achieve specific objectives during training that demonstrate successful learning.

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18 The Organization

Examples of possible organizational visions include the following.

• Become the largest producer of XYZ products. • Double revenue within five years. • Establish regional locations throughout the New England area. • Achieve the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award. • Become the dominant firm in our market.

Examples of a training vision include the following.

• Receive ATD’s Best Award for a successful training program. • Earn recognition by Training Magazine as being among the top 125 train-

ing programs. • Receive Training Industry’s award for top leadership development train-

ing program. • Earn ATD’s Champion of Talent Development Award. • Earn ATD’s Innovation in Talent Development Award.

Learning Objective #4: Discuss the Role, Function, and Benefits of Goals

The central role of goals is to move the organization and training towards achieving the respective visions. Goals represent the organization’s efforts at concretizing what needs to be achieved to reach the vision. There is a direct link between goals and vision, whether the level of focus is the organizational vision (focus on organization goals) or training vision (focus on training goals).

Goals have several important functions. First, a goal provides focus. Focus is necessary to ensure that the workforce attends to what is required to achieve the vision. Good goals are realistic and achievable. They are realistic in that the goal(s) represent the best way to move the organization forward, and that the organization is likely to achieve the goal(s) within a set time frame. Specific and measurable goals enable goal setters to measure progress and take any corrective action necessary. Goals that provide a time frame – often no longer than a year – create a sense of urgency which accelerates the process created to achieve the goals.

Benefits to setting the best type of goals include the following.

• A good goal provides focus which aids goal implementers to remain disciplined.

• Good goals motivate because the goal is achievable and people like to succeed. • Goals prioritize what is essential from non-essential activities. • Goals provide goal implementers with the reasoning to justify their

actions within a politicized environment where everyone can have dif- ferent priorities.

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The Organization 19

• Goals and the process for achieving the goals require that goal imple- menters work together by coordinating their actions to achieve the goals.

Learning Objective #5: Define SMART Goals and Explain the Benefits of SMART-Type Goals

SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. SMART goals represent the preferred type of goal because the goal setter(s) need to address criteria that demand a certain level of preciseness. The preci- sion does not guarantee success in achieving the goal, but a SMART goal provides an expectation and a pragmatic approach to goal-setting.

There are several benefits associated with the use of SMART-type goals.

• Focus is important in setting goals and a SMART goal provides focus on a specific target to achieve.

• A sense of urgency is important to provide implementers with the need to prioritize among the many actions pursued.

• SMART goals motivate because this type of goal is useful in a personnel evaluation system.

• Competition among organization members lessens because success is achieved by working together and progress is measurable.

• The ability to measure progress is important to ensure that the organiza- tion is moving forward, and to develop solutions to any problems that might hinder goal achievement.

• SMART goals represent the organization’s determination that achieving these goals will help to achieve the vision. SMART goals are the pre- ferred type of goal to do this because the goals are linked to the vision in a precise way.

The following are examples of SMART goals.

• Increase annual revenues by 10% by 2020. • Achieve 35% profit margins within two years. • Increase market share to 12% by 2020. • Average two new annual product upgrades by 2020. • Increase the number of computer programmers from 100 to 200 by 2020. • Achieve an average customer rating of highly satisfied by 2020.

Learning Objective #6: Discuss the Role, Function, and Benefits of Training Goals

Training goals are central in conducting training in any organization because training goals symbolize the training priorities of the organization.

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20 The Organization

By identifying training goals, training needs become clear. At this point training program designers begin the process of identifying specific training needs and identify the methods for satisfying these needs. The process that follows the identification of the needs and methods for meeting these needs includes specifying specific types of training. For example, if the need is to enhance technical skills and the method is classroom instruction, then the fol- lowing step in the process is to identify the specific technical skills to focus on.

The next step is for the designers to work with relevant technical experts to design the training program. Designing the program entails identifying the learning objectives, subjects to cover, topics within each subject area to focus on, time to allocate for the program and each stage in the training process, instructional methods to use, and assessment methods to use in order to learn if trainees are achieving the learning objectives.

An example is designing an ethics-focused training program. Ethics shape people’s actions. The process described above is followed again, but perhaps trainers decide that self-learning is best. The mode of instruction is com- puter-based, and the primary instructional method is short cases that highlight specific ethical issues to learn about, including preferred and less preferred practices. Self-assessment using multiple choice tests can provide instant feed- back for the trainee. The instructional program will cover all the same issues (e.g., stages, subjects, time frame, etc.), but the details are relevant to the specific purpose of the training program.

Benefits of training goals include the following.

• Goals show the priorities to accomplish if the training is to be successful in supporting the organization’s strategy for achieving the organization’s goals.

• Goals provide focus to everyone associated with the design and imple- mentation of the organization’s training programs.

• SMART-type training goals enable all the important participants to assess progress towards achieving the goals.

• SMART goals create a sense of urgency because the goals provide a time frame for achieving each SMART goal.

Learning Objective #7: Define and Describe What Strategy Means for an Organization

Strategy represents an organization’s overall plan for achieving the organi- zation’s strategic goals, which, when accomplished, move the organization forward towards reaching the destination, the vision. Strategy reflects the combined wisdom of senior leaders and technical experts who examine a broad range of information during the strategy formulation process to reduce the range of strategic options to consider, and then select the optimal strategy from the available options.

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There are two broad categories of information: information external to the organization, and information generated that sheds light on the internal issues of the organization. There are two primary external sources of infor- mation to analyze. First, there is an environmental analysis which involves identifying important issues that represent both opportunities and threats. Examples include the macro-economy; socio-cultural factors (e.g., demo- graphic trends, changes in values, etc.); political-legal factors (e.g., new laws or changes to existing laws, etc.); technology that an organization can pursue such as process technology, input technology, and product features with a technology theme; and international factors (e.g., new trade agreements with other countries, etc.). The other important external analysis is an industry analysis. This type of analysis enables the strategists to understand an organi- zation’s place within an industry and the factors that an organization needs to consider when formulating a strategy. Michael Porter’s book Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors (1980) describes in detail the issues to consider when conducting an industry analysis.

There are six major topics to focus on when conducting an internal analy- sis during the information-gathering stage of the strategy formulation process. First, the organization conducts a formal SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis involves identifying the important strengths and weaknesses of the organi- zation, as well as the external opportunities and threats that the organiza- tion needs to consider in formulating a strategy. Next is the identification of competitive advantages. Competitive advantages represent the dominant strengths of the organization and represent the foundation around which the organization’s strategy is formulated. Competitive advantages are more than strengths. Competitive advantages represent the ways the organization dem- onstrates exceptional practices. For example, an inventory control system, a product design process, a product development process, or process man- agement practices are all possible competitive advantages (more than just a strength). Another issue to consider is resource management. Resources rep- resent a constraint, and an organization needs to consider resource availability and resource accessibility during the strategy formulation process.

Financial analysis is another important method for providing critical infor- mation. Examining resource growth, sources of revenue, cost growth and major trends, profit margins, debt load, and performance ratios all provide critical insights about the organization’s operations. Marketing information is another source of information. Market share, market dominance, market growth rate, customer satisfaction, and brand loyalty are all important issues to consider during the strategy formulation process.

Finally, the management team and the organization’s culture are important factors to consider during the strategy formulation process. Senior managers provide the strategic or “big picture” focus and drive the organization’s initia- tives. It is important to consider what the leaders offer, in order to decide what type of strategies these leaders will support. An organization’s culture reflects

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22 The Organization

the values held as being important to an organization, and values influence all the actions within an organization. A strategy needs to reflect the organization’s important values (e.g., risk tolerance, customer importance, etc.), or it needs to present different values to consider during the strategy formulation process.

Learning Objective #8: Differentiate between the Different Types of Strategies

There are three levels of strategies to differentiate among. The broadest, most comprehensive strategy is the corporate strategy. A corporate strat- egy represents the organization’s plan for achieving the strategic goals set by the organization.

The next level of strategy is business strategies. An organization with sepa- rate divisions, such as a conglomerate, will expect each division to have a strategy for achieving that division’s strategic goals. This level of strategy or plan encompasses the particular segments of each division, as the range of dif- ferences among divisions can vary substantially.

Whether organization-wide or at the division level, there are organiza- tional functions. A function covers one dominant purpose and represents an organization’s or a division’s attempt to aggregate all related functions under one organizational umbrella. Examples of major functions include marketing, R&D, human resources, and accounting, as well as other types of functions. There are sub-functions as well. Examples under human resources include benefits, recruitment, training, hiring, etc. Each functional area or sub-function develops a functional strategy (as does each sub-functional area), which is intended to achieve the functional goals (or sub-function’s goals) that are linked to achieving the organization’s strategic goals (or division’s goals, depending on the focus.

Learning Objective #9: Explain the Benefits of Applying the Concept of Strategy

Having a strategy as an outcome of a strategic planning process is beneficial for several important reasons.

• Strategy provides focus. Employees know what is important to the organization.

• Strategy represents the plan for achieving the strategic goals. Because strategy is a product of the strategic planning process, employees have a high level of confidence that by following the plan, there is a high prob- ability of success in achieving the strategic goals.

• Strategy’s role as a plan represents the primary means for organizing employees’ efforts in specific ways and for facilitating coordination among all the major units and key employees.

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• Strategy represents the organization’s efforts to use organizational resources in the best way possible. Resource utilization is an important factor in supporting the strategy implementation process.

• Strategy motivates the workforce by providing a roadmap to follow for achieving the strategic goals and for clarifying everyone’s role during the implementation process.

Questions

1 Identify and describe the term “vision” and briefly discuss the role of a vision for the organization.

2 Discuss the role of a training vision for the organization. 3 Explain why SMART-type goals are superior to other forms of goals. 4 Identify and explain the role strategy plays for an organization. 5 Explain what is meant by the term “training strategy.”

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