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Literature Review
Employee Development
Literature Review – BMAL 501
Liberty University
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Literature Review
Abstract
Employee Development is crucial for an organization to strive and succeed. For an organization
to grow there needs to be employees that are developed to create ideas and move the
organization forward in a positive direction. In many organizations that develop their employees,
it is found that the organization succeeds to meet their goals, and can grow larger as new ideas
are created. As organizations grow it is natural for newer technologies to be created, which is
where employee development can be crucial for the organization to properly function. It is not
the employee’s responsibility to learn their new responsibilities, but it is rather the organizations
responsibility to create opportunities and programs that enable the employee to develop. It does
however demand that employees function to the best of their ability to challenge themselves and
expand their knowledge of the organizations functions.
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Literature Review
Employee Development
Literature Review – BMAL 501
Employee development is crucial for an organization to grow. In defining employee
development it is shown here as, “Development is educating employees so that they are prepared
for their future within the organization.” (Satterlee, 2013). In many organizations today, those
that invest in their employees and put the wellbeing of their employees and consumers first have
noticeably better performance and expansion. When employees feel as though the organization
does not invest in them, they will in turn become stagnant in their current position causing
performance to decrease and problems to arise in their current job.
Employer’s responsibility to develop employees
Within organizations there needs to be a catalyst that begins the process of developing
employees. That catalyst will never be employees creating advancement or development
programs for themselves, rather that catalyst will come from managers and leaders within the
organization that create ideas and develop plans for employee development programs. Many
larger organizations have an HR office that oftentimes use technology to create development
programs for employees, but regardless of the size or method of development, it is essential that
the leaders within the organization makes a concerted effort in developing employees.
As organizations grow the employees must follow suit, and we see here a reason for
organizations to develop their employees as, “a way to develop employees that feel responsibility
or obligation is to invest in employee development” (Dysvik, Kuvaas, Buch, 2016).
Organizations need leaders that understand the importance of employee development and
identify those employees that it would be beneficial for the organization that they be developed.
Within organizations there are many social spheres that an employee can get involved in, and one
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way which an organization can direct the employee in managing and traversing those spheres is
by understanding its responsibility in the process. It is important to note that, “the company has a
social responsibility to invest into its human capital.” (Vnoučková, Urbancová, and Smolová,
2015). As organizations grow and create levels of leadership, it is essential for the leaders to be
able to identify and notice employees that are wanting to move upward and attain more
responsibility within the organization. As employees strive to succeed and grow out of their
current position, it is at times the responsibility of the organization to identify those individuals
and either find a new upward position, or even create a position for the employee to best suite
their skills and new attained knowledge. It is important as noted here for, “organizations career
opportunities needs to increase if the expectations of the employees are higher” (Basak,
Vandenberghe, 2016). Within organizations it is key for the correct employees be identified for
employee development as certain employees have more of a vested interest in the organization
and their careers. It is important for those employees be selected and more attention and
developing take place as the time would be best invested in those that want to give back to the
organization.
How Technology has impacted employee development
Throughout organizations there has been a dramatic push to use more and more
technology. This can be beneficial for many organizations in the area of employee development,
as this removes the men and women needed for repetitive development sessions. This has also
created a new way of developing employees by the method of using technology as a resource. In
many organizations the technology has simplified the process of developing employees, and it is
noted here that, “employee development has become cheaper and more cost efficient as
computerized learning has increased with different systems that have been developed” (Little,
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2015). It is understood that many organizations have been able to save a vast amount of
resources by transitioning existing employee development programs that took many people to
accomplish, and used technology instead as the method of developing employees.
Many organizations have also found specific ways of instructing and developing their
workforce. The specific way or method is virtual learning, which has streamlined many
development programs that take away face to face interaction, and now use screen to face
interaction. As technology has developed, so has employee development programs and it is seen
here how that experience can be good for employees, “virtual learning has provided learners with
a beneficial experience” (Ngamsirijit, 2016). As organizations grow, it is important for that
organization to utilize its resources effectively and embrace technology by utilizing virtual
learning. Also as employees grow in their current role and position within an organization, it is
the employees responsibility to make the most out of the virtual learning experience as that is the
key to the success and effectiveness of the employee development process by method of using
technology.
Effective employee development affects organization growth
It can be seen that over time when organizations invest in their employees the
organization receives that benefit by the organization growing in a positive way financially and
in popularity. As organization invest in their employees that have a drive to succeed, that in turn
creates employees that are empowered and mobilized to succeed which causes an organization to
reap the benefits. As leaders create ideas and develop employees with those ideas a cycle of
creating ideas and taking action to accomplish those ideas and organizational goals occurs. It is
seen at this organization, that an organization reaps the benefits of a well-managed employee
development program here, “at Aspire it has helped it to increase turnover by 15.8 percent and
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Literature Review
ensure that employees embrace challenge with enthusiasm and an appetite through its employee
development program” (Broadhurst, 2012). Within organizations it is crucial for a high rate or
turnover to not occur as that can cause organizational instability and breakdowns in
communication channels.
For employee development programs to be effective, the leaders need to have the ability
to identify employees that would be best suited for certain development programs that match
their strengths. Organizations that successfully identify employees for certain positions that
move the employee upward within the organization can see an increase in the employees growth
within that new position and feel the results of the impact that employee has within that new
position. It is shown that organizations need to understand where certain employees fit as they
grow in their career advancement, we see this here that, “aimed at improvement of performance,
this model guides an entrepreneur in creating improvements by orchestrating employees in
specific areas of performance" (Bandura, Lyons, 2015). There should be an understanding across
the organization that certain abilities and skills are needed for specific jobs or tasks within the
organization. As organizations grow and detect certain abilities or skills needed, there should be
a reaction of the organization developing programs that best equip specific employees to enhance
their abilities to complete the jobs or tasks. It should be at the forefront of the organizations goals
to have employee performance to be a goal, and the organization can accomplish successful
employee performance by identifying specific employees and develop those to positively impact
organizational growth.
Barriers affecting employee participation in development activities
Within organizations it is seen that some employees would rather not participate in
employee development activities. There are many factors that affect employees from wanting to
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participate which can vary from their age to lack of interest. It is noted that some employees are
affected by, “workplace norms influence employee behavior in regards to accessing formal
training and development” (Susomrith, Coetzer, 2015). These workplace norms can affect the
attitude of the employee and impact their want to pursue an upward path within organizations. It
is crucial for leaders to identify the workplace norms and erase the norms that are evident.
Leaders within organizations must also understand the need to evaluate the employee’s
amount of participation in employee development opportunities to see if they need to intervene
and identify problems that are causing that employee to not participate. In looking at leaders
need to understand the environment which their employees are in, we see here that, “managers
need to create an environment which employees feel engaged or involved in, as that correlates
with employees commitment to their workplace and work” (Asplund, Rigoni, 2016). Just as
leaders need to understand their need to identify problems within the environment of their
employees, it is also the responsibility of the employee to voice any concerns which they may
have to their manager. At times when employees feel as they can go to their manager and voice
their concern as to why they may lack participation in employee development, the leader is able
to create a solution that can positively impact an employee’s participation and experience within
that development program.
Factors that different size and types of organizations must examine
It is important for organizations to constantly evaluate the needs of their employees
regarding their development. As organizations grow, so should the development programs, as
more positions become available, there is a need for more training and development for current
employees to at some point take on those positions. For smaller organizations it is necessary for
them to carefully evaluate what is most important within their employee development programs
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as there will more than likely be stricter cost and resource restraints rather than a larger
organization. It is noted here that, “the employee education and training in a business must be
strategic and cost justified and should be evaluated from the start with a thorough cost benefit
analysis” (Zonca, 2015). Within smaller organizations it will be even more imperative for the
organizations leaders to understand what is needed first within employee development programs
as cost and allocating resources may be more difficult.
As the organizations grow there still needs to be an understanding that the development
programs must be thoroughly evaluated often as information can change over time, and some
programs could become outdated. What the organization must keep in the forefront of decision
making can be found here, “investing in employee training and development should have a
beneficial outcome that includes better performance in the workplace by that employee”
(Dysvik, Kuvaas, 2012). It is of the utmost importance for employee training and development to
bring about a result of the organization performing better than where it was prior to the employee
starting within the development program. Yes, the employee should feel the positive effects of
being poured into and developed, but also the organization needs to feel the ripples throughout
the organization of employees understanding more about the organization and being able to
better complete their tasks and fulfill their current and sometimes new job responsibilities.
Another benefit of organizations that understand their abilities and capabilities with their
employee development program, is that it can enhance the employee within their current job and
task, to be able to better complete their job and task. This is because it can empower them to
reach their potential as they feel they have been mobilized and equipped to be able to do so. We
see here that, “training is the corner stone of sound management, as it makes employees more
effective and productive” (Obisi, 2011). It is important for small or large organizations to
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understand that part of the success of their organization depends on the success of their employee
development program. This is because the best applicants for new positions within the
organization, are sometimes the employees within the organization as the transition time into that
new position will typically be much less, as they typically understand organizational goals.
Development programs need to be tailored to age
It is important for organizations to understand that their employees and workforce is
constantly increasing in age. With an increase in age, there are times when older employees need
a different style or type of development program. It is seen here that, “Managing professional
development of older workers is one of the most important challenges faced” (Trochimiuk,
2015). As organizations understand that there needs to be an importance placed upon still
developing its aging workforce, the organization will see increased retention rates throughout
their organization as the older workforce will feel more wanted and engage in functions within
the organization.
As organizations grow and their employees grow, it is important for the organization to
keep those career minded employees engaged in development programs. Part of the
organizations obligation to their employees is constantly develop programs that directly affect
their employees. It can be seen here that, “there is a perception that older workers are unwilling
to participate in training and development, but that is directly the cause of training programs
unable to address older worker learning needs and styles” (Ropes, 2014). That perception can
have a negative impact for the organization as it hinders the interest of current older employees
from wanting to stay active within the organization and can cause employees to want to look
elsewhere.
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Literature Review
There are certain types of trainings that work best with older employees within the
organization. Most employees as they get older are less sharp completing tasks by method of
technology and want a more meaningful interaction by way of face to face communication. It can
be seen here the specific method of training that works best with older employees, “Older
employees get higher returns from informal and directly relevant training and from training
contents that can be mainly tackled by crystallised abilities” (Zwick, 2015). It is imperative that
organizations understand the needs of their older employees as with age comes wisdom and
acquired knowledge that needs to be passed down to the newer, younger employees. Older
employees though they may have a slower work rate, or may not be able to produce as
effectively as they once could before, they still can have a positive impact on the organization,
just by the intangibles they bring to the organization. These intangibles can be taking their
immense amount of knowledge and critiquing development programs, or being advisors for the
organization itself.
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Literature Review
Conclusion
As employees spend time within their organization and realize their potential within the
organization, there needs to be leaders that identify that potential and engage those career minded
employees into development and training programs. As organizations buy into employees, there
is a need for the employee to fully invest his or herself into being developed as that can enhance
the employees skills being either technical within the organization and also professional skills
that can be utilized even outside the organization.
After evaluating the literature, there are many evidences of the connection of a well
maintained and created employee development program, to a flourishing organization that is not
just meeting its goals, but exceeding those goals. It also shows how some employee development
programs may need to be tailored to the size of the organization. The organization is also
impressed upon to create development programs that are fit to match the age of the employee as
well.
It can be seen within the literature that the strengths are the employer is responsible to
create development programs and it is not the responsibility of the employee to constantly search
for development programs that best suit them within the organization. Rather it is the leader’s
responsibility within the organization to identify the employees best suited for development. It
can also be found within the literature that organizations must understand their abilities when
developing programs, as smaller organizations can create more development programs than at
times they may actually need.
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