DISCUSS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN ORGANISATIONS.

Training and development is one of the most important part of an organization overall strategy. The
Industrial revolution that brought in mass production, specialization, seeing people as critical resource, all
intensified training and development as a critical area of discourse. Before starting a particular venture or
considering a potential acquisition, the first question that arises is, whether there are required skills
present in the organisation or not.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the significance of training and development in organisations, but
before proceeding any further, it is of paramount importance that training and development is discussed.
Training can be viewed as the provision of guided experience to change behaviour, attitudes or opinions.
It can also be understood as any learning activity which is directed towards the acquisition of specific
knowledge and skills for the purpose of an occupation or tasks. Examples of training needs are the need
to have efficiency and safety in the operation of particular machines or equipment, and the need for
competent management in the organisation.
Development on the other hand can be defined as any learning activity which is directed towards future
needs rather than present needs and which is concerned more with career growth than immediate
performance. The focus of development tends to be primarily on an organisations future man power
requirement and secondly on the growth needs of individuals in the workplace. Examples of development
needs might be the need for a manger to be able to utilize the facilities offered by the introduction of new
technology in the business, the need for replacing senior staff with potential candidates from within the
organisation and the need for preparing employees to accept change.
In the context of the above definitions, training and development can therefore be referred to as the
importing of specific skills, abilities and knowledge to an employee. It attempts to improve current or future
employees performance by increasing their ability to perform through learning usually by changing the
employees attitudes or increasing their skills and knowledge. So training and development helps the
organisation to equip each employee with the knowledge and skills needed to perform his/her duties
effectively at present and in future.
Training and development is an integral part of any organisation. If it is not, then the amount of growth the
organisation can attain will be lower than its potential. Also, it will have a higher employee turnover rate as
the employees feel stagnant and will look for greener pastures elsewhere, low productivity, increased
costs and wastage, accidents and poor communication.
Although training and development can be costly and take up valuable working hours, it is essential in
keeping the organization and its employees abreast with trends and the cutting edge technology available
to enable them have a competitive edge of their competitors.
Both training and development emphasises the fact that the espoused core purpose of learning in a given
organization determines the priority forms of knowledge that are mastered, the kinds of attitudes that are
formed, the critical skills that are developed, the expected results (outputs and outcomes) that are
obtainable and therefore, the ultimate benefits that accrual to the organisation are enormous.
It can be said therefore, in view of the above, that organisations which take training and development
serious are more likely to be better placed to deal with the trends of the ever changing business and
technology environment, retain the best employees, reduce costs and have a competitive advantage over
its competitors.
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The central thesis of this paper is to discuss the significance of training and development in organisations.
Among the many components that go into making an organisation competitive are the skills of its
employees, other components like capital and technology are crucial but not as much. Technology can be
copied and capital can be borrowed. This been an information era whoever is able to use information
properly will have an advantage over other competitors. This is why training and development which
transforms information into various skills of the personnel has great responsibility to the success of any
organisation.
Organisations achieve things through their people and they are cardinal in translating management
objectives, functions, goals, and essentially, will be highlighted in the organisations quest to achieve
goals. For example in the service industry the main source of an organisations income is its staff
expertises and skills. Acquiring professionals with high skills is comparatively expensive than training
current employees to acquire those skills.
Resources alone, however, are not a basis for competitive advantage. It is the way in which resources are
integrated with each other to perform a task or activity that provides the capacity for organisation to
compete successfully in the market place.
This being the case, the important resource for any organisation is the skills and knowledge possessed by
its employees. This is why training and development is significant to the organisation and good
management constituted an application of knowledge and skills of a scientific nature rather than guess
work. It has to be unequivocally emphasised that those organisations who have mixed training and
development in their practice have had better chances of competing favourably and produce quality
products efficiently and effectively as well as to achieve both individual and organisational goals.
Before moving on, however, we ought to reflect briefly on the advantages to organisations of adopting
training and development. Generally, the benefits are that with a well-trained workforce, the organisation
will turnout a high standard of goods or services, probably in a more cost- effective manner than others
and therefore with better chance of achieving organisational goals be they profit-oriented or serviceoriented. This emphasizes the significance of both training and development, it makes employees
understand the company objectives, the rules and regulations required to achieve this safely, efficiently
and profitably. Training is literally is helping an individual to learn how to carry out satisfactorily the work
required of him in his present job. Development has been view as preparing the individual for the future
job. Both are achieved by effectively acquired by the learner. The necessity for training in general is now
better accepted because it increases the organisation effectiveness and viability. It enables organisations
to respond to changes, acquire a complex educational strategy intended to change the beliefs , attitudes,
values and structure of an organisation ,so that it can better adapt to new technologies, markets,
challenges and the furious changing business world.
It improves organisations problem solving and renewal processes, particularly through more effective and
collaborative management of organisation culture.
The significance of Training and Development is to improve the organisations capacity to handle its
internal and external functioning and relationships. This would include such things as improved
interpersonal and group processes ,more effective decision processes, more appropriate leadership
style, improved skills in dealings with destructive conflict and higher levels of trust and co-operation
among organisational members.
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The use of new technologies combined with globalisation has also shifted the field of organisation
development.
To address these concerns the paper will proceed along the following spectrum of benefits to the
organisations that have practiced training and development.

(1). DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS IN THE WORKFORCE

Training in industries has a specific purpose, it provide experiences which develop or modify the
behaviour of employees in such a way that what the employee does at work is effective in the attainment
of the goals and objectives at the organisation.
Training and development is concerned with organisational activity aimed at bettering the performance of
individual and groups in organisational. It involves providing a range of planned activities that enable an
employee to develop the skills, attitudes and knowledge required by the organisation and the work
required .In modern economy like our own the nature of work is constantly changing new technologies
means that new work skills are constantly required. For example, Microsoft corporation the producers of
the most popular computer operating system software called Microsoft windows is in a competitive
industry with other software producers. For Microsoft to maintain its grip on the lions share on the
software market it is has continued to enjoy over time, it has invested a lot in training and development of
staff members and ensuring that they are always on the edge as compared to its competitors. After
training and developing of employees, their skills and knowledge are valuable to the organisation in its
quest to achieve its goals and objectives. An organisation is nothing without its human resource and it
cannot be a transformative or effectiveness process as opposed to management, a more incremental or
efficiency based change methodology. If people are active in decisions affecting them, they are more likely
to adopt new ways of doing their tasks with minimum wastage and least costs.

(2). IMPROVES CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND NEGOTIATION

Since the dawn of human of history there are conflicts in this world. A conflict can be viewed as actual or
perceived opposition of needs, values and interests. A conflict can be internal (within oneself) to
individuals, groups or organisations. when two more parties with perceived incompatible goes seeking to
undermine each others goal seeking capability .A clash of interests values actions or directions often
sparks a conflict. The Workplace setting is an ideal place for conflict to breed because of the dynamic and
inter depending of employee to employee, customer to employee and employee to management
relationship. Recognizing and addressing the factors that give to the potential for conflict can have a
positive impact on workplace and the productivity in the workplace .As organisations continues to
restructure work terms, the need for training in conflict resolution will grow. Conflict is a normal and nature
part of our workplace and personal lives, can be helpful in making necessary changes within the
organisation .However unresolved conflicts can result in feelings of dissatisfaction, unhappiness,
frustration, depression and other emotions. it can result in behaviour such as physical or emotional
withdrawal , resignation from the job ,dissolution of personal relations ,aggression and even violence
examples of causes conflict are resources, culture , perception, language, age ,gender ,customers and
markets just to mention a few. Training and development can be the remedy for conflicts, because it will

enable employees understand how to effectively communicate, negotiate and how to satisfactorily resolve
disputes. This can lead to high productive, employee relationships.

IMPROVED COMMUNICATION
Communication is significant in organisations because it allows managers to establish and maintain
interpersonal relationships, influence employees attitudes, behaviour, and understanding and otherwise
gain the information needed to create an inspirational workplace. Organisations are made up of different
individuals and groups with different attitudes, cultures, beliefs, values and interests, interpersonal skills
are required to enable effective communication in the fact of these differences and to control the potential
for conflict arising from them, in order to facilitate co-operative working for the good of the organisation.
Decision making depends on the quality of the information received, thus it is imperative that the
transmitters of information in the organisation could be equipment the skills and knowledge, to enable
decision makers make quality, correct and timely decisions. Training will improve the communication skills
of employees by reducing the distortion from information transmitted by employees. This will in turn
improve the flow of information in the organisation enabling the organisation to reach to factors affecting it
at the right time.
IMPROVE PRODUCT QUALITY
Quality is one of the most important and for reaching issues in modern organisations. The term is difficult
to define precisely and often mean different things to different organisation. The growth of competition has
resulted in dramatic improvement in the quality and efficiency of products and services. Quality in
organisation meaning getting everyone to do what they have agreed to do, do it right the first time and
consistent conformance to requirements, skeletal structure of an organisations finance is the nourishment
and relationships.
Training and development of employees will help improve the quality of the products because it will
provide information, skills, expertise and knowledge on the available option of how to produce the
products best without increasing cost and with efficiency and effectiveness. This in turn will increase
profitability, competitiveness and organisational sustainability.

TRANSFER OF IDEAS, INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE

Training and development enables individuals and to transfer ideas knowledge and information. It plays a
vital role in compiling tasks provides a plat form for issuing instructions and getting feedback. Many ideas
that employees have can be implemented in organisation but they require the technical aspect that can be
achieved through training and development. Without the information, human skills, ideas and knowledge,
resources of production remain mere resources and never become production. In a competitive economy,
the quality and performance of the managers determine the success of a business; indeed, they
determine its survival. It provide a stable focus for understanding what others have experienced, a criteria
for people to understand what is relevant , enable individuals communicate efficiently and thus move into
more complex relationships with other people and finally, makes it possible or challenge others to keep
learning.

Firstly, it helps create constancy of purpose for continual improvement of products and services, adopting
of the new philosophy created in parts of the world and cease dependence on mass inspection.
Secondly, build quality along with price, improve constantly and every process planning, production and
service, institute modern methods of training on-the-job for including management, adopt and institute
leadership aimed at helping people to do a better job, drive out fear.
thirdly, encourage effective two-way communication; break down barriers between departments and staff
areas ,eliminate exhortations for the workforce as it only create adversarial relationships, eliminate quotas
and numerical targets, remove barriers to pride of workmanship, including annual appraisals and
Management Objectives, also encourage education and self-improvement for everyone;
And lastly, define top managements permanent commitment to ever improving quality, productivity and
their obligation to implement all these principles.
INCREASED MOTIVATION AMONGST EMPLOYEES
The organisation that Trains and develops its employees will increase motivation amongst employees has
they will have a sense of belonging and been cared for. Motivation is very important for organisations
because it lets human resources into action, improves levels of efficiency of employees, leads to
achievement of organisational goals, builds friendly relationship and leads to stability of workforce.
Different people might be motivated by different things or different ways, people may have different goals
at different stages in their life. Training and development is among the needs employees in organisation
many believe leads to better pay, promotion and other benefits, thus it will motivate organisational
members to perform well. It enables focus, involvement and accountability which helps employees find
meaning in the work they do and in the products and services they provide. When work is meaningful
individuals contribute more energy, creativity and resourcefulness to the organisation because they are
highly motivated.

OVERCOMING RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

As organisation continue to restructure resistance to change is a problem to any organisation because
many people normally resist change. In order to survive organisation must adapt to fit their changing
circumstances. Organisational change may be necessary to maintain a competitive advantage or adapt to
changing economic social or technological factors. Effective use of technology and the dynamic of change
are hugely significant. The use of technology can help support as well as transform business organisation
to enable them to operate effectively and competitively in increasingly hostile environment. There is an
essential role to be played in the automating business processes, finding networking business and
providing information for decision making.
Unfortunately, change within organisations is not always a smooth process impediments to change exist
at all levels, from individuals all the way up to the organisation as a whole. Training and development of
employees and managers will enable the organisation to bridge the gap created by advances in
technology economic trends and events. As the organisation tries to accommodate the changes in the
external environment, training and development enables its employees to understand what is happening
and to prepare them to take up the new challenges, thus helping in overcoming resistance to change.

INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY AND PERFORMANCE

Well trained employees are more capable and willing to assume more control over their jobs. They need
less supervision, which frees management for other tasks. Productivity improvement is about effectively
performing the basic managerial and non-managerial activities. Simply defined, productivity is about the
output-input ratio within a time period with due consideration for equality, productivity implies effectiveness
and efficiency in individual and organizational performance. Effectiveness is the achievement of
objectives. Efficiency is the achievement of the ends with the least amount of resources. Managers cannot
know whether they are productive unless they first know their goals and those of the organization.
Employees are more capable to answer the questions of customers, which builds better customer loyalty.
Employees who understand the business complain less, are more satisfied and are more motivated. All
this leads to better management- employee relationships. Training and development enable groups in the
organisation to know their role what tasks they have to completing the project by the deadline because
they understand fully the parameters of the projects they can focus on quality. Another example of
increased productivity with training and development is in customer service. An employee who has
completed training in customer service will have the ability to understand a customers need and translate
them in customer friendly language. Employees who have completed career training in customer service
know how to maintain a positive attitude and how to provide exceptional customer service in any situation.

In conclusion, the essential aim of training and development is to continuous improvement in the skills,
judgement, and maturity of attitudes, human understanding and capacity for responsibility of the staff of
the organisation. The ever changing and increasing demands for modern social service require active
encouragement of flexibility and growth in the staff skills and giving them of every support in their own
aspirations to do a better job and fit themselves for wider responsibility. Equipping employees with
common body of knowledge and skills to enable them to perform their jobs better than untrained staff and
therefore prepare them to assume positions of greater responsibility as well as better discharge the
responsibility they already have. Training and development can be important in improving the performance
of employees and supervisors in their jobs as they now exist. Attitudes, knowledge and skills can all be
improved. Such improvement can change the job behaviour of supervisors, thus producing better
performance and results.
it has, however, got to be mentioned that the relative importance of these skills may differ at various
levels in the organization hierarchy. For purposes of elaboration, technical skills are of greatest
importance at the supervisory level and less at the middle-management level, human skills in the frequent
interactions with subordinates at all levels, conceptual skills not critical for lower-level supervisors but gain
in importance at the middle-management level