Organisations Learning and Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Organisations Learning and Development - Essay Example To help employees acquire these capabilities and to hone their existing skills, many organisations are investing heavily on learning and developmental activities, which will help in achieving changing organisational objectives. Learning and developmental activities are also employed to motivate and retain skilled and experienced employees, which will not only enhance organisational capabilities but also save costs. The present discussion is based on organisational learning and development at UK-based B&Q, a leader in do-it-yourself retail home improvement sector. B&Q is the biggest home improvement retailer in the United Kingdom and have maximum customers than any other retailer in this sector. B&Q offers more than 40,000 do-it-yourself (DIY) products, which certainly requires highly talented and skilled staff that prepares such diverse products. B&Q employs more than 25000 full time employees in their retail stores in the UK. Started in 1969 by Richard Block and David Quayle, this s tore has about 321 stores in the UK and more than 50 stores in Ireland and other countries. Apart from numerous other awards and recognitions, B&Q has been winning the Gallup Great Workplace award in 2010 for four consecutive years for highest employee engagement and productivity in the world. This exemplary performance of B&Q is credited to its employees’ contribution, which is supported and promoted by workplace policies and practices followed at B&Q. B&Q’s main office is located at Southampton, and is referred to as Store Support Office, from where their HR function provides specific learning and developmental opportunities and support to its employees in different locations. Their HR team works closely with organisation development team to improve performance through identifying, shaping and supporting initiatives meant for employee learning and development (About B&Q, n.d). Argyris (1999) emphasizes that contemporary management views effective organisational strat egy as that which promotes continual development of new understandings, models, and practices; this management aspect is referred to as organisational learning. From this perspective, organisational learning is one of the crucial tasks in strategic management. Organisations that encourage creativity, employee empowerment and involvement require employees to be continually learning and developing new skills and competencies that can help in their performance and contribution; this is more crucial for organisations that produce innovative products and services. Moreover, for employee empowerment to be effective, employees must have the knowledge and skills to make logical and correct business decisions. Although employees come with some learning through education and prior experience, learning at organisation should continue for many reasons. Workplace learning helps in maintaining high motivation and enthusiasm of the employees. This is demonstrated in statement made by Glendinning, the Business Services Manager in Finance department of B&Q: ‘It is a big part of my job to always be thinking ahead, to be able to analyse my current performance, to be a good team manager and of course to hit my sales targets. B&Q are a great support in getting