Human Resource Development

There are various good design decisions that Bob made, among them include the decision to use of Human Resource Development Needs Identification (HRDNI) approach to his presentation which was crucial in the Identification of specific job performance skills needed to improve performance and productivity amongst the various employees in the organisation. HRDNI can be defined as a process that identifies the gap that could be in existence between what is currently happening and what should be occurring in an organization during a particular period of time in terms of the organizations performance and productivity. This provides a chance to carry out corrective measures meant to correct anything that could be going wrong in an organisation. The use of HRDNI plays a critical role in allowing the legitimate system in an organization to effectively manage the day-to-day activities of the organization ensuring a proper audit of the new ideas that could have been discovered by the shadow system.

As a result, learning programs to all staff members in the organization are cautiously designed with a view to the achievement of set goals and objectives by the organization and that meet certain learning outcomes.  The use of HRDNI approach to staff performance and productivity improvement can be utilized through the use of various categories of organizational welfare including a performance deficiency testing that involves the evaluation of staff performance over a specified period of time. Through the use of HRDNI, one is able to identify the skills possessed by the staff members, even if they are not being utilized in the current role held. This identification leads to a decision on the best way to utilize any additional skills that staff members could be possessing to the benefit of the organisation leading to increased performance and hence organisational productivity. This ensures that the organisation fully maximises the use of all additional employee skills and knowledge.

At the same time, the use of HRDNI provides a diagnostic audit to the organizations staff productivity through its ability to identify what is happening in an organization during a particular period of time and making an accurate comparison with what should be happening. As a result, one is able to perform a corrective e surgery to the firm's staff activities putting in place the right strategies that enhance productivity and abolishing what could be non-productive. The use of HRDNI also uses a democratic preference approach towards an organizations ability to meet its staff needs and hence ensure maximum productivity. A democratic approach seeks to give all staff members a voice in the management of the affairs of an organization, this gives them a sense of belonging a fact that makes them more comfortable, makes them more motivated and positive in carrying out their various duties within the organization, this improves on their productivity and hence that of the organizations they work for.

Similarly, the HRDNI is a pro-active analysis of the production activities that go on within a firm and therefore analyses the staff welfare, knowledge and skills to ensure that the work related programs put in place within an organisation will be suitable to each employees specific levels of education, experience, and skills, as well as their attitudes and personal motivations towards their duties in the organisation. This improves on their performance and productivity hence the increase in the organisations efficiency and therefore enable the organization to achieve set goals and objectives over a given period of time. However, the use of HRDNI is just but a basic part of a general needs analysis in an organization and can therefore not fix everything in an organization, as a result, all areas should be effectively evaluated and proper measures put in place to enhance the organizations overall productivity.

Moreover, since most of the sessions were either theory or skill sessions, Bob's design decision to carefully ensure that the initial sessions provided the basic information and that each subsequent session built on the preceding information and skill was a good design decision in the sense that all the preceding ideas were easy for every one to understand as they were based on the previously presented ideas. According to him, he had thought that the final session of the role play where the learners had to use the computer and interact with various customers provided a realistic and final test before they went back to their workplace. The final test was also a significant way of ensuring that the learners had actually gotten the ideas presented as this gave them an opportunity to practically employ and use the new information provided to them.

As a result, the learners had achieved a better grasp of the information presented to them in the sense that they were given all the ideas and a practical part presented to them at the end of it all a fact that ensured that they had understood all the details of the presentation. Any areas that had not been understood could be elaborated at this point and proper clarifications made so that as they went back to their roles, they were in a position to perform better that before. The design idea to base new information on previously presented information was also a brilliant one in that this enhanced the learner's ability to relate the new information with the previous information hence provide better chances for understanding. Any new ideas could therefore be understood better as they related to previously acquired information; this build a stronger information and base in the acquisition of any new information and hence a better understanding.

In addition, though it was a bit difficult for Bob was able to cover all the critical learning objectives identified in the HRDNI within the one day short time frame that he had with him he was able to manage to come up with an effective strategy that fulfilled the desired goals and objectives. The formulation and effective implementation of HRDNI requires enough planning and timing and therefore an organization that would utilize and fully benefit from its use needs to spare an adequate amount of time that enables its full implementation. According to Bob, the budget that he had been able to formulate and present looked quiet realistic, although it was 1% over the limit as Glen had explained. A Proper and realistic budget is an effective and significant tool in any organization and therefore plays a crucial role towards the organizations future performance and success. Bob had factored this in his mind while formulating and preparing the presentation and therefore his success can be attributed tom this aspect which was a crucial element in determining the overall success and achievement of the set goals and objectives. The programme for the day read quiet clearly and all of the session plans were in folders containing session plans, overhead transparencies, a board plan and all the materials needed for the skill sessions.

Similarly, Bob's decision to prepare a programme for the day that read quiet clearly with all of the session plans well placed in folders that contained session plans, overhead transparencies, a board plan and all the materials needed for the skill sessions was an effective and good design decision. This showed effective organizational skills that facilitate the achievement of desired goals and objectives as well as an effective way of proper work etiquette. It also served as a guide to the learners that in all their work related endeavors in the organization, proper planning and ensuring that all requirements are availed would guarantee a good degree of success. This also enabled him to present the information in a proper flow that did not confuse the learners making it easier to comprehend and understand a crucial aspect in enhancing their productivity.

In the course of his undertaking just like many other individuals in this kind of an assignment, Bob made several mistakes and errors which affected his full achievement of the desired goals and objectives. These included his planning and use of the HRDNI, although its such a good tool that an organization could use, HRDNI has got its fair share of disadvantages and shortcomings which may hinder organizational performance by a large margin through the impact that this could have on employee motivation. To start with, HRDNI is a difficult and time-consuming process that requires ample time and sufficient resources to plan and implement if an organization will achieve its full benefits. Bobs decision to use the HRDNI was therefore one that could have made it a bit difficult to implement as a result of these shortcomings.  At the same time, the HRDNI is a research based approach towards an organizations improvement of its [productivity and may therefore be an inappropriate action when it comes to learner employee motivation. As a result, some situations in various organizations require and value action over research which could not be offered through the use of HRDNI. Similarly the use of HRDNI is perceived as costly approach towards the improvement of an organizations performance and productivity.

The collection of data and research results analyzing could be a very costly affair considering the reliability of the data collected and how effective that could be in improving an organization's performance. This happens particularly when gathering data in an HRDNI, this is because the investigator should be wary of initial impressions of both the data and the people involved and instead form his/her own formulation, predictions and analysis as far as the data is concerned. The basic forces which come to operation in this case include that of organisational politics which could temper with the data presented and hence the use of the results therefore to enhance organizational performance. These could influence the presentation of the information obtained by reporting in a favorable way that does not implicate them hiding the real picture of the organizations performance. The second setback when using HRDNI is the effect of organisational defence mechanisms that come in to ensure that no senior member of the organization is termed as an ineffective one, the organization is presented as an effective one, one that is performing to its best when that could not be the real case on the ground. This prevents corrective measures from being taken when required hence posing a threat to the organizations performance. This according to me was a wrong approach by Bob as the use of this approach may by a great margin affect employee performance and therefore productivity of the organization.

The other mistake that Bob made was going the Gordian knot with the ice Breaker since the workshop was basically task oriented and therefore getting close to people especially strangers was not a good thing for him to do. According to Bob, "Of course strangers would not want to hold hands and be that close to each other." This shows that it is unacceptable and more unprofessional for him to greet that close to the learners having been their presenter in the workshop and teaching them crucial organiosational skills. Just as Mr. Glen had pointed out and said that, "it was a procedural course after all and people expect such a workshop to be more task oriented. They don't want to be touching other" hence their concentration should be fully directed towards the achievement of the stated goals and objectives of the workshop. This goes against professional code of conduct as the learners are expected to learn and make use of the best practices and therefore by doing this, he did not demonstrate a terminal behaviour statement, which describes the observable behaviour the learner must demonstrate at the end of the learning period.

According to the platform modal of curriculum design, there are various actions that Bob should take to ensure that he effectively takes care of the situation in terms of providing effective learner training to those in the workshop. The platform modal of curriculum recommends that, trainers and others should be given an image of the curriculum that should be developed and adopted such that they can be able to gauge the expected outcomes. In this view, Bob should describe first what he wanted the learners/ staff members in the workshop to be able to do at the completion of the training process. As a result, Bob should have given them the expectations he had for them to achieve on the outcome regarding the whole training process such that they had an idea of what was expected of them after the training session. This would have helped by a great margin in enhancing their learning and retention capability of the issues discussed during the workshop and training hence help in transferring this to their respective places of work. At the same time, a platform modal of curriculum design acts as a guidance to a trainer and learners in a workshop/classroom curriculum and content planning. In this case, a platform modal of curriculum design that is transformative would support both the 3S scaffolding of transformative education and the 5C scaffolding of transformative teaching and training. In light of the above, if Bob should use a proper platform modal of curriculum design; this would have required that the learners in the workshop develop several new skills (or knowledge), building to the objective of the training program that he had effectively planned hence enhance their skill acquisition which would be transferred to the work place translating in to increased performance and productivity.

A product marketing plan can be defined as a document specifically written to give the details regarding the necessary actions that should be taken by an organisation so as to achieve a number of marketing objectives and based on strong marketing strategy. In this case, if Bob was to design a product marketing plan, he should also talk to the consumers, the producers who would act as the sources of the raw materials for the product to be introduced to the market as well as other competing business owners. From the consumers, he would know what they prefer in cooperated in to the product to make it more appealing (in terms of size, colour and shape), satisfactory and of the right price to them hence be able to perform better than the products that could already bee in the market. The consumers would also give him an idea on their preferences, likes, dislikes and opinions as it regards the product. At the same time, Bob should also talk to the suppliers who would be the sources of the raw materials, these would give him an insight on the prices and availability of the raw materials as well as how they would be able to reach him and the costs involved hence enable him decide on the products' price considering the costs that would be involved. This would be a successful way to determine the right price of the product which forms the basis of successful marketing and product success, competing businesses that are already in existence would give Bob an idea on the common challenges that they face in the marketing of that product hence enable him to choose on the best ways to avoid them in advance.

The additional information collected in questions 1 and 2 would play an instrumental role in enabling Bob design a more detailed and effective workshop that contains all the information that the learners would require to perform more effectively and increase the firms productivity. This would have given him more knowledge that could enable him design a plan that cuts across all the issues that affect an organisation's performance and productivity making the workshop more effective. This information would have enabled Bob in cooperated a marketing plan in to the workshop design and therefore give an organization a roadmap that can drive action and point the way forward for an organisation. As a result, the information Bob presented would have been one that addresses the challenges that the learners face in their respective duties hence get a ready made solution for the same. This would have made him answer questions in the minds of the learners such as: What would be going well in their organisation? What needs improvement and how will that be done? Who needs to be developed and how will that be done?

How do they prefer to learn?, What resources are needed to enhance their performance and productivity of the organizations they represent? What is the overall time frame for this effectiveness to be achieved? and how all these when corrected would enhance the organizations performance making the workshop a more effective one.  The proper utilization of this information would at the same time have led to his clear identification of an organization's goals, objectives and their effectiveness with measures put in place to enhance their achievement. This would also have identified the existence of any discrepancies between employees' skills and the skills required with the employee identifying the right area to utilize all employee skills and knowledge as well as the discrepancies between workers current and future skills that could be of use to the organization. Similarly, this would have led to the description of what Bob wanted the  learners to be able to do at their respective work places after completion of the workshop training hence give them a clear direction on what was expected of them. The same could also have demanded that the workshop trainees/learners develop a number of new skills (or knowledge), that build to the set objectives of the training/workshop program.

In conclusion, The case study from The Gordian Knot and the Continuing Story : Beyond the Gordian Knot on pages 294/295 of Delahaye (2005) Human Resource development :Adult Learning and Knowledge Management and as presented by Bob presents three major components that are crucial in human resource development including Performance, Standard and Conditions. The designing of workshop training for employees in cooperates a consideration on the learning objectives (training objectives) of any organization which are the most significant and oldest form of key outcomes from any training session. They consist of aspects such as the terminal behaviour statement, which describes the observable behaviour the learner must demonstrate at the end of the learning period as well as a statement of standards, which describes how well the learner should perform the terminal behaviour after the learning experience. As a result, it would have been crucial for Bob to in cooperate the above stated aspects to make the workshop more effective. When communicative and emancipatory learning activities are involved, it's important to describe the results of the learning as learning outcomes so that the learners are able to identify their weak areas and all the areas that need to be corrected for maximum productivity and performance. In a learning situation, it's important to note that learning outcomes subsume a number of highly interactive and complex skills, knowledge and abilities and therefore effective strategies that involve the learner should also be utilized to enhance performance and productivity.