Essay: Strategies for training (Bright Technologies, software development organisation)

Overview of the Organization
Training is very crucial to the success of any organization. The process is key to ensuring that the organizational knowledge gaps are filled to improve productivity. The training will focus on Bright Technologies which is one of the largest software development organisations in the world focusing on enterprise resource planning solutions for businesses. The headquarters of the company is in San Francisco with office presence in 10 other markets globally. The mission of the organisation is to ensure value addition to the customers primarily by providing the highest level of efficiency in managing their processes. The vision is to become the number one global leader in the provision of business solution systems.
As a multinational, the management structure of Bright Technologies is both at a group level, and a country level since the company has branches in different countries across the world. Due to its global presence hence the group structure of the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Finance Officer, Chief Operations Officer, Chief of Brand, Chief Technology Officer and the Chief Strategy Officer is replicated across the countries. Bright Technologies has an intimate involvement with the activities of the organisation primarily about engaging in corporate social events such as sponsoring health care activities, education and even technology literacy across the countries which it is located. Moreover, the company through the human resource development has invested in a lot of training activities for the executives, the senior management and even the employees.
Training Tasks
The training tasks always need to be matched by the training objectives to ensure that the process is successful (Olivella, Corominas & Pastor, 2012). The goals of the training for the executives, senior management and the employees was to achieve three key objectives of enhancing the leadership qualities of the executives and senior managers, improving innovation of the company and enhancing teamwork. Hence, tasks were developed around these objectives to ensure that the training is successful. With the aim of leadership, the critical functions include the self-assessment of the leaders on their strengths and weaknesses and answering leadership questions relevant to Bright Technologies. For the work of the self-assessment, the leaders were to conduct a 360-degree assessment of their strengths and share them with the team members who would confirm. Based on the feedback, the members would then determine how to improve on their weaknesses and maximise their strengths. The leadership questionnaire task is to assess the knowledge of the executives on how to apply leadership principles to improve the performance of the organisation.
The tasks on enhancing innovation were revolved around product knowledge. The employees will take a test to determine how knowledgeable they are on the product. Additionally, they will also participate in a competition which will focus on innovation and the group of employees that develop the best product within the training period will be awarded. Then the final task is to revolve around team building activities with the members participating in tasks that test how well they know about their colleagues and to identify any barriers that may prevent them from achieving their collective goals.
Characteristics of the audience for training
The training is likely to cover fifty learners in the organisation across the different countries and the different levels of the organisation structure. Hence the learners will be divided into three categories which are the top-level executives, the senior management and the employees. Regarding their academic qualifications, the minimum is a bachelor’s degree with a couple of doctorate holders which provides an excellent mix regarding the diversity of the audience. Moreover, there is also a diversity regarding the ages with the youngest member of the audience at 28 years and the oldest at 65. Due to the multi-country presence of the organisation, there is an also a variety of cultures with the audience comprising of African American’s, Whites and Hispanics depicting the diversity in culture and the languages. However, the training is to be conducted in English. Due to the collective objectives that the organisation aims to achieve the attitude of the learners towards the training should be positive. Moreover, since the learners work for a global technology company, they have a high level of familiarity with technology.
Degree of Self-Directedness of the Audience
The training process is more effective when the learners are more aware of the objectives and the results which the training aims to achieve as opposed to when they are not (Hiemstra, 2006). Consequently, the learners who are attending the training become more self-directed to the tasks and high results are achieved (Hiemstra, 2006). Hence, the fact that the members of the staff of Bright Technologies are aware of the objectives of the training, there is a high likelihood that they will be self-directed in the process. Moreover, there is the intention to incorporate the results of the training in their performance assessment results hence the move will ensure that they are self-directed in the training process. As a result, there is a high likelihood that the training will be a great success since the employees are aware of the objectives which the training aims to achieve.
Theoretical Basis for Training
The theoretical model of andragogy is one of the fundamental basis of adult training. The theory will be applied to the training mainly due to its focus on ensuring that the learning process focuses on improving the skills of the individual. Moreover, the training model focuses on motivation which is one of its crucial learning principles. Hence, the learners need motivation primarily to ensure that they improve their leadership, innovation and motivation skills (Hartree, 2006). Moreover, without motivation, there is no learning that can take place which hence explains the core focus of the theory especially with regards to ensuring that adult learning takes place to improve the results of the organisation. Moreover, andragogy incorporates the principle of self-concept which is very crucial especially with regards to ensuring that the learner understands themselves, their strengths, weaknesses together with their personality (Knowles, 1978). The concept hence makes the model the most suitable especially when linked to the objectives of the training. Moreover, the model also factors in the learner’s experience and how they can be related to the learning process with the intention of ensuring that they become better in their tasks and roles (Knowles, 1978). As a result, the theoretical model of andragogy will be the most suitable model for training.
Strategies for the Training
Training strategies are essential especially with regards to ensuring that the design and the delivery of the training are effective (Foshay & Tinkey, 2007). Additionally, the strategy of the training should provide that it is in line with the theoretical model for it to be effective. Hence the two strategies that will be applied to the training is needs assessment and performance assessment (Foshay & Tinkey, 2007). The needs assessment will ensure that the gaps that the learners have been incorporated into the training. Additionally, the learners will be motivated once they realise that the training addresses some of the needs that they have which will reassure them that the training process will add value to them. Moreover, the strategy of needs assessment will ensure that the training model and tasks are relevant and practical to the learners who will ensure that the training is efficient. The second strategy of performance assessment will ensure that the adult learners take the training seriously. Moreover, evaluation is critical since it will ensure that the objectives which were set out from the onset of training have been achieved or not. Furthermore, the learners will be able to determine whether they have been able to add value to their skillset and knowledge.