Kamal Birdi

Correlates and perceived outcomes of 4 types of employee development activity.

Participation in 4 different types of development activity was studied in a sample of manufacturing employees (N = 1,798). It was found that similar sets of variables were linked to greater participation in 3 activities: required training courses in work time, work-based development activity in work time, and career planning activity in work time or an individuals own time. Three kinds of reported benefits were studied, and the occurrence of these benefits was found to vary between different types of development activity. Overall job satisfaction and organizational commitment were significantly associated with prior participation in required training courses and work-based development activity. However, voluntary learning in ones own time was completely unrelated to these work attitudes.

The role of empathy in establishing rapport in the consultation: a new model

Context  Considerable research has been conducted recently into the notion of patient‐centred consulting. The primary goal of this approach is to establish a clear understanding of the patients perspective on his or her problem, and to allow this understanding to inform both the explanation and planning stages of the consultation. The quality of this understanding is largely determined by the empathic accuracy achieved by the doctor; the primary benefit is a therapeutic rapport between doctor and patient.

Employee age and voluntary development activity

It is known that older workers undertake less formal training than younger ones, but little information is available about age-patterns in voluntary development activities undertaken in an employee’s own time. In a study of 1798 manufacturing workers, age and ten other factors were examined in relation to four types of activity: participation in a tuition refund scheme, learning in an employee development programme, attendance at an employee development centre, and use of a personal development record. Significant age- differences were found, and key influential factors were identified as older workers’ lower educational qualifications (representing both cognitive and affective differences) and their more limited learning motivation (linked to lower learning confidence and greater perceived time constraints). However, older individuals who had previously undertaken each form of development were as positive about that previous activity as were younger participants. Possible interventions to increase voluntary development at older ages include rewards for participation, enhancement of basic skills, pretraining in appropriate learning strategies, sequential exposure to graded learning demands, and steps to change organisational stereotypes of older staff.

No idea? Evaluating the effectiveness of creativity training

Purpose – To evaluate the long‐term impact of three types of creativity training workshops conducted within an organization and contrast the influence of training compared with work environment factors in influencing employee innovation.Design/methodology/approach – A follow‐up questionnaire was returned by 71 employees who had taken part in the creativity training programmes offered by a Civil Service organisation. Based on employee innovation theory, respondents were asked about changes in their knowledge, attitudes and use of creativity at work as a result of the training and about work environment factors.Findings – Respondents reported moderate but significant improvements in their levels of creativity knowledge, attitudes, workplace idea generation and idea implementation as a result of attending the training. Analyses also indicated that poor managerial support or an unfavourable departmental climate for innovation could limit the impact of creativity training with regard to influencing idea implem...

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE CONTENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF MAJOR ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATIONS

To compare the consequences of different types of major organizational innovation and to identify the characteristics of more beneficial innovations, a telephone interview survey of senior managers from 513 UK organizations was conducted. Although 90% of major innovations were reported to have an overall beneficial impact, statistical analyses showed that specific effects on finances, employee relations, customers, and quality of life depended on the type of innovation and its characteristics. The effects of different types of innovation were related but not reducible to their characteristics. The findings suggest that a more differentiated view of the outcomes of innovation is both possible and useful.

Forecasting future competency requirements: a three‐phase methodology

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce an integrated three‐phase methodology for forecasting future competency requirements more effectively than existing methods.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology is demonstrated with reference to empirical research conducted by the authors. The methodology consists of three phases: phase 1 – preliminary interviews, phase 2 – questionnaire, and phase 3 – critical incident technique interviews. Outputs from phases 1 and 2 are used to generate a framework through which to elicit future competency requirements during phase 3.Findings – The empirical findings, although included, are incidental to the current paper; they serve solely to illustrate the methodology. As such, the development and demonstration of this methodology are the main “findings” of the paper.Research limitations/implications – Methodologies for forecasting future competency requirements should adopt structured integrated approaches to improve predictive accuracy.Practical implicati...

Evaluating the Impact of TRIZ Creativity Training: An Organizational Field Study

Creativity training is used by many organizations in an attempt to improve the innovativeness of their employees, yet there has been relatively little systematic evaluation carried out of the impact of such training. This study reports on the evaluation of the effectiveness of a theory of inventive problem solving (TRIZ)‐based creativity training program in a major international engineering firm. Cross‐sectional, longitudinal and multisource evaluation strategies were used to assess the impact of the training on a sample of design engineers (n = 123) and to make comparisons with nontrainees (n = 96). Results indicate that participation in TRIZ training led to short‐term improvements in both the creative problem‐solving skills and motivation to innovate of engineers, and these were associated with longer term improvements in their idea suggestion in the workplace. There was variable support for the translation of these ideas into new innovations and improved performance at work as a result of the training. Theoretical and practical implications for enhancing the effectiveness of creativity training interventions are discussed.

Learning to Perform? A Comparison of Learning Practices and Organizational Performance in Profit- and Non-Profit-Making Sectors in the UK

To date, much of the research on employee development activities and organizational performance has been conducted in private sector organizations, with the largely untested assumption that the same findings will apply to other sectors. This paper addresses the deficit by describing a study comparing differences in the use of employee learning practices between profit-making and non-profit-making organizations, and examining the relationship between these learning practices and multiple dimensions of organizational performance. The study data was gathered through conducting structured telephone interviews with senior training and development managers in 368 UK organizations from a range of sectors. It was found that non-profit-making organizations had greater engagement in individual employee learning practices than profit-making organizations, but no differences were found in terms of team learning practices or engagement in strategic needs analysis and evaluation activities. The analyses also indicated that individual learning practices showed a stronger relationship with performance in the non-profit-making organizations, whereas team learning practices were more significant for the profit-making companies. The learning practices collectively accounted for greater variance in organizational performance in the non-profit-making organizations. The study implies that the functional aims of organizations need to be taken into account when examining the learning practiceorganizational performance relationship.

Policing opportunities and threats in Europe

Purpose: This paper aims to take stock and to increase understanding of the opportunities and threats for policing in ten European countries in the Political, Economic, Social, Technological and Legal (PESTL) environment. Design/methodology/approach: This study is part of the large EU-funded COMPOSITE project into organisational change. A PESTL analysis was executed to produce the environmental scan that will serve as a platform for further research into change management within the police. The findings are based on structured interviews with police officers of 17 different police forces and knowledgeable externals in ten European countries. The sampling strategy was optimized for representativeness under the binding capacity constraints defined by the COMPOSITE research budget. Findings: European police forces face a long list of environmental changes that can be grouped in the five PESTL clusters with a common denominator. There is also quite some overlap as to both the importance and nature of the key PESTL trends across the ten countries, suggesting convergence in Europe. Originality/value: A study of this magnitude has not been seen before in Europe, which brings new insights to the target population of police forces across Europe. Moreover, policing is an interesting field to study from the perspective of organisational change, featuring a high incidence of change in combination with a wide variety of change challenges, such as those related to identity and leadership.

TWO SIDES OF THE INNOVATION COIN? AN EMPRICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIVE CORRELATES OF IDEA GENERATION AND IDEA IMPLEMENTATION

The purpose of this study is to investigate the type of factors that facilitate two key aspects of the innovation process, idea generation and idea implementation. It is common in innovation research to collapse the two together which in some cases may lead to erroneous conclusions if the two aspects relate differently to organizational antecedents. Employing a mixed-method approach using a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews the study examined and further explored whether individual, group and organizational level factors relate differently to the two innovation aspects. The questionnaire findings showed that individual level factors had a stronger influence on idea generation than idea implementation and vice versa for group and organizational factors. A similar pattern emerged in the interview findings where the factors that influenced idea implementation fell mainly into group and organizational typologies. The implications of these findings for organizations and research are considered.