Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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Development
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Chapter 1: Introduction
This chapter of the thesis gives a brief discussion about the background, followed by
problem statement, research purpose, the main important concepts the research is going to
depend on, and questions the research will try to answer.
1.1 Background
Human Resources Development (HRD) is a relatively young academic discipline but an old
and well-established field of practice. It has originated in the massive development effort that
took place in the United States during World War II under the name of the project "Training
within Industry"(Dooley, 1945) where it gave birth to the systematic performance-based
training, improvement of the work processes and human relations in the workplace-or
contemporary to HRD, as it began being called in the 1970s. HRD is defined as a set of
systematic and planned activities designed by an organization to provide its members with
the necessary skills to meet current and future job demands, to produce behavioural changes
in the learner in such a way that it acquires desired level of competence for present or future
role. It is a process of developing and unleashing expertise for the purpose of improving
individual, team, work process, and organizational system performance. HRD has many wide
but recognized components that can be recapped as performance improvement, learning
organization, organizational performance and development, and employee training and
development, that are set to improve the expertise of individuals, teams, work processes, and
the overall organization.
The practice of Human Resources Development has many benefits. Improving the individual
and organizational performance to adjust with the internal and the external environment
changes to obtain the organizational short and long term objectives, learning organization
which became recently one of the core strategies in an organization that enables its
employees to respond swiftly to the product and market developments and to best utilize their
mental powers enhancing their capacity to create and to have a strong competition with other
organizations, and attaining organizational sustainability through its development and
specifically through it employees training and development.
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Human resources development was founded to achieve several objectives. The organizational
objectives are to contribute to organizational effectiveness, to help organizations to achieve
objectives and to provide level of service appropriate to the organization. The societal
objectives are to respond to the needs and challenges of the society, to minimize the
undesirable impacts on the organization, and to assist employees in achieving potential goals
and to facilitate analogy of personal and organizational goals.
In general, it helps to improve the capabilities of people by providing them better skills, so it
strengthens executives’ skills. It also improves communication system in the organization in
procuring the right kind of people at the right time at the right place. Furthermore, it provides
an opportunity for continuous and round growth of employees through succession planning
and career planning. It improves team work; improves problem solving and approving skills
of employees.
The history of human resources development reveals that education, training, and
organization development of all sorts are largely the products of social and economic
conditions.
Training and development has a unique role in the history of the human resources
development profession. It is defined as a process of systematically developing work-related
knowledge and expertise for the purpose of improving performance. Training is not
education-light but is more than knowledge. People experiencing T&D should end up with
new knowledge and be able to do things well after they complete a training program (Zemke,
1990).
Within T&D, more efforts are focused on training than on development. Also, training is
more like focused on new employees and those entering new job roles in contrast to long-
term development. To be clear, the development portion of training and development is seen
as “the planned growth and expansion of the knowledge and expertise of people beyond the
present job requirements” (Swansan, 2002, p.6, Foundations of Human Resources
Development).
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Training as defined by “Davis and Davis (1998)” is the process through which skills are
developed, information is provided, and attributes are raised, in order to help individuals who
work in organization to become more effective and efficient in their work. Training helps the
organization to fulfil its purposes and goals, while contributing to the overall development of
the workers. Training facilitates learning that is designed to increase capabilities and capacity
and is facilitated formally and informally by many types of people at different levels of the
organization.
In our modern times, business environments are fast changing. The vast technological
development that merges within a firm's vision, mission, and its implementation processes
and the radical economic reforms have led to the emergence of new opportunities and threats
for business organization and its employees. Many HR expertise focused their attentions on
developing both organization and employees' performance to attain sustainability or/and to
compete. Many faced problems with the employees' satisfactions and relatively their
commitments toward their organization.
Having defined HRD and its importance, the study of HR T&D is going to examine the
effective impact of Training and Development on the workforce performance and satisfaction
in an organization and relatively its impact on the organization as a whole and the challenges
an organization might face in the shortage of intellectual HRD professionals, the elimination
of skills gaps, the competition in global economy, and the need for lifelong changes.
The main purpose of our research has to do with the importance of Human Resources
Training and development and its impact on employees’ development and satisfaction and on
the organizational development. However our work will find out the following:
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- Does the Human Resources T&D gain any attention from the organization to close
gaps and develop its performance and similarly its employees’ performance?
- Does the organization provide suitable training and development courses to its
employees or it is a waste?
- Does the organization provide a suitable working environment to its employees?
- Does practicing a training and development course generate a feeling of satisfaction
and commitment within employees?
The study is based on assumption that providing a successful training and development
course has an impact on employees’ satisfaction and performance and on creating a sense of
commitment to the organization similarly on the organizational development and in
empowering its reputation among its employees and customers. For the purpose of this study,
we chose an international humanitarian non-governmental organization (NGO) that has many
different cultural backgrounds and that its projects depend on funds, so there should not be
any waste of resources or opportunities. The result of this study could serve other profit
organizations and non-profit organizations non-governmental organizations working in
Lebanon to help them maximize their understanding on human resources behaviours, sense of
commitment, and level of satisfaction and development that have positive impacts on the
organizational reputation, performance, and development.
There are several terms that have core importance to the study. We chose among the most
that serve this study the definition of training, development, learning, satisfaction, and
commitment.
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Learning: it involves a natural response to coping with change. There is an incidental and
intentional learning. The incidental learning is considered to be learning which occurs during
a course of doing other things of intended learning as reading books.
Satisfaction: Employee satisfaction is the individual general attitude toward his job. It is a
positive emotional state resulting from evaluating one’s job experiences. It is not the money
or the fringe benefits, but the feelings employees receive from the work itself. The ability to
produce, the quality of the work, the opportunity to learn and express creativity, the
recognition for a job well done, the ability to work well in a team, the social satisfaction
derived from relationships at work, and the rewards from a physically supportive work
environment are all factors that impact job satisfaction. The bottom line is the impact that job
satisfaction has on organizational commitment which affects the goals of productivity,
quality, and service. The basic end result here is that high job satisfaction leads to career
success.
Job satisfaction is important for both organization and employee. For the organization, it
increases productivity and customer satisfaction, reduce turnover, recruiting, and training
costs, and improve teamwork. For the employee, satisfaction is important, for employees will
take care about the quality of their work, create and deliver good quality for the customer;
they will be more committed to the organization and will increase productivity.
The first chapter is introductory of this research. It talks about the objectives of the study and
the definition of key terms.
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The second chapter highlights a wide scope about Human Resources Training and
development, its theories, strategy, processing, plan, methods, and analysis.
The third chapter presents the method in which it explains the research design that was used
in research approach, data collection methods, sources of data, and sampling.
The forth chapter introduce the organization that we are going to conduct our research at. We
are going to represent its background, its history, its mission, its SWOT, and its human
resources department.
The fifth chapter shows the pre and post data analysis of the respondents.
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Chapter 2: Human Resources Training and Development
This chapter is going to present the theoretical framework of the topic: it represents
previous work on it and what others have spoken about.
In this chapter we gathered all information about others who spoke about HRT&D. we mainly
concentrated on those who first presented this topic to the world and are still developing and
innovating new ideas such as “Richard A. Swanson” and “Elwood F. Holton” in their last
book “Foundations of Human Resources Development”.
We have represented in this book the history of HR Training and Development, its effect on
the development of the organization and on individuals, and its methodology.
Throughout all the resources (books and internet), I found there was no study about the
impact of this topic on employees satisfaction. I intended not to include it in this chapter as
we will examine its effect on the Data Analysis Chapter and its results and recommendations
in the sixth chapter.
The history of human resources development reveals that education, training, and
organization development of all sorts are largely the products of social and economic
conditions.
Training and development has a unique role in history of the human resources development
profession.
Training mainly in its simple form was found among our primitive ancestors where the head
of the tribe was unconsciously imitated by his sons through the activities held to practice their
traditions and/or to protect the tribe or to survive. Later on the father of the tribe has become
the one who trains the younger generation in the formal conduct of life.
Before and during the industry revolution, apprenticeship became the basic and persistent
influence of development of workplace and became the most important non-school institution
around which training has grown. It became a system for preparing the young to become
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expert worker from his master and what education he acquired is through some form of
apprenticeship. As early as the middle of the eighteenth century, new machinery and other
inventions of the emerging industrial era began bringing about remarkable changes in how
work was performed. Industrial era was in need of new ways to train workers and
apprenticeship was unsuited for the automated work in the evolving factory systems.
Before the World War I industrial education primarily were focusing on developing skills in
the unemployed to improve their personal welfare, but after War I and before War II,
depression was set around industries and training declined when company budgets were
tightened. But after the distress of the Depression, there was once a significant need of
training-training with industry (TWI). The objectives of the TWI were to enable companies
produce efficiently with lower costs and higher quality. Indeed, TWI, as said by Dooley, is
known for its simple and elegant way of training incredible amounts of people. TWI four
programs; the limited steps, sub points and key words, documentation, and the training
support, fostered three key contemporary elements of HRD: performance, quality, and human
relations.
TWI also established when it addressed quality issues delaying performance. Mainly when it
points at the Job Methods Training program that provided a specific method for teaching
employees how to address production and quality problems constructively and points at the
Program Development Method by Swanson, that was designed to teach employees how to
address quality problems and implemented improvements.
These two core quality principles introduced by TWI, still provide a basis from which many
in HRD implemented their analysis and work.
The least and most important is the Human Relations which is seen the first to be presented by
TWI as an important aspect of production success and, where supervisors were trained to
establish good relations with their employees.
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Clearly, the TWI effort was seen by many as the origin of contemporary HRD, as well as a
springboard for human relations perspective of the organization development component of
HRD.
In 1964, Harbison and Myers underlying on the development and economic theories
defined HRD the process of increasing the knowledge, the skills, and the capacities of
all the people in the society.
In 1970, Nadler defined it as a series of organized activities conducted within a
specified time and designed to produce behavioural change.
In 1981, Jones defined HRD as a systematic expansion of people's work-related
abilities, focused on the attainment of both organization and personal goals.
In 1983, Chalofsky and Lincoln revealed that the discipline of HRD is the study of
how individuals and groups in organizations change through learning.
In 1987, Swanson defined it as the process of improving an organization's
performance through the capabilities of its personnel. He also added that HRD
includes activities dealing with work design, aptitude, expertise and motivation.
In 1988, Smith, R. said that HRD consists of programs and activities, direct and
indirect, instructional and/or individual that positively affect the development of the
individual and the productivity and profit of the organization.
In 1989, Watkins defined it as a field of study and practice responsible for the
fostering of a long-term, work-related learning capacity at the individual, group, and
organizational level of organizations. As such it includes-but is not limited to-training,
career development, and organizational development, also Mclagan pointed that HRD
is the integrated use of training and development, career development and
organizational development to improve individual and organizational effectiveness.
Gilley and England also defined on the same year that HRD is an organized learning
activities arranged within an organization to improve performance and/or personal
growth for the purpose of improving the job, the individual, and/or the organization.
Nadler and Nadler also agreed that HRD is an organized learning experiences
provided by employees within a specified period of time to bring about the possibility
of performance improvement and/or personal growth.
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In 1990, Smith said that HRD is the process of determining the optimum methods of
developing and improving the human resources of an organization and the systematic
improvement of the performance and productivity of employees through training,
education and development and leadership for the mutual attainment of organizational
and personal goals.
In 1992, Chalofsky again came back to define HRD as a study and practice of
increasing capacity of individuals, groups, collectives and organizations through the
development and application of learning-based interventions for the purpose of
optimizing human and organizational growth and effectiveness.
In 1994, Marsick and Watkins as well agreed on that HRD is the combination of
training, career development, and organizational development that offers the
theoretical integration needed to envision a learning organization, but it must also be
positioned to act strategically throughout the organization.
In 1995, Swanson again came back to define HRD as a process of developing and
unleashing human expertise through organization development and personnel training
and development for the purpose of improving performance.
In 2001, Mclean brothers defined HRD as the process or activity that, either initially or
over the long term, has the potential to develop adults' work-based knowledge,
expertise, productivity, and satisfaction, whether for personal or group/team gain, or
for the benefit of an organization, community, nation, or, ultimately, the whole of
humanity
In 2009, Swanson again came back to give his final definition about HRD as a process
of developing and unleashing expertise for the purpose of improving organizational
system, work process, team and individual performance.
Based on these definitions, it is noticeable that HRD efforts in organizations often take place
under the additional banners of training and development, organization development,
performance improvement, organizational learning, career management, leadership
development, etc…
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2.2 Principals of HRD
The important points to note about this definition are that learning organizations:
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Use the results of learning to achieve better results
Peddler, Burgyne and Boydell on the 1982 define learning organization as an organization
which facilitates the learning of all its members and continuously transforms itself. This
includes both individual and organizational change elements, one of these wouldn't be
sufficient for an organization to learn.
David Garvin, in his book 'learning in Action' defined learning organization an organization
skilled at creating, acquiring, interpreting, transferring, and retaining knowledge, and at
purposely modifying its behaviour to reflect new knowledge and insights.
Learning organization is the one that uses information which challenges accepted
organizational norms and practices, to examine the way in which the organization performs
its functions and thus helps the organization "unlearn" it's previously used dysfunctional
patterns.
In conclusion, LO is a process rather than a state, something that all members of the
organization have to work on all the time, yet can never be fully realized.
Learning is the process of changing our behaviours, attitudes, knowledge and skills. Through
learning we can feel the changes in our self. It can be described as the process of acquiring
the ability to respond adequately to a situation, which may or may have not been countered.
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Furthermore, to attain the best level of performance and improvements in the present and
future time of the organization, it is a need to require learning and lots of learning so that to
be able to change its behaviours and mind-sets so that it reaches a successful learning
organization.
The organizational learning is more than an individual learning and arises through the
interaction of individuals in groups and teams of different sizes. It is the detection and
correction of errors. It is an emergent process in the sense that its outcome is not predictable.
If individuals and teams are encouraged to be innovative, then they need to explore
alternatives and to take thoughtful risks. During their learning, each will influence the other
and their ideas will co-evolve or adapt and change in accordance to other ideas influencing it.
As the environment change, these actions and policies will need to change to respond to the
environmental changes and to be able to work effectively and efficiently.
Even change here is important for the organizational learning for change, consistently
challenges traditional organizational practices and beliefs.
Changes are constantly changing and for this reason there is that continuous learning which
even leads to barriers to learning as such defensive routines, inadequate and ambiguous
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outcome feedback, misperceptions of the feedback or/and poor interpersonal and
organizational inquiry skills.
For this reason, Learning organization should explicitly address the relationship between
learn and work to provide people with possibilities to connect the two in multiple ways.
After presenting many definitions of LO, it has seen that most all of these definitions describe
elements in a learning system that makes an efficient, flexible and viable organization.
These are the continuous learning on the individual, group and system level, the single-and
double-loop learning process or even a third loop process which is not just doing things well
or just doing things better but also doing better things, the creation and distribution of
information and knowledge, the inquiry and dialogue in groups to share learning experiences,
the increasing in the learning capacity of members (learning to learn), the integration of work
and learning when informal learning is presented, the shared vision, and the empowerment of
individual learners.
Although there are many definitions of the Learning Organization concept, most of them
emphasize notions like shared vision, values, collective learning, continuous improvement,
making tacit knowledge explicit, and entering into dialogue. The focus here is not to develop
shared values but to equip people to cope with the tensions they experience in everyday
organizational life. These tensions arose from the differences in interests and power between
managers, workers, training consultants and other external actors.
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Figure 3.1: Principles of Adult Learning
Skill: the performance of any task which, for its successful and rapid completion, requires an
improved organization of responses making use of only those aspects of the stimulus which
are essential to satisfactory performance (Ribeaux and Highly level of skills are needed
Poppleton 1978:53-54) to operate complex and expensive technology.
Competence: the ability to perform the activities within an occupational area to be the levels
of performance expected in employment (Training Commission 1988). It is a major element
in the design of training and development. The concept of competence integrates knowledge
and skill that are assessed via performance.
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Tacit knowledge would appear to be acquired through experience rather than through
instruction and is embedded in the context in which this experience is taking place.
Nowadays, strategy; as stated by Johnson and Scholes; is defined as the direction and scope
of an organization over the long term, which matches its resources to the changing
environment and in particular its markets, customers or clients so as to meet stakeholder
expectations.
The pressures for organizational change reveal through increased work targets, threats of job
loss, job responsibilities, shifts in the balance of power, and general disturbances from the
environment works and all the constitute of job stress.
A number of strategic pressures have contributed to the increasing importance and strategic
role of HRD, and they are:
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employees to meet the organization's present performance demands. It also serves as a vital
role in shaping strategy and enabling organizations to take full advantage of developing
business strategies.
There are three main elements of strategic HRD. These are the strategic analysis, the strategic
choice, and the strategic implementation.
The strategic analysis under the HRD consideration might include analysis of current skill
levels available within and external to the organization which might impose upon current and
future business goals; it would consider the core competences of the organization in terms of
human capabilities in existence or which might be developed, and how these might be
deployed.
The strategic choice is very important for HRD to choose against each option a staff can be
recruited and trained to meet job requirements, provide a viable option, and suggest certain
successful core competences held by employees.
Within the strategic implementation, HRD considerations here might be about whether to
retrain the existing workforce (in knowledge, skills and/or attitudes) or whether to recruit new
people. It may require the management of strategic change and the design and delivery of
major training and development programs to support change.
The implication for training and development in this context is that people will need to
develop skills that can be used elsewhere in the organization and should be offered broad
career paths to reinforce the development of a broad range of skills.
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1. Communication Strategy- Continuous communication with employees, their family
members and the society is crucial to an organization.
4. Cost reduction strategy- save substantial savings at the end of a given period and enhance
its competitive strategy.
6. Culture building strategy- A strong culture fosters higher employee commitment towards
the goals and objectives of the organization.
This statement means the continuous changing approaches in an organization toward the vast
technological development so as to maintain its sustainability and meets its objectives
efficiently and effectively. In other words, organizations can't always depend on a one way
step performance to meet its objectives, for some of these approaches could be no longer
useful leading to deficiency and loss in organizations proficiency and ability to compete in
the world industry. Organizations have to search for other attempts or ways to coop with
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development changes through investigation and assessment of the needs required to develop
their resources and employees to maintain its proficiency and increase its profitability.
Awareness of the power of education and training leads to self-activation in meeting career
changes and organizational change.
Employees should be aware of their own needs for both the organization's requirements and
their long-term development and be aware of their learning strategies. Organizations need to
encourage individuals to recognize their training needs and more importantly to seek ways to
advance their career prospects. Organizations should identify the needed skills and active
management of employees learning for their long-range future in relation to explicit corporate
and business strategies. They should also discern not only the training needs of the individual
and the group, but also how their needs fits the overall organizational objectives and should
address the fundamental issues such as analysis of training needs in relation to the short and
long-term business plans so that considerable amount of money won't be thrown, knowing
that an integral part of analysing training needs is recognizing what will fit the organization
culture, as well as the organization strategy and objectives.
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5- Performance objectives: for example; are needed to increase quality. To do so,
assessment must take place as to whether current employees need training to
reach these objectives.
6- Analysis of Competition: can be assessed with the general levels of employees'
skills and abilities with that of the internal and vocational qualifications.
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2.6 Framework for the HRD Process
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3- Evaluation Phase: it focuses on measuring how well the training accomplished what
its originators expected. Monitoring comes between the implementation and the
evaluation phase to provide feedback for setting future training objectives.
2.6.2 Organizational Analysis
When doing organizational analysis, both internal and external forces must be considered.
One important source for organizational analyses comes from various operational measures
of organizational performance; departments or areas with high turnover, high absenteeism,
low performance or other deficiencies can be pinpointed to be analyzed so that to put the
training objectives that suit organization and individual needs.
A second way to diagnose training needs is through analyses of the tasks performed in the
organization. To do so, it is essential to know the job requirements of the organization. Job
descriptions and job specifications provide information about performance expected and
skills necessary for employees to accomplish the required work.
By comparing the requirements of the job with knowledge, skills, and abilities of employees,
training needs can be identified.
It gives a view of how employees perform their jobs. Performance appraisal is the most
common approach to identify individual analyses.
Once identifying the needs for training through analyses, training objectives and priorities
must be established.
The reason for the analyses is to compile gap analysis that frame the organization distance
between where it is with employees' capabilities and where it needs to be.
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The establishment of training objectives is set to close the gap and the training needs are
ranked in importance on the basis of organizational objectives the training most needed to
improve the health of the organization is done first in order to produce visible results more
quickly.
To identify gaps that an organization has, a researcher must conduct a needs assessment
distributed within all employees, analyse the results, come up with solutions, and evaluate the
change.
A needs assessment is a systematic way to research performance gaps which can provide a
substance and direction for strategic HRD planning, including the identification of
performance improvement initiatives that are likely to provide the best return on HRD
investments.
Training needs assessment can determine levels of optimal performance and standards for
excellence evidence of individuals actual performance levels, attitudes affecting performance
and root causes of performance problems.
The difference the "Gap" between the current and the necessary will identify
the needs, purposes, and objectives.
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Questions need to be asked are:
After identifying the needs for training and development, career development and
organization development etc… we must examine their importance to our organizational
goals, realities and constraints and determine if the identified needs are real.
Cost-effectiveness
Legal mandates
Executive pressure
Population
Customers
Some training and/or interventions might be called for if sufficient importance is attached to
moving our people and their performance into new directions. This is if our employees are
doing their job perfectly.
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2.6.6.4 Techniques for Investigating Organizational and Personal Needs
1- Direct observation
2- Questionnaire
3- Review of relevant literature
4- Interviews
5- Focus Groups
6- Tests
7- Records and report studies
8- Work samples.
The man-power planning purpose is to provide continuity of efficient manning for the total
business and optimum use of man power resources. It is set to achieve growth in production
against a backdrop of skills shortage and relatively stable and predictable world markets.
Planning HRD is set to ensure that the developmental activities reflect the organization's
strategic direction and maximize the learning outcomes for individuals. It also provides
developmental opportunities for all staff on a planned basis related to performance
management so as to meet governmental and individual needs.
There are the hard human resources planning and the soft human resources planning.
The Hard HRP is concerned with the direct control of employees, while the Soft HRP is
concerned with the indirect control of employees i.e. through teamwork.
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2.7.1 Vital steps in HRD planning
First is through the identification of the needed skills and active management of employees
learning for their long-range future in relation to explicit corporate business strategies, and
second is through analyzing training needs to fit the organization culture as well as the
organization strategy and objectives.
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Amend the HRD plan in the light of monitoring/evaluation and changes in business
strategy.
2.7.2 Analyzing the HRD Plan
The planning process goes under two levels, the organization and the individual level.
To identify the specific skill development areas for each employee and the competences
required, it should be framed in the context of person specification or his characters and of
expected performance, also in the context of his personal profile records that is also very
useful for training needs and analysis that can be significance in creating training initiatives
and of appraisal that can is important to reveal much about the strengths and weakness of
individuals in terms of their performance.
Organizations should review their employees' skill profile to identify skill gaps. This enables
an organization to compare the existing skills against the required skills to identify skill gaps
and plan current and future HRD.
Organizations should collect information on skill profiles and skill gaps of employees
through formal comparison of existing skills of employees against required skills, through
monitoring of individual performance plans, also through analyzing other data collected by
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an organization; for instance, workforce management data and culture surveys, and through
analyzing the internal and external changes and trends which may require the development of
new skills.
Here we should take into consideration that the plan should include the identification of skill
development priorities, funding for implementation of the plan through corporate budget
process, and allocating responsibility for implementation and evaluation.
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2.8 Human Resources Development Method
Once training needs have been assessed and training objectives identified, then the training
approaches and methods must be selected.
The training role can be conducted by a manager, supervisor, specialist trainer or developer.
By 'role' we mean the part the trainer plays. This important role can involve the writing of the
training strategies and policy, design and production, delivery and evaluation of learning
programs.
Good trainers can't equally communicate and convey knowledge; they can motivate, help
people to learn, spark innovation and creativity and promote a hunger to learn. They should
be open-minded and in touch with their own emotions while letting participants explore,
analyze and question. Most importantly trainers should be good questioners, careful listeners,
and observationally perceptive. Flexible is also required in training and development.
The 'best fit' to selecting methods go under levels of understanding, objectives, time available
and the flow or sequence of the whole event that are important guides to selection.
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There are also several point checklists for consideration in the selection and design of training
methods.
Consider carefully all the information from any assessment of training needs.
Examine in detail the aims and objectives-break them down into their constituent
parts.
Decide on specific content and themes.
Consider any constraints and opportunities and make it in keeping with the group.
Consider the creation of good learning atmosphere-the physical and
psychological setting.
Choose, modify, or create learning methods.
Organize and check the sequence of all the methods.
Consider all the things that might go wrong or don’t work and plan for
contingencies.
Consider methods that help the program review and support the transfer of
learning.
Evaluate everything-make notes about training methods improvements.
Feedback into future course design.
2.9 Methods
2.9.1 On-the-Job-Training
It is the training that is planned and structured and that takes place mainly at the normal
workstation of the trainee and where managers and trainers spend significant time with
trainee to teach a set of skills that have been specified in advance.
On the-job-training includes mentoring and coaching, learning by doing, shadowing and job
rotation, e-learning, and apprenticeship.
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through direction, advice, criticism, and suggestion in an attempt to aid growth of
the employee.
Learning by doing: this is a very popular way of teaching new skills and methods
to employees. Learning by doing often happens under the supervision as part of a
training or induction orientation process, and is closely associated with the
practical experience. It is the acquisition of knowledge and skills through direct
experience of carrying out a task.
Shadowing and job rotation: shadowing aims to give trainee managers a feel for
organization by providing experience of working in different department, whilst
the job rotation or switching roles help relieve boredom and thereby raise
productivity and raise an excellent learning experience for workers. It is also
important because it fits the HRM team working and empowerment.
E-learning: is an informational and learning exchange environment to facilitate
learning for employees whenever they need it, mainly because the required data is
available when learners want to learn.
Apprenticeship: is a structured process by which people became skilled workers.
It is a combination of classroom sessions and on the-job-training.
Computer based training: is an interactive training that reduces learning time and
gives a quick feedback for trainees.
Committee assignments: Assignment to a committee can provide an opportunity
for the employee to share in manager decision making to learn by watching others
and to investigate specific organizational problems. When committees are of
temporary nature they often take on task force activities designed to delve into a
particular problem, ascertain alternative solutions and make recommendations for
implementing solutions.
2.9.2 Off-the-Job-Training
It is necessary to get people away from the hustle and bustle of the work environment. This
enables employee to study theoretical information or be exposed to new and innovative ideas.
Active and passive learning: Passive learning training is one-way learning process
in which the student is a passive learner receiving the information. The best way of
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learning is when an employee is involved in the learning process as like
workshops, case studies, role play, simulation and others.
Sensitivity training: Sensitivity training in encounter groups is a method of
changing behaviour through group processes.
Transactional analysis: This may help managers understand others better and assist
them in altering their responses so as to produce effective results.
Lecture courses: Formal lectures offer an opportunity for managers or potential
managers to acquire knowledge and develop conceptual and analytical abilities. In
large organizations, these lecture courses may be offered “In-The-House” by the
organization itself.
It could be said to be using as 'I hear, I forget; I see, I remember; I do, I understand'. This
process of designing methods can let trainees move through different levels of reality and
simulation.
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Chapter 3: Research Methodology
The purpose of this chapter is to fulfil the need for knowledge to examine the effect of
Training and Development on the individual development and level of satisfaction toward
his job on the organizational development.
This chapter will cover the research methods taken to answer the research problem and how
we will go about gathering data to answer our research questions i.e. the research design,
methodological approaches, data collection, method of data collection, sampling method, and
method of analysis.
Our research is Basic since its main aim is to prove the rightness of a theory or the opposite
i.e. Practicing a suitable training and development courses has a positive impact on
employees satisfaction and development in their working place and similarly on the
organizational development.
It is going to include a cross functional efforts where individuals from various organizational
departments are going to be examined for the support of the study research.
It is used to identify and explain the nature of the problem. It enables researchers to better
understand the problem. It is also used to narrow the scope of research topic and
transformation of the discovered problems into defined ones.
Through the exploratory research for example, we found that most employees are applying
for other jobs outside the organization (an indication of dissatisfaction) and managers are
unaware of this fact neither know the reason behind this fact. We conducted a survey on
employees (including all possible attributes that affects dissatisfaction in an organization) and
interviews in order to point out the problem and to practice Training and Development
courses to see if such courses have positive impact on employees’ satisfaction.
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We are also going to undertake both the quantitative exploratory research (mathematical
model) and the qualitative exploratory research that is used at the beginning of the research to
get adequate understanding of the problem.
It is a deductive approach- the logical process of deriving a conclusion from a known premise
or something known to be true- that has to do with the building up of the theory and
hypothesis after reading the literature i.e. testing the theory. From the theories, the research
design was made, which we used when looking for answers to our research question.
The objective of this qualitative analysis is to get adequate understanding of the problem. We
have introduced different qualitative exploratory techniques to support us in finding
problems. We depended on the Pilot studies to generate primary data. We used both Focused
Group Interview and Depth Interview. Though this technique doesn’t apply accurate
standards in sampling and is not considered a perfect scientific standard, but it serves an
initial support for our qualitative analysis.
The objective of this quantitative analysis is to develop and employ mathematical model,
theories and/or hypotheses pertaining to natural phenomena. It is most suitable to indicate the
impact of training and development and it is also suitable for the large well designed and well
administered survey. It enables one to establish conceptual models and frameworks and also
to know some vital variables and analyse the connection between them. A literature review
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helps to get a better understanding of the research topic. In this research technique we
depended on a questionnaire.
Using the gathered data or reviewing the literature on the topic of interest is important when
conducting a research.
There are two models of data collection that can be considered when collecting data for
research purpose, the primary data and the secondary data.
It is a historical data that can be referred to as information collected by others for certain
purposes that can be different from that of a researcher who intends to use the same
information. These can be collected from either internal or external data.
In our research we depended on the internal data collected by the HR department in order
to see if there could be any information that supports our study. We took into
consideration the date of the data collected if it were out-dated or still beneficial. We
selected data made from a year ago. Mainly we concentrated on the appraisal and
satisfaction forms that have been collected from employees and other data of warning,
firing and resigning letters.
It is a first-hand because it is collected mainly for the set research purpose. It helps give
appropriate answers to the research questions.
People’s behaviour can hardly be learnt about without asking questions directly of the
people involved. Since our main concern is about people’s attitudes, knowledge and
satisfaction before and after a particular training course provide to them, we decided that
the data will be gathered through observation, a questionnaire, focus group interview, and
a depth interview. This helps us to know the reason behind the changing behaviour of the
employees and whether Training and Development has a deep role to this changing.
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3.4.3 Observation Method
It is used as supplementary evidence that aims to support the results of the other forms of
research by providing complementary qualitative evidence concerning individual true
feelings. This allows for the interpretation of non-verbal behaviour as facial expressions.
The other reason is that employees are familiar with the researcher as he is a colleague
working in the same workplace. They might be unwilling to answer some of the questions
that serve the research. So to avoid biased answers, the researcher preferred to be a hidden
observer.
In this method we are going to use two unstructured methods. We call them respondents
because the researcher asks questions and wait for the response of the respondents. These
methods are a focused group interview and a depth interview.
Tools used: we neither used the record nor taking notes in front of the group in
order to have a free-flow interview discussion and to avoid unbiased answers
and to gain their trust. We preferred immediately after the finishing of the
interview to list up all the discussions we gathered in order not to forget any
important information mentioned during the interview.
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3.4.4.2 Depth Interview: it is an extensive interview used in the primary stages of the
research process. Its aim is to stimulate respondents to elaborate or explain
more on the topic being discussed to learn more about the problem and to
enable the researcher to determine specifically and identify the problem. The
interview includes direct and indirect approaches. The direct approaches are
when we asked direct questions about the thoughts and behaviours; for
instance “what is your field of study?” The indirect approaches such as “why
not all the employees attended the training courses?”
We used this method to learn more about the problem as we were able to guide
the interview, explore the issues and probe as the situation occurs.
In order to avoid confusion and misunderstanding in the reader, we made our questions
relevant and accurate. We divided each group of questions under one title that represents
the general idea behind each question of the group. For instance we listed three questions
under the title “Communication”. Our questions were direct and in a simple language.
In order to make sure that our questionnaire was clear among all employees, we asked
them to read it before they start answering and ask to show us where the question is
needed to be clarified and explained. We noticed there were two questions under the same
title that were making confusion among some of the employees since both questions were
looking alike. In these questions, we intended to use the Split-Ballot Technique to control
for response bias.
We noticed that if we were to make apart these questions under different titles as we did
with others, we are going to get the desirable result.
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Phrasing Questions:
There are many different phrasing techniques that we could select, but to serve our study,
we found the suitable to choose some of these techniques as others aren’t necessarily to be
used.
3.4.5.1 Open-Ended Question: it is a question that poses some problems and asks the
respondents to answer in his own words. We included this technique at the last
four questions from the questionnaire.
Most of our fixed-alternative questions were to choose one of the closest to the
respondents view point. The scale we used to choose among were (strongly
disagree, disagree, no opinion, agree, strongly agree)
3.4.5.3 Split-ballot Technique: It is a technique used to control for response bias. Two
alternatives phrasings of the same questions are utilized for respective halves
of the same sample to defer a more accurate total response than would be
possible if only a single phrasing were utilized. We provide this technique with
two questions from the questionnaire:
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The people I work with to get the work done.
There is cooperation among team members.
In our study we preferred to include all the staff members in the organization so as to get
accurate results, however after distributing the needs assessment, we only got 11 filled
questionnaires out of 19.
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Chapter 4: Organizational Background
This chapter will talk about the organization that we are going to base our study on.
Première Urgence is an association defined under the French law of 1901 as a charitable aid
organization authorized to receive donations and bequests pursuant to a decision pronounced
by the Prefect of the Hauts-de-Seine region on 20th August 2001.
Première Urgence was founded in 1992, during the war in the former Yugoslavia, in order
to organize a supplies convoy to be sent out to populations in the area that were under
siege. The generosity of its donors at that time encouraged the founders to form a
permanent association to be a formal organization to help aid victims.
The organization born at this time was composed of a group of volunteers and was
exclusively focused on emergency aid actions. It was named Première Urgence.
Since its foundation, Première Urgence has been involved in emergency aid actions in
over 34 different countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Its actions have included
reconstruction projects in Nicaragua in 1998, in the wake of Hurricane Mitch, work in
Kosovo in 1999 to help refugees fleeing the bombings, actions in Iraq both during and
after the war to support the country’s hospital facilities, and many more. In 2004, Première
Urgence teams were at work in Chad to help Sudanese refugees fleeing the conflict in
Darfur.
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In 2005 its teams worked in the field in a number of different humanitarian crises: in
Aceh, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and in Muzaffarabad, in the mountainous
region of Kashmir, in Pakistan.
In July 2006, Première Urgence provided emergency aid to victims of the conflict between
Israel and Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon. Later in the same year, they initiated a new
program in Uganda, to help displaced populations to return to their homes.
In 2007, Première Urgence teams travelled to the North of the Central African Republic to
assist victims of civil conflicts who had been forced to leave their villages.
Over the course of 2007, more than 1.2 million people benefited directly from aid
provided by Première Urgence through its various aid actions.
In 2008, Première Urgence employs 25 members of staff at its headquarters, 100 overseas
staff members and over 1,000 people in the field, in more than 15 different countries
throughout Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Caucasus.
4.1.3 Objectives
PU objectives are to defend the principles of the universal right to life and dignity,
international human rights, impartiality and non-discrimination, PU organize concrete and
direct actions to help civilians who are in danger, marginalized or excluded, whether as a
result of natural disasters, disasters caused by the actions of mankind, civil or international
wars or violence sparked by economic crises in the wake of national or international
political upheavals.
4.2 PU Principles
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Impartiality: PU actions are driven regardless of race, religion, social background, political
membership or any other discriminating criteria. PU focuses on helping individuals in
relation to how much they have suffered prioritizing the needs of the most vulnerable.
Transparency: PU actions are subjected to regular reports which are written specifically for
the people involved, the local and national authorities and the donors.
4.3 PU Identity
Commitment
On joining the association, volunteers, employees and members of Premiere Urgence commit
themselves to a path motivated by humanist values and devotion to human welfare which
gives meaning to their working life.
Immediate and first-hand help to victims has been an intrinsic element of Premiere Urgence's
culture since it started. PU provides direct assistance, which means help provided directly
from face to face without intermediary intervention. PU also intervenes and lives close to the
people whom they are working with.
Premiere Urgence's identity is synonymous with its interventions in war zones or in favor of
neglected people who are the most vulnerable. PU provides assistance in the most remote
areas, in the most difficult contexts to populations not serviced by humanitarian aid. Freedom
to intervene is not always immediately granted. However, PU always advocates allowing this.
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To adapt
Premiere Urgence cultivates the evident diversity of its humanitarian missions. The actions
are designed following a needs analysis conducted by PU on-the-field teams who rely on
local culture and expertise for their beneficiaries of PU.
To be open-minded
Premiere Urgence creates technical, financial and human partnerships. PU brings in a core
competencies adapted to the specific needs diagnosed by the field staff. PU also functions by
raising public awareness to the complexity of humanitarian action and by sharing the values
and the methods which govern our actions.
4.4 PU Actions
Première Urgence organizes and implements specific aid programs appropriate to the crisis in
question:
Most funding comes from voluntary contribution of donor states. Premiere Urgence
institutional sponsors finance specific projects in its various fields of action. Financing is
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granted on the basis of an evaluation of the competence of PU field teams and upon
submission of a project. Once a project has been approved, a procedure is set up to allow the
financers to monitor, assess and audit the accounts relating to the action.
Such financing is crucial in order to allow Première Urgence to continue to provide assistance
to victims of humanitarian crises.
Premiere Urgence largest donors are the ECHO (European Commission), World Bank,
United Nations and others. A small portion comes from private foundations and associations
and actions group.
After the procedures taken by PU in defining the needs of the affected population, PU
goes on to the affected areas, conduct a needs assessment, analyze the needs assessment,
conduct researches on the convictions and conventions of the people and calls through a
well professional written proposal the needs of the affected population, the objectives,
strategies, plans, timeline, budget and resources needed to implement the defined project
to help affected people recover their socio-economic life through different aspects of life
and later send it to these donors to study and make their decisions toward funding this
project.
4.6 PU in Lebanon
After an initial emergency operation in 1996, Première Urgence has been working
continuously in Lebanon since 2001. PU operations are currently organized around two
geographical centers:
The Palestinian gatherings of Ein el-Hilweh and Saida area, in which Première
Urgence is rehabilitating shelters and sanitation facilities.
The Palestinian camp of Nahr el-Bared, largely destroyed during the summer of 2007,
in which Première Urgence is rebuilding accommodation and small businesses
affected by the conflict.
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4.6.1 Premiere Urgence Recovery plan in Lebanon
b) Water and sanitation: A water and sanitation program was recently completed in
the Palestinian gathering of Sikke, near the Palestinian camp of Ein El Hilweh, Saida.
It allowed 2,000 people to have access to a waste water network.. Similar works will
begin soon in the gathering of Al Baraksat to improve access to safe water and
sanitation for 4500 families.
There are many internal and external factors that affect the mission of PU in Lebanon.
The guidelines developed by the Lebanese government are not only clear but brutally
realistic. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon obtained the status of 'foreigners with an
unlimited residence permit'. They are deprived of almost all civil rights and subjected to
various forms of marginalization. The Lebanese Government forbids the reconstruction of
totally destroyed camps, and in other camps any reconstruction or building requires a
special permit which is usually not issued. In some camps, Lebanese soldiers verify that
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the residents are not smuggling in building materials. Building without a permit is
punishable by arrest and detention (USCR Report, 1999).
Until today, the legal framework has been much more refined. Refugees that have left
their original camps due to the Israeli war that hit these camps and due to bad internal
security conditions in the camps; became dispersed around Lebanon. Many have settled on
plots of land which later became gatherings or informal settlement. Though, Lebanese
government continues to prohibit the refugees from carrying out any reconstruction or
refurbishment to their houses.
These restrictions and regulations from the Lebanese government have limited the efforts
of PU mission to aid Palestinians outside and inside the Lebanese Palestinian camps. PU
aren't permitted to build new shelters or exchange zinc sheet shelters to concrete ones, PU
aren't allowed to shift their materials to these areas without the knowledge of the
government, it is also not allowed to make any new project unless approved by the
Lebanese government, PU is also restricted at some places like Saida Old City by the
Lebanese DGA on the ways they have to rehabilitate the historical shelters.
Since PU missions are mostly dependent on the international funds, in particular the
ECHO funds in Lebanon regarding rehabilitation projects, an economic crisis to these
foreign international funds and PU can affect the funding percentage to projects that most
affected population rely on.
As per the final economic crisis as an instant, ECHO; the main donor who supports highly
the funding of PU projects cuts a high percentage of its funding due to the last economic
crisis that affects their economical financial situations. In this case, PU has to cut from
their employees' and beneficiaries' numbers to balance between the needs and the funds
percentage or to search for other donors that are able to fund the project.
Other than funding conditions, there is the economic situation of the country that PU
intervenes on. Bad or good economic situations can also affect PU budget control to
implement its mission. As for instance, resources of materials bought to implement the
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projects are from the country on intervention, any critical economic situation to this
country can affect the funding budget to the projects.
Palestinians in Lebanon are most living in areas where bad infrastructure from electricity,
to sewages, to water networks and bad shelters affect their psycho-social and physical
behaviours and where many tensions inside these areas are, thus suffering due to the loss
of trust they got from their surroundings. The harsh socio-economic conditions the
affected population are facing and the limited and brutal political regulations toward their
rights made them even harder people to communicate with and this also may limit PU
missions until they gain the trust of these people.
With all these mentioned factors, PU is still struggling against these conditions trying the
best to succeed in its mission to help in recovering the needs of victims of war or natural
disasters.
1. Internal Strength
Premiere Urgence clear vision and mission.
Good Quality Management Standards.
Code of Conduct.
Enthusiastic Staff for team work and management.
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Capacity building.
Free of charge training.
Qualified and experienced Staff.
Communication System.
Competitive salaries.
Available facilities and equipment.
2. Internal Weaknesses
Financial Constraints
Lack of coordination between departments.
Weak linkage between employees needs and trainings presented.( absence of pre-
assessment)
Short term contracts.
3. External Opportunities
Donors supporting the projects. (Inconsistency)
Good relations with the local governments (municipality)
Strong liaison with other local and international NGOs acting in the area of
intervention.
Good linkage with labour markets. (www.lebanon-support.org).
Support from Army forces.
Good reputation gained from previous projects.
Good linkage with number of suppliers.
4. External Threats
Long procedures or constraints from external donations.
War or natural crisis in the field of intervention.
Bad security situations in the camps.
Risk of losing experienced staff.
Instability of economic and political situations in the area of intervention.
World economic crisis which affect the donor's funding percentages to projects.
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4.9 Organizational Chart
HOM
Technical
Senior Field Public Health Technical Field
Cleaner Driver Engineer
Officer Expert Officer
Assistant
4.9.1 Deep
Resource: Premiere Diagnosis
Urgence HR
The head of mission is responsible for the good specification and the implementation
of PU mission in Lebanon within the framework of the objectives clarified at the
headquarters office.
a) The Head of Mission is directly linked to the desk of the headquarters-a Head of
program and a Financial Officer. The Head of Mission gives account of program
activities, results, difficulties, and problems encountered to the desk.
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b) The Head of Mission collaborates with all other departments of the headquarters
after addressing the needs.
c) The Head of Mission is in charge of all teams in the field. He is the immediate
superior of the expatriate and national medical referents.
The Head of Mission plays a part in the project management and development
through creating, planning and following up activities, supporting its implementation,
monitoring and evaluating of the projects and by ensuring the cohesion of mission and
the internal communication through regular coordination meetings and by evaluating
the humanitarian situation in the area of intervention and other possible areas.
The Head of Mission also plays a role in the human resources management by
supervision of national staff according to the country labour law, management of
expatriate staff by determining the needs and drafting of job term of reference, and
responsibility of security.
The Head of Base is responsible for coordinating, consolidating, and ensuring smooth
implementation of and adherence to logistic, human resources, administration and
security procedures and provides operational support to the programs on PU base in
PU mission. The HOB is in charge of building the capacity of the local support team
in the base. He also is responsible to report to the Head of Mission.
The Head of Base plays a part in managing the opening, closing and/or regular
running of the base including management of all support staff, program staff
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activities, administration and security of the base. He ensures that PU procedures and
donor regulations applicable to projects implemented on the base in regards to
logistics, security, HR, and administration are closely followed.
The Head of Base also plays a part in Administration and Human Resources by
setting up and implementing of standard of PU Administration. The HOB ensures the
proper management of finances on the base including planning, authorization of
expenses, and reporting. The Head of Base also ensures the management of Human
Resources in accordance with PU guidelines and the legal requirements in the host
country.
The Mission Log Officer is typically in charge of managing the proper setup,
rehabilitation, running of base premises (office/expat and guest house), ensures the
proper functioning of supply chain including procurement planning, purchasing of
goods and services, their transport and storage, supervises the organization, planning,
and maintenance of the task force, evaluates and reports the need and ensures the
proper use of PU equipment, assesses and ensures the functioning of the means of
communication appropriate for PU base.
He is also responsible for the security on the base including staff, premises, as well as
security of PU materials and assets. He assesses, monitors, and reports the security
situation and develops security procedures relevant to the context.
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4.9.4 Administrator
The Administrator is responsible for the primary management and support programs
for the National Intervention Board. These include the functions of budget and
accounting, human resources, procurement, and office support.
The Administrator plays role in the Financial Management Services including budget
and accounting through budget formulation and execution, funds control, financial
reports, and system for accounting for agency resources and programs.
The Administrator plays also a role in Human Resources through recruitment and
placement, classification and Pay Administration, performance management and
incentive awards, employee benefits, personnel security, wellness and employee
assistance programs, and through training coordination by coordinating with agencies
training programs.
He/she are also responsible for the office services and operations including printing,
procurement, and supply services by maintaining a simplified acquisition program for
supplies and services and by coordinating services and supplies.
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4.9.6.1 Human Resources Department
a) PU Stability in Lebanon
Premiere Urgence is exciting in Lebanon for one major reason which is to assist and
aid people who suffered from political and economic crisis. In other word, PU
stability in Lebanon depends on how many needs there are to assist and cover. When
there is no need to accomplish, PU mission in Lebanon ends.
Along with the internal and external environmental threats such as war and internal
security, PU human resources department is unable to assure the consistency and stability
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of work which leads either to a lack of commitment of its employees to their work and/or
turnover where employees search for a job security.
b) PU Funding
c) Different Cultures
Premiere Urgence staff and beneficiaries are from different nationalities. PU finds at
every mission and project difficulties to adapt to other cultures especially that its own
staff might come from different backgrounds and different conventions and convictions
(French, Lebanese, Palestinians etc…) and the adaptation of its staff to the culture of the
area of intervention until PU gains its trust within the population. This affects the process
and time ending of any project to be accomplished and eventually affects PU image in
front of the donors.
In order to fast gain the trust of the area of intervention and to implement the project
before its time limit, PU preferred to recruit daily workers from the area of intervention
under the supervision and monitoring of its own staff. This procedure at some areas might
affect negatively the process of work and the security of PU staff especially if these daily
workers were tough to deal with or if PU failed to gain the trust of the population.
e) Security
PU nowadays main objective is to aid Palestinians in the gatherings around Ein El Hilwe
Camp- a very inconsistent unsecured area outside the Lebanese Security Force Area of
intervention. This obliged PU another challenge to create its own security procedures for
the security of its own staff members though still there is no guarantee for PU to be able
to evacuate its staff when sudden emergency problem occurs in the site.
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All these challenges affect mainly the recruitment, the staff consistency and stability and
lead to either a turnover or lack of commitment in the organization. In this way, the
Human Resources Department has to search for other ways to create a high self-
commitment and satisfaction and to motivate its employees to perform their job
efficiently and effectively.
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Chapter Five: Data Analysis
In this chapter the results of the study will be presented. Each title in this chapter presents
its importance for the study followed by the analysis of the data collected from our
respondents with the use of a questionnaire before and after conducting a training and
development activity.
Our respondents sample consists of 8 males (72.7%) and 3 females (27.3%). In terms of age,
1 of the respondents’ ages is below 25 years in age (9.1%), 7 of them ranges between 26-35
years old (63.9%) and 3 of them are 36 and above (27.3%). According to their level of
education, 1 is undergraduate (9.1%), 5 have got graduate degrees (45.5%) and 5 have post
graduate degrees (45.5%). Among them there are 3 employees who studies Business
Administration in their universities (27.3%), 2 studied laws (18.2%), 2 studies engineering
(18.2%) and the rest got different educational studies (36.4%). However, each of those
employees has different years of experience with PU where 1 of them has a year and less
experience with PU (9.1%), 5 has 1-2 years of experience (45.5%) and 5 others has 2-5 years
of experience with PU (45.5%).
We have intended to include their field of studies so that we are able to know if those
employees field of study has a relation with their position at PU. This gives evidence that
providing training to improve their working performance and career is important to their
satisfaction and relatively the organization’s development.
We also mentioned their experience with PU to know whether it is relevant to study their
commitment and satisfaction to the organization after a period of time. Usually this study
can’t be conducted after a working in a very short period of time with PU.
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To enhance our studies with the suitable information supporting our studies, we asked
questions to get answers whether Training and Development plays a major role in the
changing behaviour of employees, their commitment and satisfaction toward their work, and
relatively their impact in the organization’s development.
5.2 Communication
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1- I usually know plenty of time when important things happen
This subsection analyses was to see how far employees are connected deeply to their
teams and their organization. We wanted to know how far there working environment
grows with others from different departments and different positions as all departments
are related to each other to achieve the same goal. We have asked the same question
before and after making needs assessment and training courses. According to figure 5.1,
we noticed that before conducting training, 3 employees disagreed with this statement
(27.3%) which shows that these employees had run in an experience where they knew
about important things after happening, 3 had no opinion whether they are usually
informed about important things (27.3%) which shows lack of confident in the discussion
between each other, 4 employees agreed that they are informed about important things
(36.4%) and 1 strongly agreed that he is usually informed (9.1%).
After conducting a training session to the employees, we have noticed positive changes in
the results where the number of employees who agreed about being informed increased
by 3 employees to become 7 (63.6%) and 1 “strongly Agreed” (9.1%). 3 employees
responded they had no opinion (27.3%) either because time to adapt was insufficient or
there was a difficulty to react immediately to the new communication strategy, and
The 27.3% positive change in results shows that training implemented by managers of the
departments or so-called expertise to their employees had made an impact on the
changing behaviour of employees where there were more efforts done to improve
communication between departments. The organization has done more initiatives to
empower the coordination and communication skills among all divisions and individuals
working in the organization.
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In order to be more accurate, we evaluated the pre-responses according to positions to see
which of the departments were having deficits in usually knowing important things when
they happen.
In figure 5.2 we noticed that 3 respondents from the social department answered
“Disagree” as the organization chart shows and 2 managers from both technical and
social departments and a technical engineer answered “No Opinion”. This information
helped our research to give more efforts in developing social team communication with
others and between themselves and similarly the technical team.
Figure 5.3 shows that before doing a training course for the employees, 1 of them replied
that he didn’t see the link between his work and PU objectives (9.1%) which shows that
he didn’t know his job responsibility or ignores his position in PU, 3 had no opinion
whether their work had anything to do with PU objectives (27.3%) either because they
don’t have a clear idea about PU objectives or their position objectives is not stated
clearly, and 7 reported that they see the link to a certain extent “Agree” (63.6%).
After the training, we noticed 2 employees were still not sure about the link between their
work and PU objectives (18.2%) maybe because they couldn’t get clear explanation about
their working objectives during training, while 9 employees agreed that they can see the
link (81.8%).
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Figure 5.3: Link between my work and PU Objectives
This statement is a split-ballot technique (double statement) to the former. The aim is to
see how much accurate their results were. Before doing the training course for the
employees, figure 5.4 shows that 2 of them disagreed that their managers communicate
clear objectives for PU to achieve (18.2%), 4 had no opinion whether the message that
PU wanted to achieve is clearly stated from the managers (36.4%), 4 agreed that their
managers communicate clear objectives (36.4%), and 1 strongly agreed (9.1%).
After the training course, results changed, where 2 of the respondents were still unsure
whether the objectives being communicated by the manager are clear (18.2%), 8 of them
agreed that it is stated clearly (72.7%), and 1 respondent strongly agreed that objectives
are communicated clearly by managers.
5.3 Satisfaction
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Since our main research question is to find however training and development has any impact
on employees’ satisfaction, we saw it is very important to add questions related to satisfaction
so that it gives us a clear result, but still to bring an accurate result we have to ask several
questions that goes around Satisfaction in order to avoid inappropriateness.
In figure 5.5, we have noticed that before doing a training and development course, 6
were almost unsatisfied either due to the clash between departments which we have
noticed in our observation or they believe that the conditions given are unfair. 1 of them
strongly disagreed (9.1%), 2 disagreed about the working conditions (18.2%) and 3 had
no opinion whether they are getting good working conditions or not (27.3%). However,
there were 5 respondents that were satisfied about the conditions of their work where 4 of
them agreed (36.7%) and 1 respondent strongly agreed that it was good (9.1%).
After the training and development courses, we have noticed some few changes in the
result of the employees where respondents who agreed that they were having good
working conditions increased by 2 respondents (54.5%) and those who strongly agreed
increased by 1 (18.2%), but 3 employees responded that they got no opinion whether their
working conditions are good (27.3%) simply because they were waiting for positive
changing conditions.
5.4 Training
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Training is our basic research study topic. Of course to know whether employees get right
training to improve their performance and skills, it was important to include in our
questionnaire few questions that employees can respond immediately before doing any
training course though we know the impact of training is for immediate change and short
term.
This statement shows however the training provided by HR department was chosen
according to the needs assessed before from employees and managers to see which
training course should be provided to employees to develop their skills and knowledge to
do their job well or whether there were chaos choosing of trainings causing waste of
resources.
Figure 5.6 shows that before training 1 of the respondents strongly disagreed that he is
getting the training that helps him to do his job well (9.1%), 6 disagreed that they are
getting the suitable training to do their job well (54.5%), 1 had no opinion (9.1%) , but 3
agreed that the training they got was needed to do their job well (27.3%).
After conducting training course suitable to each employee’s needs we found that 3
respondents were having no opinion whether the training they got was needed to do their
job well (27.3%) either because they didn’t understand the objective of the training
related to their work or they believe the training conducted was suitable, 8 respondents
agreed that the training which they were given after the first needs assessment was needed
to do their job well (72.7%).
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6- I am aware of available training and development activities.
Figure 5.7 shows that 1 of the respondents strongly disagreed he is aware of available
training and development activities (9.1%), 2 disagreed (18.2%), and 2 had no opinion if
they were receiving news whether available T&D activities occur (18.2%), 5 agreed they
are aware of the available training and development activities (45.5%) and 1 strongly
agreed he is completely aware (9.1%).
We couldn’t measure the changes of results due to the short period of time between the
first and the last assessment where no training activities were held.
The reason why we included this statement is to be sure whether employees are always
kept in track with any available or important information for their work “split ballot
technique-communication”.
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This question was intended to support a question asked to the HR manager during the
interview. Before taking any initiative to do any training we asked them if they were
given an opportunity to improve their skills. Figure 5.8 shows that 4 respondents
disagreed about getting a real opportunity to improve their skills (36.4%), 2 had no
opinion whether they are getting or not (18.2%), 4 agreed they get real opportunities
(36.4%) and 1 strongly agreed he got real opportunity within PU to improve his skills
(9.1%).
In order to come up with a clear conclusion, we found that it is important to know how far
those employees have been complaining or dissatisfied about the work they do. So it was
important to study the result upon years of experience. In figure 5.9, we found that those
who disagreed were 3 employees working with PU from 2-5 years and 1 employee whose
experience with PU is 1 year and less, we also noticed 2 respondents had no opinion
whether they were given a real opportunity to improve their skills. 1 of them is having a
1-2 years’ experience and the second is with 2-5 years. However, those who agreed that
they were given real opportunities were 4 respondents working from 1-2 years with PU.
This result shows that the distribution of opportunities between employees weren’t fair
which cause dissatisfaction and lack of commitment.
After the training, figure 5.8 shows that only 2 had no opinion whether the training had
any impact on their skills improvement (18.2%) because the period before receiving their
feedback after changing was short, 8 agreed that the trainings gives real opportunity for
them to improve their skills (72.7%), and 1 strongly agreed
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Figure 5.8: I am given a real opportunity to improve my skills
5.5 Career
Anyone who is seeking a green pasture in a company will look for available opportunities
that can develop his career. An employee would look for challenges in his work, available
trainings that improve his performance, promotions and continuity. All these factors have
impacts of the level of satisfaction and commitment toward the organization and relatively its
development.
We asked questions however there are opportunities to develop the career, whether there are
fair and reasonable promotions, and the chance of progressing within PU.
Before the training course, figure 5.10 shows that 2 employees disagree that there are
variety of ways to develop their career (18.2%), 5 have no opinion whether there are
variety of ways (45.5%), 3 agreed that there were variety of ways to develop their career
(27.3%) and 1 strongly agreed (9.1%). After the training course, the 2 employees were
still having no opinion whether there are ways to develop their career (18.2%), 8 agreed
that there were (72.7%) and 1 strongly agreed (9.1%).
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9- Job promotions within PU are fair and reasonable.
One of the objectives of this question wasn’t only to see whether employees are satisfied,
but also to see if there is equality between all members according to their performance.
In the first needs assessment form, figure 5.11 shows that 6 respondents had no opinion
whether job promotions are fair and reasonable (54.5%) either because employees had no
interest on other colleagues whether they are getting reasonable job promotions so they
don’t compare themselves with the others or because they haven’t received any
promotions so far. 3 agreed that it is reasonable (18.2%) and 2 strongly agreed that it is
fair and reasonable (18.2%).
We couldn’t receive any feedback after the training course because of the limit time we
got to recollect the post assessment.
This question was used also as a split-ballot technique where we wanted to be sure as well
whether there are mutual close relation among departments and relatively good
communication or whether there are fair equality among them. In the first need
assessment form-Questionnaire, figure 5.12 shows that 2 of the respondents disagreed
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about being aware of promotion opportunities within PU (18.2%) which chose there is
either poor communication between managers and their teams or between managers and
HR department where the former misses receiving the information to send to his team or
because promotion opportunities are missing in the organization. 5 had no opinion
whether there are promotion opportunities (45.5%) either because there could be no
available promotion opportunities presented since they were hired with PU or because
they believe they weren’t usually receiving such kind of information from the HR
department or there managers, and 4 agreed they were aware of promotion opportunities
(36.4%).
This statement was presented to know if employees are having a feeling of satisfaction
and a feeling of job security and whether they are aware of the opportunities given to
them.
In figure 5.13 shows that before training, one of the respondents disagreed that he has the
opportunity to progress within PU (9.1%) which shows a feeling of dissatisfaction and
feeling of secure toward his work with PU, 5 had no opinion whether they had any
opportunity to progress within PU (45.5%) either because the opportunity wasn’t yet on
time or because they don’t know whether PU is going to remain working in Lebanon. 3
agreed that they got opportunities to progress (27.3%) and 2 strongly agreed (18.2%).
After training, figure 5.13 shows 3 respondents were still having no opinion whether they
got opportunity to progress and this is mainly due to the limit of time when we received
the feedback after training, 6 agreed that they are having the opportunity to progress
(54.5%), and 2 strongly agreed (18.2%).
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Figure 5.13: I have the opportunity to progress within PU
5.6 Organization
In order to maintain its stability and develop its performance, we have to look for the overall
defects within employees and the organization. It was significant to ask a question regarding
its working policies that plays a strategic role in the performance, satisfaction, and
commitment to this organization.
This questionnaire serves the culture building strategy of the organization where it
fosters a higher commitment towards the goals and objectives of it. Figure 5.14 shows
that before the training, 3 employees (27.3%) had no opinion whether PU innovate new
ways to serve beneficiaries either because they are not aware of PU accomplishments or
because they ignore the criteria and quality that PU provide and in this way innovating
new ways won’t be noticeable, 63.6% of the respondents agreed that PU innovate new
ways (7 employees) and 9.1% strongly agreed (1 employee).
We didn’t include this question at the post assessment due to the short period of time after
delivering the training.
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Figure 5.14: PU is innovative in developing new ways to serve our beneficiaries
High quality organization refers to the product an organization sells to its customer where
they feel satisfied but delighted. Question 12 serves an answer to this statement in a way
that if PU is always kept on a track of new technology to change, to innovate, and to
improve its performance and products to serve its customers, than its image is connected
to the high quality standard that it delivers to its customers, as for instance, the brand
image of Pepsi was due to the product it serves for its customers to be delighted.
The image changing effect after training and after 2 month is not enough to be measured
but it is based on a long term strategy to change its image. However, since 63.6% of PU
employees see that it is of a high image, we consider it a good result.
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14- The work policies are well developed and organized
This statement reveals whether the organization is exposed to external changes where to
coop and adapt to; changing and developing working policies to fit changes. This is also
to know whether the organization gives real opportunities to its employees by providing
trainings to its employees to receive enough knowledge in order to work according to the
new policies. Being organized shows that employees are receiving the information clearly
and are aware of how to perform their duties matching the new working policies. The pre-
needs assessment form in figure 5.16 showed that 2 employees disagreed (18.2%), 4 had
no opinion whether the working policies are well developed and organized (36.4%) either
because they are confused whether they are usually updated about new policies which
shows there is a lack of trust or there is poor communication between the staff members
or because they weren’t aware about the objectivity of the previous training held or
because they ignore the organization policies. 4 respondents agreed (36.4%) and 1
strongly agreed that it was well developed and organized (9.1%).
However to support this study, we intended to search on our pre-assessment to know what
employees and under which department they work and believe that working policies are
not well developed and organized and why some of them had no opinion whether it is
well developed or organized or whether it is not. This will let us understand more where
the training should concentrate to make positive changes. In figure 5.17 we found that 1
engineer (technical department) and a health expert (social department) disagreed about
the work policies in the organization, a field officer (social department), a manager
(Engineering department/technical department), the head of base of the organization
(responsible for both social and technical departments) and a logistic had no opinion
whether working policies are well developed and organized.
Figure 5.17: The work policies are well developed and organized*Position at PU
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Nevertheless, the post-needs assessment in figure 5.17 shows that 2 respondents (18.2%)
were still having no opinion whether policies were well developed and organized and this
is because they didn’t sense the changing difference yet, 8 agreed (72.7%) that policies
are well organized and developed and 1 strongly agreed (9.1%).
Figure 5.16: The work policies are well developed and organized
5.7 Recognition
Rewards and recognition are important since they have impact on change in working
motivation and satisfaction where organization seeks to determine the reasonable balance
between employee commitment and performance to approach a higher level of performance
efficiency and relatively organization’s continual growth.
This statement intends to see whether employees receive enough recognition about the
job they perform, and if they don’t receive, what could be the reasons. It is also stated to
know whether employees are so satisfied to the extent that they do hard work and receive
rewards in exchange of their hard work they provide to the organization. All these factors
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show how far HR department recognize its employees and pay attention to motivate them
at their work to enhance reliability and commitment to the organization.
Before the training course, employees responded to this statement differently. We found
in figure 5.18 that 1 employee disagreed (9.1%) either because he never received any
reward so far or because rewards are not reasonable to the hard work he performs, 6
employees had no opinion whether hard work is usually rewarded (54.7%) and their
answer could be taken in general according to the whole staff so they don’t know whether
others who perform hard work usually get rewarded or if taken from one’s own
perspective; he might not be familiar of the available rewards given or he doesn’t know
whether his work is considered to be hard upon others. 3 employees agreed that work is
usually rewarded (27.3%), and 1 strongly agreed (9.1%).
However, after the training course, we noticed that only 2 employees still had no opinion
whether works are usually rewarded (18.2%) and this is either because the time to
perform hard and receive rewards was too short or because they are still confused whether
what they are performing are sighted to be hard, and 9 employees agreed that hard work
is usually rewarded (81.8%).
If a person receives enough recognition for the work he does, this implies that his
managers and team members notice his hard work, he is satisfied so he performs
efficiently and effectively, he knows what is job responsibilities very clearly, and HR
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department is aware to be fair and reasonable with its employees to motivate them to do
better job.
Figure 5.19 shows that before training. 3 respondents disagreed about receiving enough
recognition for the work they do (27.3%) and this is either because they are not
performing well their job responsibilities or their managers don’t notice the good
performance so they become demotivated. 1 respondent had no opinion whether he
receives enough recognition (9.1%) and this is because he is not sure whether the
complements he is receiving are positive to his side and enough. 6 agreed (54.5%) and 1
strongly agreed he receives enough recognition (9.1%).
After training, 2 respondents stated they had no opinion whether they received enough
recognition (18.2%) and this is either to the short period of time after delivering the
training and before receiving the pre-assessment so their work performance wasn’t
enough to let them receive enough recognition and 9 agreed that they are receiving
enough recognition (81.8%).
5.8 Management
At any organization, management plays the first and main role in its growth and continuity
where it is the main department to set plans organize it, lead and communicate with its staff
(people management), and take wise decisions to achieve organizational objectivity.
If managers help their team or staff to improve and develop in their job performance or
work, this means that they are given suitable trainings, they are recognized and rewarded,
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their job performance is well done, there are new ways and policies the organization
creates so managers have to prepare its employees to coop with changes, job opportunities
are presented in the organization and everyone is treated fairly in a decentralized
atmosphere.
Figure 5.20 shows that before training, 2 respondents stated that their managers don’t help
them to get ahead at their jobs (18.2%) either due to the lack of new policies, absence of
new job opportunities or managers are afraid to close gaps between them and their staff
which shows centralization. 2 had no opinion whether their managers helped them to get
ahead at their jobs (18.2%) either because they don’t recognize whether they received
help or they don’t see any opportunities where they asked for help but never received. 5
respondents agreed they get help from managers (45.5%), and 2 strongly agreed they got
help (18.2%). After training, results were positive. 9 respondents (81.8%) agreed and 2
strongly agreed that they got the help from their manager to go ahead at their jobs.
In any organization, to enhance, develop, and create satisfaction within its employees,
employees should believe in the decisions taken by the managers of the organization.
However, any distrust or wrong decisions taken by managers create a sense of
dissatisfaction and lack of commitment toward the organization where employees believe
there is no chance for them to develop their career neither their skills in an unprofessional
organization.
Figure 5.21 shows that before training, 2 respondents disagreed that management of PU
makes wise decisions (18.2%) because previous decisions taken were proved to be wrong
due to the implementation of projects where employees have different point of views but
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weren’t taken into account. 5 of them had no opinion whether management makes wise
decisions (45.5%) either because they didn’t recognize the defects in the projects and its
consequences and relatively they don’t know the organizational objectives or they are in a
distance from the managers so they don’t see the decisions taken. 3 agreed that it makes
wise decisions (27.3%) and 1 strongly agreed (9.1%).
This result is not enough to understand the reason especially that 3 of these respondents
out of 11 were managers. In this perspective, we have to know whether these managers
were satisfied and convinced about the work they are doing and whether others believe
that management takes wise decisions.
In figure 5.22, we found that 1 manager from technical department and a health expert
from the social department disagree that management of PU makes wise decisions, 2
engineers, a field officer (social department), data entry and the head of base of all
departments had no opinion whether PU management makes wise decisions.
Two managers of whom one disagreed and another had no opinion, this means they are
still confused about what decisions they take especially that both of them are expatriates,
so probably they are still not in acquainted to the culture of the region they work in and
in this case they got confused about decisions or because results to their decisions didn’t
appear yet, they weren’t able to measure different opportunities of their decisions, they
didn’t measure the success or failure of their decisions or because they weren’t satisfied
about other managers’ decisions.
After training, figure 5.21 shows that 2 respondents had no opinion whether management
makes wise decisions (18.2%) because time was limit and managers at that time weren’t
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having any decisions to be taken or because the decisions taken never shown any
negative or positive response. 8 agreed that management makes wise decisions (72.7%)
and 1 strongly agreed (9.1%).
5.9 Department
The working environment in a department plays a major role in the performance and
satisfaction of an employee. It is the place where the employee acts efficiently and effectively
to support other departments and initiate in achieving organizational overall objectives.
If conditions in your department are fair and reasonable, allow flexibility at work, have
good team spirit, seek development to its members, creates new ideas to serve others and
get ease to work and gives its members the accessibility to be responsible and take
decisions will allow all team members to perform to a high standard.
Figure 5.23 shows that before training, 3 respondents indicated that conditions in their
departments don’t allow them to perform to a high standard (27.3%) because there is no
flexibility at work where members feel they have no responsibility to take any decisions,
1 had no opinion (9.1%) and this is either because he doesn’t feel a member of the team in
his department or because he doesn’t know what conditions should he has in order to
perform to a high standard, 6 agreed (54.5%) and 1 strongly agreed (9.1%) that conditions
allow them to perform to a high standard . After training, 3 had no opinion whether
conditions in their departments allow them to perform to a high standard (27.3%), 7
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respondents agreed (63.6%) and 1 strongly agreed (9.1%) that conditions in their
departments allow them to perform to a high standard.
20- My team looks for ways to fix the problem rather than finding someone to blame.
This statement means a high team spirit where employees are enthusiastic to create ways
to improve team performance rather than personal achievements and similarly meaning a
feel of commitment towards one’s department to succeed.
Figure 5.24 shows that before training, 5 respondents had no opinion if their teams look
for ways to fix problems rather than finding someone to blame (45.5%) either because
they don’t feel a team member so he ignores problems that occur or because such
problems haven’t occurred yet. However, 6 agreed that their teams look for ways to fix
problems (54.5%).
After training, 2 respondents had no opinion whether their team looks for ways to fix
problems (18.2%) and this was because such problems never occurred yet to be solved
and 9 agreed that their teams look for ways to fix the problems (81.8%).
Figure 5.24: My team looks for ways to fix the problem rather than finding someone to blame
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5.10 Teamwork
21- I believe that all the divisions in the organization work together to achieve a
common goal.
Figure 5.25 shows that before training, results showed that 5 respondents disagreed
that all the divisions in the organization work together to achieve a common goal
(45.5%) which shows poor communication and coordination, 1 had no opinion
whether divisions work together to achieve a common goal (9.1%), 4 agreed (36.4%)
and 1 strongly agreed (9.1%). However after training, 2 respondents had no opinion
whether division work together (18.2%) and this is because they need the time to
notice whether divisions had good coordination to achieve a common goal and 9
agreed that all divisions work together to achieve common goal (81.8%).
Figure 5.25: I believe all the divisions in the organization work together to achieve a common goal
22- The people I work with cooperate to get the work done.
This statement reflects the communication between team members from the same
department. It also reflects if there were team spirit at work, flexibility, understanding
of job requirements and duties, and initiative; which reflects satisfaction, to get the
work done efficiently and effectively.
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Results in figure 5.26 show that before training showed that 3 respondents disagreed
(27.3%) which means there is poor communication or clash between team members
(they don’t feel team belonging), each member works his own without taking into
consideration the overall objectives of the organization so he neglects his other team
members and in this case there will be a loss of important information. 2 had no
opinion (18.2%) either because they don’t want to state the right answer especially
that respondents know that the researcher is a member in the organization and stating
the true answer could affect their future job within PU or because they aren’t working
inside teams so they feel the distance as like the “Head of Base” but instead getting
the final information from the team leader or because they don’t recognize clearly
whether members communicate and cooperate at sometimes to get the work done.
However, 4 agreed (36.4%) and 2 strongly agreed (18.2%).
This result is not also efficient to know the defect; we should know which of these
departments has poor communication and team management skills.
The result in figure 5.27 shows that 2 out of 4 from the social department and a
technical manager don’t agree. The administrative manager and the head of base had
no opinion whether people the work with cooperate to get the work done.
Figure 5.27: The people I work with cooperate to get the work done*position at PU
After training however, results in figure 5.26 show that 2 had no opinion (18.2%) and
9 agreed (81.8%).
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Figure 5.26: The People I work with cooperate to get the work done
If people you work with cooperate to get the work done, than it is said to be that there
is cooperation between team members.
Before the training, figure 5.28 shows that 3 respondents (disagree) believed that there
is no cooperation between team members (27.3%), 2 had no opinion whether there is
a cooperation (18.2%) and this is because they don’t really feel their belonging to a
team, 4 agreed (36.4%) and 2 strongly agreed (18.2%) that there is a cooperation
between team members.
After training, only one respondent had no opinion whether cooperation exists (9.1%),
9 agreed (81.8%) and 1 strongly agreed (9.1%) that cooperation between team
members exists.
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5.11 Equality
Measuring the effects of equality or diversity initiative would only be realized in the long
term. Within a short term, it can only be measured is terms of attitudes or changes in
performance.
We weren’t able to see the effect of change after training, for rewards’ change can be
seen after a long term after conducting an appraisal form to each employee’s
performance. The only reason to include it in our study is to measure the level of
employees’ satisfaction and commitment toward the organization as it plays one of
the main roles in enhancing employees’ performance.
We noticed in figure 5.29 that 7 employees had no opinion whether rewards are given
fairly (63.6%) and this either because they have no idea how rewards are distributed
among individuals or they ignore the rewards provided and when to be provided and 4
agreed that it is given fairly (36.4%).
This statement reveals whether each one has self-confidence and is able to hold
responsibility toward the job and the decisions he takes. This shows how much skills
an employee has to perform his own duties in efficient and effective manners.
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Before the training course, figure 5.30 shows that 1 respondent believed that not
everyone at PU does his share at work (9.1%) (Disagree), 5 had no opinion (45.5%),
and 5 believed that everyone does his share at work (45.5%).
After training, 1 respondent (9.1%) had no opinion if everyone does his share at work.
However, 10 respondents believed that everyone does his share at work (90.0%).
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5.12 Security
We don’t mean about security here that it is an assurance an employee has about the
continuity of gainful employment for his work life, not the one that only arises from the term
of the contract of employment, but it also means how a person feels toward continuity and
satisfaction he gets from his work (would he like to progress working with PU in future or
not?)
Before the training course, figure 5.32 shows that 3 respondents (disagree) felt they
don’t have job security (27.3%), 3 respondents (no opinion) were confused whether
they have job security (27.3%), 4 (agree) felt they have job security (36.4%) and 1
strongly believed he got a job security (9.1%). After training, 3 respondents were still
confused (27.3%) whether they have job security, 6 agreed (54.5%), and 2 strongly
believed they had job security (18.2%).
However this result is not enough. We included this question as a summary to the
whole questions whether employees are satisfied or dissatisfied. So we found the
importance to know which department is more effected than the other.
We noticed as figure 5.33 shows that 2 from the social department and 1 from the
technical department believe they have no job security, 1 manager from the technical
department, a supervisor from the social department and the head of base had no
opinion whether they had job securities.
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Figure: 5.33: I feel I have a job security*Position at PU
These Four questions reveal the summary of HRT&D principals and strategies.
The results below were taken before conducting a training session to point out to the core
defects the organization is facing.
Figure 35 shows that 4 employees (36.4%) don’t feel their work give them a feel of personnel
accomplishments (Principle of Potential Maximization) which reveals even a feeling of
dissatisfaction toward the job they do, figure 36 shows that 7 employees (63.6%) disagreed
about having enough authority to make decisions(Principle of Participative Decision
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Making), figure 37 shows that 9 employees (81.8%) don’t believe that PU provided as much
initial training as they need to do their jobs well( Principle of Periodic Review), and figure 38
reveals that 4 of them (36.4%) don’t get fair salary compared to the responsibilities they have
(Equality and Satisfaction).
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Chapter Six: Conclusion and Recommendations
In this chapter, we are going to provide a kind of report about the findings we attained
along the study from the In-depth Interview, Observations and their common findings with
the questionnaire addressing the questions of our study research presented in chapter one
and finally our recommendations to the organization.
"Since I held the duties of HR manager from 2006, I never so far distributed any Needs
Assessment Form to the employees, we don't have any model for that but I think this is
mentioned somehow in the feedback form." (HR Manager-Administrator)
We also noticed that the training courses provided to the employees are not conducted by
HRD practitioner inside the organization and don't match their work for development and the
HR is uncertain if all are interested in these sessions or they are able to attend it. This was
revealed mainly during the sessions where some didn't attend the training courses either
because they are out of their interests or don't match their timing schedules.
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"Our organization provides training to their employees. We always get external trainers from
outside the organization. Recently we are planning to provide a First Aid Training sessions
for our employees by hiring an expert from the Lebanese Red Cross and I think that all
employees will attend these sessions"(HR Manager-Administrator).
It has been stated clearly before that the importance of Human Resources Training and
Development is to change the behavior and attitudes of its employees toward their
organization and to improve the capabilities of people by providing them better skills, so it
strengthens executives' skills. However, employees' pessimistic attitudes towards their jobs
are due to many reasons.
First, heavy workload is typically cited by line managers as the reason for their lack of
cooperation and support for Human Resources Training and Development activities. Most
line managers get concerned about the accomplishment of the works at the time neglecting
the importance of training and development in increasing the motivation, commitment and
productivity of their employees.
"We couldn't attend the last training course-Training on First Aid- because of the heavy
workload that we used to have at that time. Our manager gave us a limit time to accomplish
the job. It was going to be a very interesting training for us, as we are working on a critical
unsecured area; we don't know when it is needed at any time. This training session is so
needed. Unfortunately, time wasn't with us" (PU Technical Team).
Second, Employees' inability to transfer learning from the training programs attended and
apply this learning to the workplace. This is due to the mismatch of the training programs
chosen with the field of work and project. In this case supervisors would not be able to
support the transfer of such training programs.
"We have provided our employees with a training program -TOT for micro-finance
management- outside their work place. This training program was done to give them the
opportunity to improve their career development though it was more related to the previous
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project requirements and wasn't related to their current job in the organization." (HR
Manager-Administrator)
Third, Employees' pessimistic attitudes towards training were because of their comfort with
their current positions and achievements they did so far and their feeling of stability within
the organization disregarding the new changes that might cause threats.
"Though we are aware about the trainings and development available in our organization,
but nothing of these is of our interest, we don't believe so far that these are related to our
work with PU and our performance appraisal proved to be perfect by our managers. We
believe training should set to those who really in need to prove their skills." (Employees-
through the focused group discussion)
Forth, and on the other hand; Employees dissatisfaction and mindset toward their work plays
a role in the behavioral changes and performance improvements to their work, hence any
training course would be out of their interest. If employees were not given the chance to
express their needs and their job tasks weren't revealed important to the objectives of the
organization, they won't have any more commitment to their organization.
Detailed information about behaviors we observed during our study in the organization
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the mission and objective of the organization is related to the needs in the area, they
are very aware that after covering all the needs, PU has no reason to remain in
Lebanon and in this case everyone will be facing unemployment. In addition to that, If
PU failed to get funds to cover the needs required than PU has only one option to
close her offices and leaves the country.
4- Security: Some of the areas that PU intervenes are insecure. Many whose main task is
in the field faced a cease of work and time waste because of the security conditions in
the area of intervention. Some of the areas that PU intervenes is out of the territory of
Lebanese Army Force intervention, this create a more challenging working conditions
to employees. Moreover, since PU projects depend on raising funds and on the time
limit of the project implementation, many employees would face an ending working
contract with PU which lessens their motivation to be more productive at their work.
5- Training: We have observed that there are trainings done for employees but these
trainings were not reaching those who are in need for it. The 1st aid training course
was planned on a time where only six employees were able to participate and mainly
those who got office work, noting that this specific course was supposed to target to
employees working in the field where security conditions are unstable.
The time delivery of the course didn’t meet the time of employees working in the
field and in this case the training course didn’t achieve its main goal.
6- Management Decisions: we have noticed that sometimes management doesn’t take
wise decisions just like the 1st aid training course time. This cause a waste of money
and time during the implementation of the project. For instance, we noticed that hiring
a contractor to implement the project caused lots of waste where administration and
technical managers failed to control. We noticed that the projects that were
implemented under the direct and immediate supervision of the organization
succeeded in avoiding wastes.
7- Career: Employees who are seeking development are those who are searching for a
job that can add something to their career, and if there were no challenge in their
work; they got demotivated. We also noticed that those who are coming to earn their
salary seeking for financial stability are just doing what is required from them to do
without adding any extra effort to the organization.
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We decided to show the link between our questions, observation and in-depth interview
addressing the research purpose on chapter one with the results obtained in the questionnaire
before and after training to see the impact of the training and development on employees and
organizational development.
1- Does the Human Resources T&D gain any attention from the organization to close
gaps and develop its performance and similarly its employees’ performance?
2- Does the organization provide suitable training and development activities to its
employees or is it a waste?
3- Does the organization provide a suitable working environment to its employees?
4- Does practicing a training and development course generate a feeling of satisfaction
and commitment within employees?
Throughout our research case study, our questionnaire technique showed that most
employees weren’t getting the training needed to do their job well though some were aware
of available trainings, however; these trainings weren’t addressing their needs and interests to
improve their skills and career. Furthermore, we noticed that HR department wasn’t giving
any attention to its employees to address their need to improve their skills and performance,
but their choosing of certain training courses were chaos based on the available trainings
offered to their organization. This much less attention toward HRT&D resulted in the
wastage of resources, the feeling of dissatisfaction towards one’s job, the lack of
commitment, feeling of demotivation, poor or weak performance, the absence of eagerness to
innovate new techniques in another word a risk of brain drain or to provide initiatives for best
quality delivery of work
All these negative effects were resulted from poor communication between team members
and departments from top to low positions. This is illustrated from the lack of clear
information about PU objectives and its relation with each one’s job responsibilities which on
the other hand cause deficiency at performing the job efficiently and effectively.
Moreover, the negative results were affected by the lack of recognition where most
employees felt their hardworking wasn’t rewarded enough or recognized by their managers
and the organization. It is also affected by the usual routine in work especially for those who
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are seeking green pasture in their skills and career. In addition to the feeling of responsibility
in taking challenges and finally the feeling of dis-belonging where some believe they have no
job security.
However, after conducting a needs assessment and after addressing the needs required to
close gaps and improve efficiency and effectiveness, we planned and designed a training
course- a course that addresses these needs to all departments and for all positions-with the
help of the managers of each department to benefit from their knowledge and experience
along their job career and hired them to coach and monitor employees performance and
behavior.
The reason behind choosing managers from the same organization in designing and
implementing the training was to make it as a first positive step in changing the negative
atmosphere to enhance good communication and trust between employees and managers
coming from different departments so that it builds an organizational teams’ spirit.
After two month from conducting the training, we distributed the same needs assessment
form to the same respondents to compare changes between pre and post evaluation results.
We found that training and development course had a positive impact toward employees’
satisfaction and development and relatively organizational development.
All these facts also helped enhancing decentralization where all were able to share thoughts
and ideas giving them a feeling of belonging and commitment toward the organization and
relatively their feeling of job satisfaction.
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6.3 Recommendations
Along our study research, we were able to prove the importance of training and development
courses on the organizational as well as the individual development and relatively their
feeling of satisfaction toward their job.
We saw the defects of the organization “GAP” through a gap analysis to measure the current
situation of the organization and the desired or necessary situation where needed to perform
efficiently and effectively and the effects of training and development in closing this “GAP”
through assessing the needs and design the plan according to the needs using different
training methods.
Having said so, we found it is of much important for the organization to empower its HR
department with the right HR knowledge and skills and to take the initiative to progress with
the needs assessment to carry out suitable training and development courses to its employees
to be able to adapt to changes, to improve performance and innovations and to increase their
satisfaction and commitment toward the organization not only through human resources
management but also through human resources development. It is recommended for the
organization to maximize the potentials of its employees to recognize their potential and help
them to contribute their best towards various organizational roles they are expected to
perform and excel, to work more to maximize individual autonomy, to maximize delegation
to facilitate decentralization through sharing responsibilities and has the attempt of changing
management to balance the current organizational culture with changing culture and finally it
should always take the initiative to make a periodic review to have a continuous review and
renewal of HRD function.
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References
Elaine Biech (2009). The American Society for Training and Development: “10 Tips to
Successful Training”.
Ian Beardwell, Len Holden, and Tym Claydon: Human Resources Management, Fourth
Edition: “A Contemporary Approach”.
Paul B. Thornton (2002): “Be the Leader Make the Difference”.
Paul B. Thornton, Human Resources Management, 10th edition, chapter 15: “Labour
Relations and Collective Bargaining”.
Tejashree Talpade: “Human Resources Development”.
Vivian Martin (2006), MANAGING PROJECTS IN HUMAN RESOURCES:
“TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT”.
Edited by John P. Wilson, Human Resources Development, 2nd Edition: “Learning and
Training for Individuals and Organization”.
Shantanu Das (10/8/2008): “Training Methods”.
Linda Powell (2001), Conducting Hospital Employee Satisfaction Surveys: “Practical
Step-by-Step Information for Assessing Employee Perceptions”.
Fisher ScoenFeldt Shaw, “Human Resources Management”, 5th Edition.
Care (2009), People management: “Key Resources for Project Managers”.
LIYAKAT ALI KHAN, Management Practice and Organizational Behaviour
(10/12/2008): “Learning Organization”. Lovely Professional University
Decenzo and Robbins, Fundamentals of Human Resources Management, 8th edition,
chapter 5: “Human Resources Planning and Job Analysis”.
Azim Akhter, Jamia Millia Islamia: “Models of Human Resources Development”.
Richard Swansan and Elwood Hilton (2009), “Foundations of Human Resources
Development”, 2nd edition.
Werner and Desimone (2006), chapter 4: “Assessing HRD”.
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Index
Index 1:
In-depth Interview
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Index 2:
Questionnaire
A. Personal information:
Sex: Female
Male
Yes
No
B. Educational level:
High school level
Undergraduate
Graduate
Post graduate
Field of study:
Business Management
Arts and human sciences
Law
life sciences
Public Health
Human Resources Management
Finance
Engineering
Others Specify: ……………………………………………….
Years of experience:
1 year and less
1-2 years
2 -5 years
5 years and more
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II. Questions related to your current work with your organization.
Please answer all the following questions.
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Disagree Opinion Agree
10 I am aware of promotion
opportunities within PU
E Strongly
Strongly No
Organization Disagree Agree
Disagree Opinion Agree
12 PU is innovative in
developing new ways to serve
our beneficiaries
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ahead at my job
18 Management of PU makes
wise decisions
19 Conditions in my department
allow me to perform to a high
standard
26 PU is committed to choosing of
ensuring equal certain
opportunities for all
training
employees
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courses
were chaos
based on
the
available
trainings
offered to
their
organizatio
n
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