Formal Training Processes — Instructional Systems Design (ISD) and ADDIE

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.

Sections of This Topic Include

• What is Formal and Systematic Training?
• Benefits of Formal and Systematic Approaches to Training
• So What is Instructional Systems Design (ISD)?
• What is ADDIE?
• Overviews of Various Formal Training Processes

Also consider
Related Library Topics

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Formal Training and Development (ISD, ADDIE)

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to Formal Methods of Training and Development. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

• Library’s Career Management Blog
• Library’s Human Resources Blog
• Library’s Leadership Blog
• Library’s Supervision Blog
• Library’s Training and Development Blog

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What is Formal and Systematic Training?

Very simply put, formal training is training that follows some designed form. Informal training does not have an intended, consistent form and usually occurs rather spontaneously and/or casually, for example, reading a book or having an enlightening discussion with a friend. Formal training tends to include preferred results, learning activities intended to achieve the results and some form of evaluation.

Systematic, formal training includes careful assessments and attention to determining training goals, designing and building methods and materials that are directly aligned (and often pretested) to achieve the goals, implementing training, and careful evaluation to ensure that training is carried out effectively and that training goals were reached. In systematic, formal training, each phase of the process produces results directly needed by the next phase.

For a more complete comparison of formal to informal training, see Ways to Look at Training and Development Processes: Informal/Formal and Self-Directed/Other-Directed.

Benefits of Formal and Systematic Approaches to Training

Many of us assume that we already have good training for ourselves and our employees After all, we answer our employees’ questions as they have them. We send our employees to a course once in a while. Sure, our approach to training isn’t intentional, that is, planned and focused. But our employees seem to be doing their jobs without have any real problems.

Unfortunately, we don’t know what we don’t know. It may be that our employees could be performing much better than we realize if they had better skills. It might be that we supervisors could get back a lot of time that otherwise is spent answering our employees’ questions. We might retain our employees much longer, as well. Addressing this possibility isn’t a “what if” question, it’s a primary responsibility of a supervisor.

Adopting a systematic approach to training helps ensure that supervisors are getting the most out of themselves and their employees. A systematic approach to training includes taking the time to analyze what results the organization needs from its employees, if employees are accomplishing those results, and what training and development approaches are needed by employees to better accomplish those results. A systematic approach includes evaluating approaches before, during and after training to ensure employees truly benefited from the training in terms of enhanced results to the organization.

Effective training and development includes using sound principles of performance management and good, basic training techniques.

So What is Instructional Systems Design?

Instructional Systems Design (ISD) is a type of formal approach to training where the goals of the training are carefully determined often from various types of assessments of the learners, goals are established to address the results of the assessments, various methods of training and learned are developed and designed to achieve those goals, and evaluation plans are established the measure the quality of the training and extent of achievement of the goals.

More Articles About ISD

• Instructional System Design (ISD) Handbook (ADDIE)
• Death of an ISD
• Instructional Design Resources
• Instructional System Design (ISD) (complete manual to implement ISD)
• Instructional Design Models and Theories
• Examples of Systematic Learning and Development Programs

So What is ADDIE?

ADDIE is one of the most popular ISD models. ADDIE is an acronym for the phases:

1. Analyze the organization’s and individual’s needs and then identify training goals which, when reached, will equip learner’s with the knowledge and skills to meet the organization’s and individual’s needs. Usually this phase also includes identifying when training should occur and who should attend as learners.
2. Design a training system that learners and trainers can implement to meet the learning goals. This phase typically includes identifying learning objectives (which culminate in reaching the learning goals), what strategies and activities are needed to achieve the objectives, what resources (money, supplies, facilities, etc.) might be needed, any lessons and the sequence of lessons, etc.
3. Develop a training “package” of resources and materials, including, e.g., designing webinars, developing audio-visuals, graphics, manuals, etc.
4. Implement the training package, including to deliver the training by implementing the strategies and conducting the activities, sharing feedback about the program and training methods, administering tests, modifying the design of the trainings and its materials based on feedback from participants, etc. This phase can include administrative activities, such as copying, scheduling facilities, taking attendance data, billing learners, etc.
5. Evaluate the training, including during and after implementation of training. Evaluation is of the design of the training program, usage of the resources and the results gained by participants in the program.

More Articles About ADDIE

• ADDIE Model of Training (Wikipedia)
• ADDIE Model (Instructional Systems Design)
• Addie Backwards Planning Model

Overviews of Various Formal Training Processes

Formal training can be designed to a variety of forms. Note that formal training programs are not necessarily systematic. The following links are to documents that present various approaches to formal training in organizations.

• Planning Your Training (a complete checklist; scan down to “High Yield Training Checklist”)
• Big Dog’s Leadership Page (complete outline and materials for leadership development program)
• Orientation Programs
• Employee Training Programs
• Corporate Training Universities
• I Can’t Make You Learn a Thing! Let the Machines Do It!

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For the Category of Training and Development:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

• Related Library Topics
• Recommended Books

Ways to Look at Training and Development Processes: Informal/Formal and Self-Directed/Other-Directed

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.

Sections of This Topic Include

• Two Dimensions of Training and Development Processes
• Decision Factors on Those Two Dimensions
• Informal and Formal Training and Development
• Self-Directed and “Other-Directed” Learning
• Library’s Blogs About Training and Development

Also consider
Related Library Topics

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Ways to Look at Formal and Informal
and also Self-Directed and Other-Directed Training

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to Formal and Informal and also Self-Directed and Other-Directed Training. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

• Library’s Career Management Blog
• Library’s Human Resources Blog
• Library’s Leadership Blog
• Library’s Supervision Blog
• Library’s Training and Development Blog

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Two Dimensions of Training and Development Processes

You could describe training and development processes using two dimensions – one for the degree of formality and one for the balance between self-directed and other-directed learning.

These two sets of choices result in four overall approaches. That is, one can take an informal approach to self-directed or “other-directed” learning. Similarly, one can take a formal approach to self-directed or “other-directed” learning.

Decision Factors on Those Dimensions

The decision about what approach to take to training depends on several factors. These factors include the amount of funding available for training, specificity and complexity of the knowledge and skills needed, timeliness of training needed, and capacity and motivation of the learner.

Other-directed, formal training is typically more expensive than other approaches, but is often the most reliable to use for the learner to achieve the desired knowledge and skills in a timely fashion. Self-directed, informal learning can be very low-cost, however the learner should have the capability and motivation to pursue their own training. Training may take longer than other-directed forms.

Highly specific and routine tasks can often be trained without complete, formal approaches. On the other hand, highly complex and changing roles often require more complete and formal means of development, which can be very expensive as a result.

If training is needed right away, then other-directed training is often very useful, e.g., to sign up for a training course at a local university, college or training center. Or, a training professional can be brought in. Again, other-directed training is usually faster and more reliable, but more expensive.

Self-directed forms of training require that the learner be highly motivated and able to conceptualize their approach to training, particularly in formal training.

Informal and Formal Training and Development

Informal Training and Development

Informal learning is very likely the most common form of learning. There is no formal structure or curriculum, and usually no expert trainer who teaches students. There usually is no formal recognition of completion, for example, a certificate or diploma. Informal learning is ideal for very experienced people.
Formal learning is ideal for new learners, for example, to learn a new technology or specific procedure.

Informal training and development is rather casual and incidental. Typically, there are no specified training goals as such, nor are their ways to evaluate if the training actually accomplished these goals or not. This type of training and development occurs so naturally that many people probably aren’t aware that they’re in a training experience at all. Probably the most prominent form of informal training is learning from experience on the job. Examples are informal discussions among employees about a certain topic, book discussion groups, and reading newspaper and journal articles about a topic. A more recent approach is sending employees to hear prominent speakers, sometimes affectionately called “the parade of stars”.

Informal training is less effective than formal training if one should intentionally be learning a specific area of knowledge or skill in a timely fashion. Hardly any thought is put into what learning is to occur and whether that learning occurred or not. (However, this form of training often provides the deepest and richest learning because this form is what occurs naturally in life.)

More Articles About Informal Training

• Informal Learning (Wikipedia)
• Informal and Formal Learning
• Recognition of Informal and Non-Formal Learning
• Informal Learning and the Silent Trainer #2
• The Power of the Silent Trainer
• Are Your Employees Ready to Succeed?
• Informal Learning Widespread, Difficult to Track
• Waiting for Darwin – Cave Man Training Today
• Training for Survival: How to be the Fittest in Today’s Economy

Formal Training and Development

Formal training is based on some standard “form”. Formal training might include:
a) declaring certain learning objectives (or an extent of knowledge, skills or abilities that will be reached by learners at the end of the training),
b) using a variety of learning methods to reach the objectives and then
b) applying some kind(s) of evaluation activities at the end of the training.

The methods and means of evaluation might closely associate with the learning objectives, or might not. For example, courses, seminars and workshops often have a form — but it’s arguable whether or not their training methods and evaluation methods actually assess whether the objectives have been met or not.

Formal, Systematic Training and Development

Systematic, formal training involves carefully proceeding through the following phases:
a) Assessing what knowledge, skills and /or abilities are needed by learners;
b) Designing the training, including identifying learning goals and associated objectives, training methods to reach the objectives, and means to carefully evaluate whether the objectives have been reached or not;
c) Developing the training methods and materials;
d) Implementing the training; and
e) Evaluating whether objectives have been reached or not, in addition to the quality of the training methods and materials themselves

A systematic approach is goal-oriented (hopefully, to produce results for the organization and/or learners), with the results of each phase being used by the next phase. Typically, each phase provides ongoing evaluation feedback to other phases in order to improve the overall system’s process.

Note, again, that not all formal methods are systematic. Some courses, workshops, and other training sessions have goals, methods and evaluation, but they are not aligned, or even integrated. The methods, in total, do not guide the learner toward achieving the training goal. The evaluations are too often of how a learner feels about the learning experience, rather than of how well the learning experience achieved the goal of the training.

For more information about formal, systematic training and development, see Formal Training Processes — Instructional Systems Design (ISD) and ADDIE.

Self-Directed and “Other-Directed” Learning

Self-Directed Learning

Self-directed training includes the learner making the decisions about what training and development experiences will occur and how. The learner selects and carries out their own learning goals, objectives, methods and means to verifying that the goals were met. Self-directed training seems to be more popular of late. Note that one can pursue a self-directed approach to informal or formal training. For example, self-directed, informal training might include examples of informal training listed above (book discussion groups, etc.), as long as the learner chose the activities and topics themselves, either for professional or personal reasons. Self-directed, formal training includes the learner’s selecting and carrying out their own learning goals, objectives, methods and means to verifying that the goals were met. (For additional information about self-directed learning, see The Strong Value of Self-Directed Learning in the Workplace.)

Probably the most important skill for today’s rapidly changing workforce is skills in self-reflection. The highly motivated, self-directed learner with skills in self-reflection can approach the workplace as a continual classroom from which to learn. Supervisors and employees who work together to accomplish formal, self-directed learning in the workplace also accomplish continuous learning for continued productivity and learning.

Self-directed learning programs hold numerous advantages over traditional forms of classroom instruction for employees in the workplace, whether they be leaders, managers, or individual contributors. Bouchard (Self-directed Learning in Organizational Settings (working paper), Concordia University, Montreal, Canada) explains, “Over the years, it has become increasingly clear that traditional approaches to program design and delivery in the workplace and in associative organizations present some important weaknesses. Problem areas include: coping with the short life span of useful knowledge; passing down acquired competencies to succeeding cohorts; accommodating the demands of productivity while providing for a continuity of learning; [and!] enabling learners to pursue activities that correspond to their learning styles and needs” (p. 1).

After many years of reflection about learning, eminent psychologist, Carl Rogers, founder of self-directed therapy, asserted that “anything that can be taught to another is relatively inconsequential, and has little or no significant influence on behavior” (On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy, Houghton Mifflin, 1961, p. 276). He adds, “The only learning which significantly influences behavior is self-discovered, self-appropriated learning” (p. 276).

Self-directed learning programs:

• Are more effective in development because learning accommodates employees’ learning styles and objectives
• Save substantial training costs because learners learn to help themselves and each other with practical and timely materials
• Achieve increased employee effectiveness in their jobs as they learn to learn from their own work experiences and actually apply their learning in their places of work

Some Online Articles About Self-Directed Learning

• Self-Directed Learning
• Another Self-Directed Learning Web page
• Self-Directedness in Adult Vocational Education Students
• Journaling — What We Can Learn from Unschooling

Other-Directed Learning

This form, of course, is where someone other than the learner drives what training activities will occur. Other-directed, informal training includes, e.g., supervisors sending employees to training about diversity, policies, sexual harassment in the workplace.

Other-directed, formal training includes where someone other than the learner specifies the training goals will be met in training, how those goals will be met and how evaluation will occur to verify that the goals were met. This form of learning is probably the most recognized because it includes the approach to learning as used in universities, colleges and training centers. This form of learning typically grants diplomas and certificates. Note that this form of training, although readily available in universities, etc., is usually somewhat “generic”, that is, the program is geared to accommodate the needs of the most learners and not be customized to any one learner. Therefore, a learner may pay tuition fees to learn knowledge and skills that he or she may not really need.

Another form of “other-directed’, formal training is employee development plans. The plans identify performance goals, how the goals will be reached, by when and who will verify their accomplishment.

“Other-directed’, formal training can be highly effective for helping learners gain desired areas of knowledge and skills in a timely fashion. A drawback is that learners can become somewhat passive, counting on the “expert” to show them what they should be doing and when.

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to this Topic

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to this topic. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

• Library’s Career Management Blog
• Library’s Human Resources Blog
• Library’s Leadership Blog
• Library’s Supervision Blog
• Library’s Training and Development Blog

Go to main Training and Development page.

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For the Category of Training and Development:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

• Related Library Topics
• Recommended Books

All About Action Learning

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.

This topic is about the group-based, Action Learning process in which members work together in a group (a “set”) on real-world priorities (called a “problem” by many practitioners) primarily by sharing questions and taking actions between meetings. Members learn from the reflection during and between meetings, especially regarding the actions they took to address real-world priorities. The process was founded by Professor Reginald Revans and is now widely used around the world for professional and organizational development. If you need help with Action Learning, consider Action Learning Source.

(The Library provides a complete, online, free training program about Action Learning. Each video provides guidelines about each of the most important aspects of Action Learning. See free video series, Action Learning Process and Programs.)

Sections of this Topic Include

Understanding Action Learning

• What is Action Learning?
  • Remember — Action Learning is a Framework Within Which There Can Be Variations
  • Brief Descriptions of the Process
  • Overviews of Process and Program Components
• Some Theories Underlying Action Learning
• Some Different Models and Approaches of Action Learning
• Numerous Examples of Applications of Action Learning
• There Is No Independent Certifying Body for Action Learning — Should There Be?

Action Learning Components and Programs

• Components
  • Projects (Problems or Opportunities)
  • Group (Set)
  • Coaching (Sharing Questions)
  • Actions
  • Learning
  • Facilitation of Meetings and Learnings
• Developing Action Learning Programs
• Evaluating Action Learning Programs

Context of Action Learning Programs — Learning, Development and “Problem Solving”

• Other Methods of Reflection and Learning
• Understanding Learning and Development
• Many Forms of Development
• Practitioners in Learning and Development

Related Resources and Topics

• Related Library Topics
• General Resources
  • Organizations
  • Bibliographies About Action Learning

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Action Learning

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to Action Learning. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

• Library’s Career Management Blog
• Library’s Human Resources Blog
• Library’s Leadership Blog
• Library’s Supervision Blog
• Library’s Training and Development Blog

Have a Question, Suggestion or Resource About Action Learning?

• Post it in the Library’s LinkedIn group
  Action Learning and Coaching For Everyone

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Understanding Action Learning

What is Action Learning?

Remember — Action Learning is a Framework Within Which There Can Be Variations

It’s important to note, when reviewing the information in this topic, that the Action Learning process is a framework within which there can be variations, including where:

• All members are from the same organization (an intact team) and work on the same priority.
• All members are from the same organization and each member might work on a different priority different from other members.
• All members are from different departments or organizations and work on the same priority.
• All members are from different departments or organizations and each member works on a priority different from other members.
• In these combinations, the priorities might be very familiar or unfamiliar to the members.
• Sets can be externally facilitated or self-facilitated.
• Members might meet face-to-face or via telecommunications.

Practitioners often tend to favor one of the variations and refer to that as “Action Learning.” However, the reader will benefit most from continuing to remember the possible variations of the overall Action Learning framework.

Basic Descriptions of the Process

The following links are to concise descriptions of the concept of Action Learning. The links in the next section are to more complete descriptions of the Action Learning process.

Free Video Series

• Why Use Action Learning Now? (21 minutes)
• Action Learning Process (15 minutes)
• Examples of Action Learning Program and Meeting Formats (13 minutes)
• Different Perspectives on Action Learning (12 minutes)
• Typical Results From Action Learning (13 minutes)
• Suggested Enhancements to Action Learning (13 minutes)

Other Descriptions of Action Learning

• Action Learning (Wikipedia)
• Action Learning in Brief
• What is Action Learning? How Does Action Learning Work?
• What’s Action Learning?
• Strategies for Integrating Learning and Work

Overviews of Process and Program Components

The following links are to resources that describe Action Learning, and most of them mention the key components of Action Learning. Keep in mind that, although some of the following resources might
elaborate on a particular variation of Action Learning, there are many variations, as mentioned above.

The following links are to resources that will give you a very good impression of considerations in designing and operating Action Learning programs.

• Action Learning in a Nutshell Understanding Action Learning
• Action Learning
• Action Learning (Revans)
• Action Learning and Group Coaching
• Action Learning
• Using Action Learning
• Action Learning
• FAQ on Action Learning
• Action Learning
• Interviews With Set Members

Some Theories Underlying Action Learning

The Action Learning framework touches on so many aspects of personal, professional and organizational development, that a list of related theories would produce a very extensive list. The following resources capture the unique theories, especially behind the “P”s and “Q”s of Revans’ core theory behind Action Learning.

• Q’ing Action Learning: — More on Minding Our Ps and Qs. (balancing programmed knowledge and questioning insight in action learning) Mapping Group Dynamics in an Action Learning Experience (examination of group dynamics in Action Learning)
• Action Learning and Action Research (a comparison)
• Action Learning — Some Related Theories

Some Different Models and Approaches of Action Learning

The Action Learning framework also is so general in nature that numerous variations and refinements have been done, and many of them have general or commercial names. I apologize in advance if I have somehow mischaracterized a particular model or approach below. In some cases, I listed the home page of the organization so the reader can explore the site’s information about Action Learning. (Similar to other fields and practices, it’s natural for proponents of a particular model or approach to refer to it as “the” model 🙂

• Action Learning (Reginald Revans)
• Models, Definitions and Outcome Variable of Action Learning
• LIM ActionReflectionLearning Academy
• Action Learning International
• Solutions Leadership Consulting
• Action Learning Associates
• Action Learning Question (ALQ)
• Action Learning Source (an approach to Action Learning)
• World Institute for Action Learning (WIAL)

To enhance your understanding of different perspectives on Action Learning, we encourage you to see the 12-minute video Different Perspectives on Action Learning

At least two of the above organizations assert that they are “the certifying body for Action Learning”; however, there is no organization that has wide consensus as being that body.

• Action Learning Certification — There is No Independent Certifying Body (Should There Be?)

Numerous Examples of Applications of Action Learning

The following long list is to give the reader a strong impression of the varied applications of the Action Learning framework. Also, for the reader who is considering development an Action Learning program the following stories will be useful in conveying the most important considerations and components to address.

• Action Learning and Its Applications (an overview)
• The Action Learning Model for New Starter Management Training
• Strategic Planning as Action Learning
• MILE Action Learning Sets (gathering ethnic minorities)
• Enriching Learning Cultures Through Action Learning
• Experiences from using Action Learning Groups to develop Sustainable Farming Systems for Central Queensland
• Los Angeles County Action Learning Collaborative
• Reflected Action Learning – a Method for Collective
• Competence Development
• Action Learning Case Study– Telecom Service
• Approaches to Action Learning in Technical and Vocational Training
• Systems Thinking, Lead Production and Action Learning (using these to improve customer service)
• Designing Your Action Learning Pathway (designing Action Learning curriculum)
• Studying Human-Centered IT Innovation Using A Grounded Action Learning Approach (Action Learning in virtual teams)
• Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught in an Action Learning Format?

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Action Learning Components and Programs

Projects (Problems or Exciting Opportunities)

The problem is the real-world priority that the Action Learning group (set) is address. (Although the term “problem” is traditional to Action Learning literature, many practitioners might prefer to use the more appreciative term “priority.”) The problem should be a current, real and urgent priority for the individual, team, program or organization to address. Usually there is no straightforward “solution” to the problem,
and the more urgent the problem, the more likely it will generate useful and deep learning for the stakeholders (those who have a direct or indirect interest in the problem). The group is charged to clarify the problem, identify solutions, identify the most likely solutions, take actions to implement the solutions — and generate learning along the way. In single-project Action Learning, all members of the set work on the same problem. In multi-project Action Learning, each member bring his/her own problem to address.

In single-project Action Learning, the problem should be closely aligned with the priorities of the organization. Those priorities might be the result of strategic or business planning, or the result of an organizational assessment. Similarly, the problem might be the result of assessments among individuals.

• Projects That People Work on in Action Learning (video 9 minutes)

Also consider

• Business Planning
• Assessments (Organizational)
• Assessments (Personal)
• Assessments (Teams)
• Strategic Planning

Group (Set)

The set is the group of people, usually six to eight, charged to address the problem. The membership of the group depends on the problem. In a single-project application, the member would likely be from the same business unit, working on the same projects or priorities. However, the more diverse the values, opinions and perspectives of the members, the more unbiased, probing and generative might be the questions shared among members — and, thus, the more learning generated among members.

In single-company Action Learning, all members are from the same company, and sometimes they work on the same business function or project (they are an intact team). In multi-company (or multi-department) Action Learning, each member is from a different company or department.

• Membership and Groups in Action Learning (video 13 minutes)

Also consider

• Group Performance
• Team Building
• Virtual Teams

Coaching (Sharing Thoughtful Questions)

A hallmark of the Action Learning process is the use of questions among members. In contrast to most problem-solving groups, where members start advocating their own opinions and advice, Action Learning members share questions — questions to analyze, understand and solve problems. Questions generate deep thinking and reflection about the problem. They ensure each person is highly involved in — and aware of — his/her own perceptions, assumptions and conclusions about the problem. Thus, each person more fully “learns how to learn,” that is, accomplishes continuous learning.

One of the most important roles of the question is to clarify the real problem, rather than the symptoms. Many times, it’s more important to understand the real problem than to start suggestions various solutions that might solve it. Questions make each person accountable to be involved and, thus, they often generate more authenticity and involvement among members — authenticity is a critical element to any form of development.

Depending on the model of Action Learning, members might only interact via questions and statements might only be made in response to questions.

• Coaching and Questions in Action Learning (video 18 minutes)
• Role of Questions in Action Learning

Also consider

• Appreciative Inquiry
• Awareness
• Continuous Learning
• Inquiry and Advocacy
• Inquiry and Reflection
• Mental Models (scan down to “Mental Models”)
• Questioning
• Reframing
• Systems Thinking

Actions

Another hallmark of Action Learning is that set members take actions to address the problem. (Some recent literature about Action Learning does not assert the need for actions among members. This “Americanized” Action Learning is not likely to generate the type of progress and learning so familiar to the more “European” Action Learning where set members are charged to take actions between meetings.

The actions, not only “attack” the problem, but they generate experiences from which set members learn a great deal by reflecting on what they did, what happened, what worked and what didn’t, and how they can take that learning forward in life and work. A major value of the questioning is that it ensures that the
actions are relevant and realistic, which is particularly important for very busy people in the workplace.

Actions for Progress and Learning in Action Learning (video 11 minutes)

Also consider

• Decision Making
• Problem Solving
• Organizational Change

Learning

Learning, in Action Learning, comes especially from members’ reflection on the nature of the questions and answers among members, and also from the nature and results of the actions taken between meetings. The learning is not from analyzing and memorizing expert-based content brought to the group by outside experts (although, the “Americanized” Action Learning does tend to bring in more outside experts than the European version). Reginald Revans, the founder and original developer of Action Learning, often asserted that this kind of “programmed,” or expert-based, learning did not generate the ability to learn how to learn and, thus, should be minimized as much as possible.

One of the early tasks of an Action Learning program is to orient set members to the nature of learning, that it is not always the result of listening to experts, memorizing their content and getting a good grade. Members are reminded that some of the most important learning in their lives is from experiencing and thinking about significant events, people and experiences in their lives. Another task is to help members recognize learning when it happens — that’s one of the major roles of the Action Learning coach.

• Capturing and Spreading Learning in Action Learning (video 10 minutes)

Also consider

• Appreciative Inquiry
• Awareness
• Continuous Learning
• Group Learning
• Inquiry and Advocacy
• Inquiry and Reflection
• Mental Models (scan down to “Mental Models”)
• Reframing
• Systems Thinking
• Understanding Learning and Development

Facilitation of Meetings and Learnings

(It’s ironic to realize that founder of Action Learning, Reginald Revans, did not want Action Learning to be “packaged” into seemingly inaccessible models or that the role of “facilitator” become professionalized such that the Action Learning process seemed too complex for those who are not professionals in the process. Yet, with the increasing importance and popularity of Action Learning and its focus on urgent problems, people are often more assured when using a highly trained external facilitator and they often end up using the particular model of Action Learning suggested by the facilitator.)

Note that many practitioners might prefer to this position as the “facilitator” and to the members as being “coaches.” In a self-facilitated set, the members are the coaches.

The primary role of the Coach is to orient members to the Action Learning process and the nature of learning in Action Learning. The coach might initially work with the person, or sponsor, of the Action Learning project to clarify the problem, resources, timelines and membership of the sets. The coach should help the set to establish ground rules, learn skills in presenting and listening and questioning, and recognizing learning. The Coach might intervene at various times to affirm a strong occasion of learning or affirm learning for a member or the set. Depending on the model of Action Learning, the Coach might be the only one to do that type of intervention.

• Facilitation in Action Learning Groups (video 20 minutes)
• Role of Action Learning Facilitator
• Action Learning — the Coach’s Role
• A Guide To Coaching & Being Coached

Also consider

• Building Trust
• Coaching
• Facilitating
• Power and Influence

Designing and Developing Action Learning Programs

Each Action Learning application should be customized to the needs and nature of the person, group or organization. The program designer should first know the basic Action Learning framework, which he/she can glean by reviewing the resources at Brief Description, some of those at Overviews of Process and Program Components, and each of the six components described above. The following resources provide complete guidelines, but they are guidelines — any detailed “procedure” would be highly unique to the particular program. Perhaps, in the nature actions and learning, the program designer should start a program, learn from those actions, and then modify the program accordingly.

• Approaches to Developing Action Learning Programs (video 13 minutes)
• Choosing Projects in Action Learning Programs (video 12 minutes)
• Designing an Action Learning Program (video 13 minutes)
• Developing Resources for an Action Learning Program (video 13 minutes)
• Training Others About Action Learning (video 10 minutes)
• How to Design Action Learning to Enrich One-Shot Training
• Also consider:
  Program Management

Implementing and Evaluating Action Learning Programs

• Administering Action Learning Programs (video 11 minutes)
• Evaluating Action Learning Programs (video 18 minutes)
• Troubleshooting Action Learning Programs (video 12 minutes)
• An Evaluation of an Action Learning Program
• Measuring Action Learning Projects in Public Sector Leadership Development
• Basic Guidelines for Evaluating Action Learning and Coaching Groups

Also consider
Evaluations (all kinds)

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Context of Action Learning Programs

Other Methods of Reflection and Learning

• Appreciative Inquiry
• Awareness
• Coaching
• Continuous Learning
• Inquiry and Advocacy
• Inquiry and Reflection
• Mental Models (scan down to “Mental Models”)
• Questioning
• Reframing
• Systems Thinking

Understanding Learning and Development

• Basic Terms and Learning and Development
• Informal vs. Formal Training and Development
• Typical Ways of Learning
• All About Training and Development (Learning and Development)

Many Forms of Development

• Guidelines, Methods and Resources for Organizational Change Agents
• Board Development
• Leadership Development
• Management Development
• Supervisoral Development
• Team Development
• Personal Development
• Sales Training

Practitioners in Learning and Development

• Coaches
• Facilitators
• Human Performance Technologists
• Human Resource Specialists
• An Overview of the Field Organization Development
• Popular Education for Learning and Development and Social Change
• Performance Consultants
• Trainers (Corporate Trainers) (includes guidelines about training)

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Related Resources and Topics

Related Library Topics

• Committees
• Communities of Practice
• Conflict Management
• Dialoguing
• Facilitating in Face-to-Face Groups
• Focus Groups
• Group Dynamics (about nature of groups, stages of group development, etc)
• Group Learning
• Group-Based Problem Solving and Decision Making
• Group Performance Management
• Knowledge Management
• Learning Organization
• Meeting Management
• Open Space Technology
• Self-Directed and Self-Managed Work Teams
• Team Building
• Virtual Teams

General Resources and Organizations

Organizations

• International Foundation for Action Learning
• Global Action Research Center
• Revans University
• World Institute for Action Learning

Bibliographies About Action Learning

• A Review of Action Learning Literature 1994-2000
• Action Learning Bibliography
• Resources for Coaching and Action Learning Programs

Go to main Training and Development page.

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For the Category of Training and Development:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

• Related Library Topics
• Recommended Books

Basic Terms in Training and Development

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.

The following terms are described in this document.

• Information
• Knowledge
• Skills
• Abilities
• Perceptions
• Task
• Job
• Role
• Learning
• Continuous Learning
• Training
• Education
• Development
• Additional Information

Also consider

• Related Library Topics
• Learning, Performance, and Training Glossary
• Glossary of Training Terms

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Terms in Training and Development

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to Terms in Training and Development. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

• Library’s Career Management Blog
• Library’s Human Resources Blog
• Library’s Leadership Blog
• Library’s Supervision Blog
• Library’s Training and Development Blog

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Basic Terms and Definitions

Note that trainers, developers and educators vary among their own definitions of the following terms, as you can see in glossary of terms

Information

At its most basic form, a piece of information about something is a “unit of awareness” about that thing. (A field of philosophy, epistemology, includes analysis of what is really information and what isn’t. This field might visit the question: “If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?”) Some people think that this awareness occurs only in the brain and, therefore, usually comes from some form of thought. Other
people also accept information as a form of realization from other forms of inquiry, e.g., intuition.

Knowledge

Knowledge is gleaned by organizing information. Typically, information evolves to knowledge by the learner’s gaining context, perspective and scope about the information.

Skills

Skills are applying knowledge in an effective and efficient manner to get something done. One notices skills in an employee by their behaviors.

Abilities

Abilities result from applying the skills to the extent that the applications become natural or intuitive to do.

Perceptions

Perceptions are a way of interpreting or coming to understand something. When people are stuck in solving a problem, it is often because they are stuck in how they see the situation.

Task

A task is a typically defined as a unit of work, that is, a set of activities needed to produce some result, e.g., vacuuming carpet, writing a memo, sorting the mail, etc. Complex positions in the organization may include a large number of tasks, which are sometimes referred to as functions.

Job

A job is a collection of tasks and responsibilities that an employee is responsible to conduct. Jobs have titles.

Role

A role is the set of responsibilities or expected results associated with a job. A job usually includes several roles.

Learning

Typically, learning is viewed as enhancing one’s knowledge, understanding or skills. Some people see learning as enhancement to one’s knowledge, awareness and skills. Some professionals view learning as enhancing one’s capacity to perform. Some view learning as a way of being that includes strong value on receiving feedback and increasing understanding. It’s important to note that learning is more than collecting information — more than collecting unreferenced books on a shelf. Depending on the needs of the learner, knowledge is converted to skills, that is, the learner knows how to apply the knowledge to get something done. Ideally, the skills are applied to the most appropriate tasks and practices in the organization, thereby producing performance — results needed by the organization. Here’s another perspective.

Continuous Learning

Simply put, continuous learning is the ability to learn to learn. Learning need not be a linear event where a learner goes to a formal learning program, gains areas of knowledge and skills about a process, and then the learning ceases. If the learner can view life (including work) as a “learning program”, then the learner can continue to learn from almost everything in life. As a result, the learner continues to expand his or her capacity for living, including working. (See How Many Steps to Continuous Learning? None.)

Training

This term is often interpreted as the activity when an expert and learner work together to effectively transfer information from the expert to the learner (to enhance a learner’s knowledge, attitudes or skills) so the learner can better perform a current task or job. Here’s another perspective.

Education

This term seems to be the most general of the key terms in employee training. Some professionals view education as accomplishing a personal context and understanding of the world, so that one’s life and work are substantially enhanced, e.g., “Go get an education.” Others view the term as the learning required to accomplish a new task or job. Here’s another perspective.

Development

This term is often viewed as a broad, ongoing multi-faceted set of activities (training activities among them) to bring someone or an organization up to another threshold of performance. This development often includes a wide variety of methods, e.g., orienting about a role, training in a wide variety of areas, ongoing training on the job, coaching, mentoring and forms of self-development. Some view development as a life-long goal and experience. Here’s another perspective.

Additional Information

• What’s What
• What’s the Difference Between Learning and Training?
• Training and Development: Differences and Priorities
• Training Definitions and Terms

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to this Topic

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to this topic. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

• Library’s Career Management Blog
• Library’s Human Resources Blog
• Library’s Leadership Blog
• Library’s Supervision Blog
• Library’s Training and Development Blog

Go to main Training and Development page.

---

For the Category of Training and Development:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

• Related Library Topics
• Recommended Books

Employee Training and Development: Reasons and Benefits

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.

Sections of this Topic Include

• Typical Reasons for Employee Training and Development
• Typical Topics of Employee Training
• General Benefits from Employee Training and Development
• Library’s Blogs About Training and Development

Also consider
Related Library Topics

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Employee Training and Development
— Reasons and Benefits

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to Employee Training and Development. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

• Library’s Career Management Blog
• Library’s Human Resources Blog
• Library’s Leadership Blog
• Library’s Supervision Blog
• Library’s Training and Development Blog

(As a brief review of terms, training involves an expert working with learners to transfer to them certain areas of knowledge or skills to improve in their current jobs. Development is a broad, ongoing multi-faceted set of activities (training activities among them) to bring someone or an organization up to another threshold of performance, often to perform some job or new role in the future.)

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Typical Reasons for Employee Training and Development

Training and development can be initiated for a variety of reasons for an employee or group of employees, e.g.,:

• When a performance appraisal indicates performance improvement is needed
• To “benchmark” the status of improvement so far in a performance improvement effort
• As part of an overall professional development program
• As part of succession planning to help an employee be eligible for a planned change in role in the organization
• To “pilot”, or test, the operation of a new performance management system
• To train about a specific topic (see below)

Typical Topics of Employee Training

1. Communications: The increasing diversity of today’s workforce brings a wide variety of languages and customs.
2. Computer skills: Computer skills are becoming a necessity for conducting administrative and office tasks.
3. Customer service: Increased competition in today’s global marketplace makes it critical that employees understand and meet the needs of customers.
4. Diversity: Diversity training usually includes explanation about how people have different perspectives and views, and includes techniques to value diversity
5. Ethics: Today’s society has increasing expectations about corporate social responsibility. Also, today’s diverse workforce brings a wide variety of values and morals to the workplace.
6. Human relations: The increased stresses of today’s workplace can include misunderstandings and conflict. Training can people to get along in the workplace.
7. Quality initiatives: Initiatives such as Total Quality Management, Quality Circles, benchmarking, etc., require basic training about quality concepts, guidelines and standards for quality, etc.
8. Safety: Safety training is critical where working with heavy equipment, hazardous chemicals, repetitive activities, etc., but can also be useful with practical advice for avoiding assaults, etc.
9. Sexual harassment: Sexual harassment training usually includes careful description of the organization’s policies about sexual harassment, especially about what are inappropriate behaviors.

General Benefits from Employee Training and Development

There are numerous sources of online information about training and development. Several of these sites (they’re listed later on in this library) suggest reasons for supervisors to conduct training among employees. These reasons include:

• Increased job satisfaction and morale among employees
• Increased employee motivation
• Increased efficiencies in processes, resulting in financial gain
• Increased capacity to adopt new technologies and methods
• Increased innovation in strategies and products
• Reduced employee turnover
• Enhanced company image, e.g., conducting ethics training (not a good reason for ethics training!)
• Risk management, e.g., training about sexual harassment, diversity training
  • Trainers: Between the Rock and the Hard Place
  • In Business as in Sport: Straight Sets of Training and Professional Development

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to this Topic

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to this topic. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

• Library’s Career Management Blog
• Library’s Human Resources Blog
• Library’s Leadership Blog
• Library’s Supervision Blog
• Library’s Training and Development Blog

Go to main Training and Development page.

---

For the Category of Training and Development:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

• Related Library Topics
• Recommended Books

How to Design Your Supervisor Training and Development Program

Written by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Copyright; Authenticity
Consulting, LLC

(Note that there are separate topics about How to Design Your Management Development Program and How to Design Your Leadership Development Program. Those two topics are very similar to this topic about supervisor development, but with a different focus.)

Sections of This Topic Include:

Comprehensive, practical book by Carter McNamara

• Prepare for Your Learning and Development
  • Be Sure You Know What Learning and Development Really Are
  • Consider Two Different Approaches to Learning About Supervision
  • Know How to Capture Learning from Your Activities
  • Prepare for Learning About Supervision
  • Get Acquainted With Organizational Context of Supervision
  • Get Acquainted With What “Supervision” Is
• Activities for Informal Approach to Supervisor Development
• Guidelines for Formal Approach to Supervisor Development
  • Identify Your Overall Goals for Program
  • Determine Your Learning Objectives and Activities to Achieve Them
  • Develop Any Materials You May Need
  • Plan Implementation of Your Program
  • Evaluate During and After Your Program
  • Follow-Up After Completion of Your Program
• Free Basic Guide to Leadership and Supervision

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Prepare for Your Learning and Development

Be Sure You Know What Learning and Development Really Are

Most of us are so conditioned from many years in schooling that we think of learning and development as coming from a program in which our participation is graded by experts in a certain topic. As a result, many of us still miss numerous opportunities for our own learning and development. Perhaps one of the reasons is that we do not know what learning and development really is. So before undertaking a supervisor development program, we should be sure that we know what we are talking about.

Learning could be interpreted as new:

1. Knowledge, which is information that is useful in accomplishing a certain activity that is important, for example, to solve a problem, achieve a goal or see a situation in entirely different light.
2. Skills, which is the expertise — consciously or unconsciously — to continually use the new information to accomplish that certain activity. (Educators often refer to new abilities as a component of learning, but some admit that the difference between abilities and skills is such a fine one that it is often difficult to explain.)
3. Perceptions, which are new ways of seeing a situation. (When people are continually stuck when trying to solve a problem or achieve a goal, it is often in the way that they see the situation.)

In the field of education, development could be interpreted as the activities to raise the quality of performance, for example, of a person, team or organization. However, like learning, development is best accomplished if it is recognized as such. Thus, development usually requires ongoing focus and attention to the quality of performance, as well as the quality of the activities to raise it.

Consider Two Different Approaches to Learning About Supervision

It is important to understand the different approaches you can take in increasing your learning about supervising. Formal approaches are proactively designed in a comprehensive and systematic way in order to accomplish certain desired outcomes. Traditional classroom approaches to education have that specific form — they are formal approaches to learning and development.

In contrast, informal approaches are those that occur during our typical day-to-day activities in life and can include, for example, reading books, having discussions with friends, on-the-job training and keeping a diary with thoughts about supervision.

• Informal Versus. Formal Training, Self-Directed Versus Other-Directed Training

Know How to Capture Learning from Your Activities

Whether in formal or informal approaches, the ongoing ability to recognize and capture learning is extremely important. That ability is often referred to as continuous learning and it is frequently mentioned in literature about management development (in this context, the term management is inclusive of leadership and supervisor development). Simply put, continuous learning is the ability to learn to learn.

The key to cultivating continuous learning is the ability to continually reflect on your experiences and the experiences of others in your life. Reflection is continuously thinking about, for example, your experiences, their causes and effects, your role in them, if they changed you and how. It is thinking about how you might use those experiences and changes to enhance your life and the lives of others.

If you can view your life as a “laboratory for learning program”, then you can continue to learn from almost everything in your life. However, learning is best captured if it is consciously recognized as such, for example, discussed with someone else or written down somewhere. Otherwise, new learning can easily be lost in the demands of life and work. So it is very important to document your learning.

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Prepare for Your Learning About Supervision

Get Acquainted With Organizational Context of Supervision

Before learning more about supervision, you would benefit first from becoming acquainted with the organizational context in which supervision typically occurs, including understanding organizations as systems, their common dimensions, what makes each unique, their different life cycles and different cultures.

• Organizational Structures and Design

Get Acquainted With What “Supervision” Is

Then, the next place to start learning about supervision is to get some sense of what supervision really is — in particular, get an impression of the areas of knowledge and skills recommended for effective supervision in organizations. Review the information in the Library’s topic:

• What is Supervision? How Do I Supervise?

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Activities for Informal Approach to Supervisor Development

Here is but a sampling of the activities from which you could informally accomplish your own supervisor development. Here is a sample learning journal that you might use to continually capture your learning.

Consider getting assistance Seek to find a mentor Hire a personal coach Consider these readings Typical Roles of Supervision Core Competencies Typical Responsibilities Getting Started in Supervision Supervisor Development Consider practicing these supervisor skills Learn to be a mentor Learn to coach others Give a presentation Practice skills in delegation Practice skills in listening and sharing feedback Build basics in problem solving, decision making, planning and managing your power and influence Plan and facilitate meeting a meeting Clarify your personal values — develop your codes of ethics and codes of conduct Consider workplace activities for learning Start a new project , ideally a project that includes your setting direction and influencing others to follow that direction Regularly solicit feedback from others about your supervisor skills Ask your supervisor, peers and subordinates for ideas to develop your supervisor skills Ask to be assigned to a supervisor position Close and gaps in your work performance Performance gaps are areas of knowledge and skills need to improve performance and are usually indicated during performance reviews with your supervisor. This Library topic is to a series of articles about managing performance, including performance gaps. Employee Performance Management

Close any growth or opportunity gaps Growth gaps are areas of knowledge and skills need to achieve a career goal. Opportunity gaps are areas of knowledge and skills needed to take advantage of an upcoming opportunity. These Library topics can help you think about the growth and opportunity gaps in your career. Career Planning Job Descriptions Conduct self-assessments Assess certain areas of your own supervisor abilities (which are similar to leadership abilities). The following online, self-assessments might help. Leadership Competencies How Good Are Your Leadership Skills? What Kind of Leader Are Yo? Task versus Relationship Leadership Theories Collect ideas from others Ask for advice from friends, peers, your supervisor and others about skills in supervision. Ask for their opinions about your own supervisor skills. Try get their suggestions in terms of certain behaviors you should show. Getting and Receiving Feedback Reference lists of suggested competencies Competencies are lists of the general abilities needed to do a certain job or perform a certain role. Reference the “How to” sections in the following Library topic: Typical Responsibilities of a Supervisor Reference publications about leadership There is a vast amount of information about leadership and leadership skills, which are similar to supervisor skills. However, much of it is in regard to character traits that leaders should have. When determining your program goals, translate these character traits to behaviors that you and others can recognize. Guidelines to Understand Literature About Leadership Consider other sources for learning Identify traits and behaviors of your favorite supervisor Take strong participation in a course, apprenticeship or internship that involves persistence, risk and initiative Take a supervisor role in a management association Volunteer to supervisor a work or community project, or join a board of directors Read Activities for Informal Approach to Leadership Development Read Activities for Informal Approach to Management Development

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Guidelines for Formal Approach to Supervisor Development

You are much more likely to develop skills in supervision from participating in a formal program approach than an informal approach. The following sections will guide you to develop your own complete, highly integrated and performance-oriented program.

Identify Your Overall Goals for Your Program

This section helps you identify what you want to be able to do as a result of implementing your program, for example, to qualify for a certain job, overcome a performance problem or achieve a goal in your career development plan. You are often better off to work towards at most two to four goals at a time, rather than many. There are a variety of ways to identify your program goals, depending on what you want to be able to accomplish from the program. The articles might be helpful in preparing you to identify your goals.

• Goals — Selecting the Training and Development Goals

Various Ideas for Supervisor Development Goals

1. Do you have career plans that would require certain new supervisor skills? See How to Plan Your Career.
2. Did your previous performance review with your supervisor suggest certain improvements in supervision that you need to make? See Goal Setting With Employees.
3. Are there certain opportunities that you could take advantage of if you soon developed certain new supervisor skills? See How to Look for a Job.
4. You might do some self-assessments to determine if there are any areas of supervisor development that you might undertake. See Assessing Your Training Needs.
5. Ask others for feedback about your supervisor skills. See Giving and Receiving Feedback.
6. Do you find yourself daydreaming about doing certain kinds of activities? See Setting Personal Goals.

Include a Goal About Supervising Yourself

You cannot effectively supervise others unless you first can effectively supervise yourself. Consider goals from the Library’s topic of Personal Wellness

List your Program Goals in your Template for Planning Your Professional Development Program. (This is a Microsoft Word document.)

Determine Your Learning Objectives and Activities to Achieve Each

The purpose of this section is to help you to identify the various learning objectives you should achieve in order to achieve your overall program goals, along with the activities you should undertake to achieve each objective.

Identifying Your Learning Objectives

Carefully consider each of your program goals. What might be the various accomplishments, or objectives, that must be reached in order to achieve each goal? Do not worry about doing all of that perfectly — objectives can be modified as you work to achieve each goal. Which of these objectives require learning new areas of knowledge or skills? These objectives are likely to become learning objectives in your program plan. To get a stronger sense for learning objectives, see:

• Designing Training Plans and Learning Objectives.

Identifying Your Learning Activities

Learning activities are the activities you will conduct in order to achieve the learning objectives. The activities should accommodate your particular learning styles, be accessible to you and be enjoyable as well. The long list of activities in the above two columns might be useful, as well.

List the Learning Objectives to Achieve Each Desired Goal in your Template for Planning Your Professional Development Program.

List the Activities to Achieve Each Learning Objective in your Template for Planning Your Professional Development Program.

Develop Any Materials You May Need

Carefully think about each of the activities to achieve the learning objectives. Consider, for example, getting books, signing up for courses, reserving rooms and getting trainers.

List the Materials You Might Need in your Template for Planning Your Professional Development Program.

Plan the Implementation of Your Program

During the implementation of your program, you want to make sure there are no surprises. For example, how will you make sure you understand the new information and materials. Will your learning be engaging and enjoyable? Will you have all the support you need?

• How Do We Ensure Implementation of Our New Plan?

List the Key Considerations in Implementing Your Plan in your Template for Planning Your Professional Development Program.

Evaluate During and After Your Program

Evaluation includes assessing both the quality of the activities during the program and also whether you achieved your goals soon after the program.

• How Do We Evaluate Implementation and Project Results?

List the Approach to Evaluating During and After Your Program in your Template for Planning Your Professional Development Program.

Follow-Up After Completion of Your Program

It is a major accomplishment to design and implement a supervisor development program. Celebrate what you have done! Reflect on what you learned about developing the program — and about yourself.

List the Key Activities After Completing Program in your Template for Planning Your Professional Development Program.

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Additional Resources in the Category of Leadership

• Related Library Topics
• Recommended Books

Guidelines for Conducting Supervisoral Development Programs

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.
Adapted from the Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision in Business and Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision for Nonprofit Staff.

(This page is referenced from Supervisory Development.)

Among the various positions in management, the role of supervisor is quite unique. As described in the Basic Overview of Supervision, new supervisors are often under a great deal of stress. It may be rather straightforward to identify a list of core competencies for the role of supervisor. However, it can be a major challenge to help the new supervisor develop the necessary skills while at the same managing stress and time sufficient to keep perspective (and sanity). Therefore, consider the following guidelines when carrying out a supervisoral development plan.

Have a Human Resources Representative Play Major Role

A trained human resources professional can be a major benefit in the development of a new supervisor. The representative often has strong working knowledge of the various policies and procedures that, at first, can seem quite intimidating to the supervisor. The representative usually has a good understanding of the dynamics of training and development. In addition, the representative can an be an impartial confidant for the supervisor.

Establish a Development Plan

One of the biggest contributions from a development plan is perspective. In the middle of the stress and confusion, the new supervisor can reference the plan to retain some basic perspective on their job. The plan coordinates ongoing interaction between the new supervisor and their supervisor, ensuring each is aware of the direction and accomplishments of the new supervisor.

Key Skills: Delegation, Time Management and Stress Management

Ensure the plan includes strong, initial focus on developing these three key skills. Effective skills in delegation can relieve a great deal of stress from the supervisor, while ensuring high productivity among employees. Strong skills in time management can ensure that the supervisor is using time in the best way possible. Finally, basic skills in stress management can ensure that the new supervisor maintains poise and perspective.

Provide Ongoing Guidance and Support

An experienced supervisor can soon forget how confusing and challenging the role of new supervisor can be. Even if things seem to be going fine, be sure to stop in and visit the new supervisor on a regular basis. Some new supervisors may not feel comfortable asking for help. Provide ongoing affirmation and support.

Track the New Supervisor’s Time on the Job

Notice how many hours the new supervisor is spending at work. If that amount has increased substantially since he or she began the new role, then intervene. Various studies have shown that
productivity levels off substantially after 50-60 hours of work in a week. Consider establishing a maximum amount of hours for the new supervisor, e.g., 50 hours a week. If, with this limit, a great deal of work is not getting done by the new supervisor, then look for the cause. Perhaps the new supervisor does not have sufficient resources or training to carry out the job. Perhaps there’s just too much work to do.

Tactfully Interact with Supervisor’s Staff

Ongoing stresses can sometimes bring out the worst in a new supervisor. He or she may struggle to effectively delegate projects, maintain composure with employees or even be available for employees to
voice concerns. Ongoing complaints from employees are a key indicator that the new supervisor may be struggling. Therefore, take time to interact with the new supervisor’s employees, but do so tactfully.

However, be careful to conclude if there are really any problems. Each supervisor carries out their jobs according to their own unique needs and nature. Don’t compare the style of the new supervisor to your own. He or she may not conduct the role in the same way that others would.

Return to Supervisory Development

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For the Category of Supervision:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

• Related Library Topics
• Recommended Books

The Human Resource: View from a Cynic (a poem)

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.

I’ve got your application here.
You’re a Minneapolis native?
I ask these things as “need to know.”
You see, here, we’re “participative”!

Your predecessor’s out the door.
Problems too numerous to mention.
Listen to me and you’ll be fine,
And you’ll be here to get your pension.

I want weekly status reports.
Fully describe how your past week went.
Tell me all your work planned and done,
And, oh yeah, “practice empowerment”!

You’re empowered – apply yourself!
But do everything that I tell you!
If you don’t, you’ll feel it later
When I do your performance review!

See H.R. for the forms to sign
And later I’ll show you the budget.
And after some experience,
Then I’ll show you how to, ah, “fudge” it.

Know the key factors in your life:
The Company’s sales and production,
Its net income, its marketshare –
And understand “globalization”!

And, understand customers’ needs.
Yes, always give what must be given!
You simply have to, there’s no choice.
You see, here, we’re “customer-driven”!

Between you and your employees,
Always “honor the new covenant.”
If they doubt you, and you need help:
Organization development!

Yes, if you’re stuck, they’ve courses in
Whatever you think you are needing.
Courses in time or stress management,
Team building – or even in Leading!

Our consultant says, “We must change,
And let ‘change’ be our incantation
If we’re to meet our grandest goal:
To ‘transform our organization’.”

That damn H.R.! Their latest fad?
“To appreciate diversity!”
(You’re short on your quotas, you know,
So, now, bring in more minorities!)

Yes, we have “soul in the workplace,”
But don’t let your feelings delay us!
Our company’s ever-onward,
And doing it, “thriving on chaos!”

You can be here from “womb to tomb” –
You just take what The Company gives!
Commit yourself to its mission,
To its strategies, its objectives!

Yes, dot your “i”s and cross your “t”s
In all documents signed, filed or sent.
With luck and visibility,
You, too, can make Middle Management!

Me? Met one of my MBO’s:
I computed the budget today.
Planned more than I ever needed
So my year-end spending is OK.

I “continuously improve”!
I bought all these new books off the shelf.
I took the time and scanned them some,
Then promptly “reinvented myself.”

I have my MBA, you know.
Yes, I can take pride in my leisure!
But, there’s always something to do,
A new policy, new procedure …

Sometimes I wish I could relax,
Take a minute and do what I please …
But then we’d lose sight of our goal:
To compete like those damn Japanese!

Well, that’s all for today. I’m done.
You can go now. This is a good start.
Have any questions, just ask me,
Over you, right here on this org chart …

—–

Disjointed, diffused, brain-dead and dumb,
Dumped here in my tomb, stone alone.
A third of my life, empty and numb.
“Good doggy! Keep fetching that bone!”

—————————————————–

Other resources about cynicism are located at Cynicism
(https://staging.management.org/personalwellness/cynicism/index.htm)

---

For the Category of Personal Wellness:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

• Related Library Topics
• Recommended Books

Overview of Cynicism in Business Organizations

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.

Cynicism is distrust of the intentions of others, a belief that others are not representing their true motives. Research indicates a growing cynicism among managers and workers in America. However, there are few resources to address this syndrome. Also, it seems, few practitioners (educators, consultants, trainers and developers, human resource personnel, etc.) recognize and/or want to deal with this cynicism.

Consequently, many people, especially those who have gone through many programs in the workplace, promptly resist attempts at organizational change because they don’t completely believe in the reasons for the change. Hopefully, more practitioners will learn to

Literature indicates a high rate of current cynicism, which is expected to continue into the future, yet there are few resources available to address this issue. To better comprehend cynicism, the following provides a definition and description, along with historical information.

Then, reasons are explained regarding why organization members resort to cynicism, and a description is given regarding the general effect of cynicism in business and industry. Next, recommendations are given to address this cynicism. The paper closes with observations and a critique about this research effort, along with recommendations for further study.

Table of Contents

Cynicism in Business and Industry

• Cynicism Is On the Rise
• The Future Does Not Look Any Brighter

What is Cynicism?

• A Definition
• Brief History
• The Demographics of Cynicism
• Outlook of the Cynic

Why Do Organization Members Resort to Cynicism?

• What’s the Use of Cynicism?
• What Causes Cynicism?

Effect of Cynicism on Business and Industry

Recommendations to Address Cynicism

Author’s Observations, Critique and Response

• Observations
• Limits of this Research
• Recommendations for Further Research

References

Also consider
Related Library Topics

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Cynicism in Business and Industry

Cynicism Is On the Rise

Research over the past five years indicates that cynicism is on the rise in American business and industry, which increasingly hurts their competitiveness and ability to accommodate today’s needed organizational change. Paul J. Rosen (Hendrick, 1993, p. E1:2), President of the American Institute of Stress, indicates that recent, dizzying changes in technology and the economy are causing unprecedented burnout, cynicism, sickness and absenteeism.

Organizational psychologist and consultant, Philip H. Mirvis, and Professor Donald L. Kanter (1989, p. 377) found, in their national survey of 649 workers, that one bold theme prevailed: “self-interest and opportunism mark today’s wised-up employee.” They classified 43% of these workers as being cynical (p. 379), and 40% of the managers and supervisors as being cynical, as well (p. 381). In a later study (Mirvis and Kanter, 1991), they concluded that more workers were cynical, rising from 43% to 48% (p. 50).

In addition, they found that 65% of American workers agree that people will lie if they’ll gain from it (p. 50), 41% of the population doubts the truth of what management tells them (p. 52), and 49% say that management will take advantage of them, given a chance (p.52).

Over the past 20 years, confidence in business has fallen from 70% to 15%, and ratings of management competence and trust have fallen almost as among workers in the same period (Mirvis and Kanter, 1991, p. 46). Mirvis (1991, p. 2) claims, “It has now reached the point where cynicism is chic and loyalty to the
company is for saps and suckers.”

The Future Does Not Look Any Brighter

Tomorrow’s business leaders are already cynical. Writer Jerri Stroud (1994, p. E1:2) reports that a recent Washington University survey shows that “business students are almost as cynical about corporate managers as corporate people themselves.” Authors and business consultants, Lawrence Bradford and Claire Raines (1992) indicate that among eight core values in “twentysomethings” (the group of 48 million people between the ages 18 to 29), is the value of cynicism. Some social scientists consider them the “why bother?” generation. Writers David M. Gross and Sophronia Scott (1990, p. 62) concur that twentysomethings reject the values of baby boomers, and their major characteristic is to avoid pain and rapid change. “Maybe they are just a little too cynical when it comes to the world.”

Professors Fred H. Goldner, R. Richard Ritti, and Thomas P. Ference (1977) suggest that as today’s organizations become more complex, members become more cynical. This does not bode well, considering that our organizations are indeed becoming more complex as they struggle to respond to increased competition, public expectations, dynamic technologies, and a diverse workforce.

Writer Deirdre Wilson (1989) recounts for us how this increased disillusionment is hurting American business’ competitive edge, as a result of workers’ decreased commitment and productivity. And as business and industry struggles to remain competitive, organizational change efforts are often blocked by cynical managers.

Professor Dennis Jaffe and consultant Cynthia D. Scott (1992, p. 139) explain that managers can undermine large-scale organizational transformation through impatience, emotional illiteracy, elitism, insecurity, poor modeling, anger, and alienation. Mirvis and Kanter (1991) describe cynics as believing that the best way to handle people is to tell them what they want to hear, management never reveals the real reasons behind decisions, it doesn’t pay to work extra hard, and management is more interested in short-term profits than the long-term.

What is Cynicism?

A Definition

The dictionary (Merriam-Webster, 1993, p. 323) defines a cynic as ” one who believes that human conduct is motivated wholly by self-interest.” This should not be confused with a “skeptic,” as defined by the same dictionary to have “an attitude of doubt” (p. 1212). Mirvis and Kanter (1989) are careful throughout their work to remind us that cynicism is different from skepticism which is healthy response to work and life. Skeptics are open to change. Cynics aren’t.

Cultures, as well as organization members, can be classified as cynical. They operate only “for the bottom line”, they scoff at change efforts and management fads, they tolerate shoddy products and services (Mirvis and Kanter, 1989, p. 382). In their latter study (Mirvis and Kanter (1991, p. 61), they describe cynical companies as those that “embody expedient, self-serving values, that support managers who engage in deceptive and exploitative practices, and that communicate in a one-sided, hyped-up, and disingenuous fashion to their employees.”

A good summary description of the cynic comes from Mirvis and Kanter (1991, pp. 50-2). Cynics “agree that lying, putting on a false face, and taking advantage of others are fundamental to human character and conclude that, basically, people are just out for themselves” and that “such cynical attitudes about life are paralleled in attitudes about work.”

Brief History

In the fourth century B.C., a group of philosophers, followers of Antisthenes, flouted “popular opinion or public convictions simply for the sake of doing so,” particularly a prominent member, Diogenes (Copleston, 1985, p. 189) . Greeks deemed these followers “disciples of the dog,” or Cynics. Still, Antisthenes was a serious follower of Socrates, a man of deliberate and applied conviction, and Cynics were perceived as progressive and taken seriously enough to involve in serious debate. As other Greek philosophers (particularly Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle) became more widely known and followed, Cynics soon died out.

However, in the third century, A. D., during the moral corruption of Rome, Cynicism was revived as a school of thought, but this time it “tended to lose its serious character of emphasis on independence, suppression of desire and physical endurance, and to give itself rather to mockery of convention and tradition and prevailing beliefs and modes of behaviour” (Copleston, 1985, p. 142). This impression and use of the term “cynicism” remains today.

Probably the best known work in regard to cynicism is The Prince (Machiavelli, 1952). The book was written by Machiavelli when giving advice to the current Italian prince, describing how to advance self-interest by pragmatically using any means available to advance one’s ends. The book remains a seminal work in studying the art of political persuasion.

The Demographics of Cynicism

Mirvis and Kanter (1991) indicate that higher income and education levels typically are associated with a wider extent of employment choices and freedom, and, consequently, less cynicism. Research indicates young people expect more from society than they get. Young, poor, undereducated, minority and blue-collar workers generally have higher levels of cynicism than older, less poor, more educated, Caucasian, white-collar workers, particularly those in the healing and teaching professions. Men are perceived more frequently as being cynical than women. Middle-aged, or boomers, are not as cynical as younger people. Those over 55 are the most cynical, probably because they have less education, lower incomes, and have been hit hard in recent layoffs. Profit-making organizations had higher levels of cynicism.

Outlook of the Cynic

In their latter research effort, Mirvis and Kanter (1991) found a strong correspondence between people’s general perceptions of society and leadership and their more specific views of their own organization, managers and co-workers. Consequently, it’s important to understand the cynic’s outlook on life. Mirvis and Kanter (1989) “see selfishness and guile at the base of human nature. They agree that people will tell a lie if they can gain by it, that people pretend to care about one another more than they really do, and that people may claim to be honest and moral but act otherwise when money is at stake.” They often consider their view as “realistic.”

Cynics don’t trust management, find the pay system to be fair, think they have fair chance for advancement, don’t believe management listens to them or value their jobs (Mirvis and Kanter, 1989). Cynical managers “are skilled in controlling information and exercising power through operatives” (Mirvis and Kanter, 1989, p. 381) In their mind, they ‘made it the hard way,’ and anyone who has not is weak, naive, inept, or just plain stupid” (Mirvis and Kanter, 1989, p. 381).

Mirvis and Kanter (1989) go on to convey that cynics appear aloof and unfeeling, and treat people as if they were machines. Cynics are open and vocal about how the game is played, they see through company politics and thrive on inside dope. They yield cynicism like a sword.

Why Do Organization Members Resort to Cynicism?

What’s the Use of Cynicism?

Mirvis and Kanter (1991) explain that cynicism is a way to cope with what’s perceived by the cynic to be an unfriendly, unstable, and insecure world. Cynicism provides a ready and convenient explanation for a perception of continued disappointment and disillusionment. And it lets one indulge in their anger and resentment, often acting it out in the workplace.

Mirvis and Kanter (1989, p. 381) explain that cynics use cynical attitudes to “emotionally protect themselves from what they imagine to be the slings and arrows of hustlers and high-ups.” “They blame the ‘system’ for their disappointments and failings.” A cynic can continue to function in most organizations, conducting the day-to-day duties of his or her role. Depending on the nature of how they implement their cynical views and motives, they may even advance up the corporate ladder, based on effective finger-pointing and back-biting. If they crave the acceptance of others, successive promotions may feed this personal need. It’s only after other members recognize the insidious effects of the behavior of the cynic, that “intervention” can occur, often in the form of performance problem identification and response.

Unfortunately, as Mirvis and Kanter explain (1989) because of the obstructionist and covert nature of their behavior, cynics are often perceived as gripers, back-biters, and poor performers. Consequently, they do not succeed in the organization. This, of course, is perceived by the cynic as further manipulation and unfairness by management. And the cycle goes on.

What Causes Cynicism?

Again, Mirvis and Kanter put it best (1989, p. 383) the recipe is simple: “hype up people’s hopes, disappoint them, and then take advantage of them until they become disillusioned.” In their latter study, Mirvis and Kanter (1991) explain there are three key ingredients to cynicism, 1) unrealistically high expectations of oneself and others, 2) the experience of disappointment in oneself and others (and the resulting feelings of frustration and defeat), and 3) disillusionment, and being deceived by others.

These researchers purport that cynicism in American workers has been cultivated a variety of factors, many of them demographical and sociological (1991). Over the past 20 years, there has been widespread organizational pain and frustration as a result of the loss of over 20 million jobs in the 1980s as companies were cutting back, downsizing (“rightsizing”), merging and acquiring more than ever before.

Today’s youth have not found the same job opportunities or equivalent compensation as their parents. The media has had a continued and widespread effect through its singular focus on duplicitous authorities and unresponsive organizations. The Reagan era saw the rich get richer, and America turn into a debtor nation as never before. Greed and avarice came into fashion. Concurrently, the S & L scandal, Congressional scams, and unethical business practices caste a pallor over the ideals of American workers. CEO’s have been reported to be making up to 500 times the lowest salary in the organization. Surveys
indicate that a majority of working people perceive their pay and promotion systems as unfair, and that they aren’t involved enough in organizational decisions.

The seeds of cynicism may have been planted in many of today’s managers as far back as Watergate and Viet Nam. Writer Tara Shioya (1992, p. A1:1) relates that “many people born between 1961 and 1981, of all political persuasions, say (Nixon’s resignation) planted in their minds the seeds of what would later become a profound and widespread cynicism.”

Mirvis and Kanter (1989) describe four aspects of company life that most often disillusion people, including perceptions that the

1. pay system is rigged,
2. management can’t be trusted,
3. company doesn’t care and
4. the organization’s time is at a premium.

Effective responses to these concerns, respectively, include widely communicating the rationale and structure of the pay system, making hard truths testable and verifiable, bringing community into the
workplace, and giving organization members more control over their time.

Effect of Cynicism on Business and Industry

The effect of cynicism can be disastrous, particularly if the cynic is a manager. Mirvis and Kanter (1989, p. 382) explain that the attitude of the cynical manager “leads to a workplace environment dominated by a feeling of temporariness, an absence of a lasting vision of what the company and its products ought to be.” Cynical managers convey their attitudes by running the business only for the bottom line, treating long-term strategies as subordinate to those of the short-term, treating employees as “hands,” and tolerating shoddy products. And in managing in a cynical fashion, they insidiously instill cynicism in their
employees and organizational culture. Members live by the law of the jungle.

None of this makes for effective member participation in organizational change efforts. Consultants Carol Sanford and Pamela Mang (1992, p. 157) convey that “it takes equal effort on the part of operators (non-managers) to overcome patterns, one of the most common being the fear and/or cynicism that this is just another ‘program of the month’.” Members perceive change as being done solely in the interest of management. Resulting lack of cooperation in organizational change efforts results in further insincerity and even anger from management, thereby entrenching the status quo and continuing to severely damage the organization.

Cynicism leads to a generalized mistrust of authority, to disparagement of management communications and directions, and ultimately to denigration of the leadership and mission of the enterprise. This is directly counter to the requirements for several key aspects of effective organization development actions. As explained by Professors Thomas G. Cummings and Christopher G. Worley (Cummings and Worley, 1993), it’s vital that the organization development agent establish an effective and trusting relationship with relevant change agents in the organization. This isn’t possible with a cynic, considering their mistrustful nature. Do to this lack of trust, other organization development activities are blocked, including establishing a diagnostic contract, obtaining valid data, accomplishing organizational members’ ownership in feedback data, overcoming resistance to change, and managing the dynamics of and sustaining the change. And it’s certainly unlikely that successful intervention and implementation will take place, considering the need for organization members to provide their ongoing commitment and support.

The disastrous effects of organizational cynicism are beginning to be recognized. Writer Barry Stephen (1994, p. A17) relates that Vice President Gore, after a Georgetown University seminar that compared past management theories and practices with new ideas, urged American executives “to abandon the cynicism
of the workplace culture”; otherwise plans to reinvigorate the nation’s bureaucracy would not succeed.

Recommendations to Address Cynicism

Recommendations for Business and Industry

Mirvis and Kanter (1991) identify six work-related factors that influence work attitudes, including:

1. contextual factors (organizations size, shape, job mix, etc.),
2. employment content (working conditions, work groups, pay practices, etc.),
3. demographics (structural and psychological),
4. psychographics (values and lifestyles),
5. life content (family structure, income, etc.), and
6. the general state of the economy, politics, and society.

Among these factors, the second, employment content, is usually the best predictor of work attitudes and subject of praise or criticism. Cummings and Worley (Organization Development and Change, Fifth Edition, 1993, pp. 165-167) classify issues in employment content as human process and human resource issues, and suggest a several organization development interventions for each type of issue.

Mirvis and Kanter (1991) believe that organizations must address this increasing cynicism by managing more fairly, and operating in an open, honest, straightforward, and particularly, realistic manner. Employees must be able to participate in governance, provide regular reality checks to management, have positive role models, and perceive an open and honest pay system.

Finally, give employees something to believe in. The use of corporate mission and values statement may prove to be useful here, but the major factor is if they are widely distributed, and actively and consistently implemented.

Professors Eric. D. Poole, Robert M. Regoli, and Roy Lotz (1989) suggest that increasing a sense of professionalism may reduce cynicism and work alienation in police chiefs. Regoli, Poole, and Lotz (1981) found that generally only one professional dimension — a sense of calling — reduced prison guard’s cynicism. They suggested that prisons work overall to try to make work an end in itself. Professors Robert M. Regoli, John P. Crank, and Robert G. Culbertson (1989) investigated police cynicism, job satisfaction, and work relations of police chiefs in departments of different sizes and concluded that the larger the organization, the more likely to have more cynical police chiefs, largely due to the less direct communications, control and clarity of directions than in smaller departments.

One must be careful not to extrapolate conclusions about effective addressing cynicism in business and industry from these prison and police studies, because of the markedly different cultures, including the nature of systems, structures, communication and control.

Author’s Observations, Critique and Response

Observations

I strongly suspect there will be soon be a noticeable increase in interest and research in this area, as more organizations attempt effective organization development diagnoses, intervention, and implementations.

Limits of this Research

While remaining keenly interested in cynicism, I continue to be frustrated with the lack of available research regarding cynicism in business and industry. Despite the increase of cynicism in business and industry, there is little research on cynicism, including what it is, what causes it, how it effects organizations, and what can be done to effectively address it. Mirvis and Kanter remain the primary researchers in regard to this topic. Most of the cynicism-related research is in regard to the phenomena in
the police, prison and nursing professions. As mentioned above, one must be careful not to readily extrapolate information from these studies to apply to business and industry.

In addition, findings of this research must be interpretive and suggestive, rather than definitive, considering the limited number of research applications (primarily two surveys via Mirvis and Kanter), large number of influences and consequent research variables that must be considered in understanding cynicism, and the lack of longitudinal data from which to draw reliable conclusions.

Recommendations for Further Research

I recommend that more research be applied to verifying Mirvis’ and Kanter’s findings, despite many of their findings sounding quite intuitive and reasonable. I also suggest that this research be system-based, that is, it should consider the organizations’ systems, structures and processes as they effect the output of
organization members.

—-

References

• Bradford, L. J., and Raines, C. (1992). Twentysomething: Managing and motivating today’s new workforce. New York, NY: MasterMedia Limited.
• Copleston, F. (1985). A history of philosophy: Vol. 1. Greece and Rome. New York, NY: Doubleday.
• Cummings, T. G., and Worley, C. G. (1993). Organization Development and Change (5th ed.). St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company.
• Goldner, F. H., Ritti, R. R., and Ference, T. P. (1977). The production of cynical knowledge in organizations. American Sociological Review, 42(4), 539-551.
• Gross, D. M., and Scott, S. (1990, July 16). Proceeding with caution: Twentysomething generation is balking. TIME, p. 57-62.
• Hendrick, B. (1993, June 28.) Struggle with stress. Atlanta Constitution, p. E1:2.
• Jaffe, D., and Scott, C. D. (1992). Building a committed workplace: An empowered organization as a competitive advantage. In Ray (ed.), The new paradigm in business, New York, NY: Putnam.
• Machiavelli, N. (1952). The prince. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1513).
• Merriam-Webster, Inc. (1993). Webster’s Tenth New Collegiate Dictionary. Springfield, MA: Author.
• Mirvis, P., and Kanter, D. L. (1989). Combating cynicism in the workplace. National Productivity Review, 8(4), 377-394.
• Mirvis, P., and Kanter, D. L. (1991). Beyond demography: A psychographic profile of the workforce. Human Resource Management, 30(1), 45-68.
• Mirvis, P. H. (ed.). (1991). Introduction: The new workforce/The new workplace. Human Resource Management, 30(1), 1-5.
• Poole, E. D., Regoli, R. M., and Lotz, R. (1978). Linkages between professionalism, work alienation and cynicism in large and small police departments. Social Science Quarterly, 59(3), 525-534.
• Regoli, R., Poole, E. D., and Lotz, R. (1981). An empirical assessment of the effect of professionalism on cynicism among prison guards. Sociological Spectrum, 1, 53-65.
• Regoli, R.M., Crank, J. P., and Culbertson, R. G. (1989). Police cynicism, job satisfaction, and work relations of police chiefs: An assessment of the influence of department size. Sociological Focus, 22(3), 161-171.
• Sanford, C., and Mang, P. (1992). A work in progress at Du Pont: The creation of a developmental organization. In Ray (ed.), The new paradigm in business, New York, NY: Putnam.
• Sayre, F. (1948). Greek cynicism and sources of cynicism. Baltimore, MD: J. H. Furst Co.
• Shioya, T. (1994, May 2). Nixon’s legacy to new generation. San Francisco Chronicle, p. A1:1.
• Stephen, B. (1994, March 30). Managers urged to abandon cynicism of workplace culture. Washington Post, p. A17.
• Stroud, J. (1994, March 8). Study finds skeptics on campus. St. Louis Dispatch, p. E1:2.
• Warnock, M. (1992). The uses of philosophy. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers.
• Washburn, P. C. (1977). Children and Watergate: Some neglected considerations. Sociological Focus, 10(4), 341-351.
• Wilson, D. (1989, May 2). Cynicism is alive in the workplace. Chicago Defender, p. 11:1.

Additional Perspectives on Cynicism

• The Official Dilbert Website (a sometimes cynical comic strip that highlights management “fads”)
• Backlash Against New Business Paradigm?
• The Human Resource: View from a Cynic

---

For the Category of Personal Wellness:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

• Related Library Topics
• Recommended Books

Backlash Against New Business Paradigm?

Are We Practitioners “Walking Our Own Talk”?

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.

There is a recent explosion of management literature, much of which asserts the strong need for change in today’s business organizations. Few people, if any, disagree with this need for change. However, the unrealistic and evangelical manner in which this need is presented may be causing cynicism not lived since the Roman Empire.

Also consider
Related Library Topics

Growing Cynicism in Management

We live and work in a fascinating, yet fearful time. Changes in the foundation laws of physics, an explosion of global telecommunications and various crises in our culture force us to adopt a “new
paradigm,” a new way of looking at our world and our work. Change is now our mantra.

To be more adaptable, organizations are decentralizing. To be more responsive, organizations are reorganizing around flatter structures. To be more competitive, organizations are implementing customer-driven instead of industry-driven strategies.

Increased public consciousness is forcing business to be more socially responsible. Some business ethics writers assert that business is the last bastion of hope to save the Earth because education and government are failing at this responsibility. Some propose a new social contract between management and its employees, a new “covenant.”

We’re reinventing our government and re-engineering our corporations. In preparation for the “New Millennium,” we’re reclaiming our souls, our cities and our nights. And we may be cultivating an age of cynicism not lived since the Roman Empire.

These changes with the new paradigm are badly needed. However, much of today’s management literature in support of these changes is taking on an evangelical tone, leaving behind many readers who wonder if society’s visions for business are realistic and how such changes are to come about. I’m concerned there may soon be a backlash against the needed new paradigm, particularly from leaders and managers — those charged to implement our high-reaching visions.

Research indicates a growing cynicism in today’s management. Management guru, Peter Senge, suggests that cynics are disillusioned idealists. This invites us to ask ourselves, “How much of leaders’ and managers’ cynicism results from unrealistic and conflicting expectations — ours and theirs?”

Society’s (including Practitioners’) Increasingly Unrealistic Expectations of Management and Workers

We act as if we’re somehow separate from business, on some higher moral ground. We view business much as we view “the government” — something apart from us that uses (as one local newspaper columnist recently referred to as) “secret weapons” that hurt us. Our blaming further alienates leaders and managers from us and from themselves. And it produces defensiveness, rather than cooperation.

We Demand Perfection of Businesses

Our quest for perfection leads us too quickly to forget the accomplishments of mortal beings. Our approach to evaluating the performances of our leaders, managers and employees has them feeling as if they’re working on a tightrope without a net. Once they fall, it’s over. We don’t remember a company’s percentage-contribution-to-charity, but we remember that a previous employee once bribed a government official. Our reluctance to forgive and fickleness of attention result in denial, confusion and loss of meaning among all of us.

We Demand Perfection Now

Businesses must remain financially viable while heroically transforming themselves to cultivate highly moral employees who are always fulfilled. Consider the following quotes from management book reviews: “…and how can we change our system so that everyone has the opportunity to engage in dignified and satisfying work, fully meeting basic human needs?” “We need to learn to bring the spirit of wakefulness and loving kindness to every act.” These expectations must be posed very carefully.

Our Focus on Business as Savior and Devil Leaves Us as Hypocrites

We expect management to employ workers permanently, to honor the covenant. Yet we conclude that it’s perfectly reasonable for any of these workers to leave their jobs once they find better pay or benefits elsewhere. Where’s the covenant then? This double standard hurts the credibility of our expectations, and increases ambivalence in leaders and managers — and ourselves.

Leaders and Consultants Too Often Oversell New Programs

New programs are presented as if they are “silver bullets” geared to save the day. After committed managers work countless hours to coax a passion for the new program, the program quietly takes its place in history with little recognition or explanation, superseded by the next silver bullet. Later, these same managers appear incapable of hopping in when the next “rescue boat” comes along. These committed managers often go on to become the most cynical members of the organization.

It’s Tragic to Deem Past Programs as “Fads”

Did we benefit from quality circles or management by objectives? From the tone of some of today’s management literature, one would think these techniques were bitter mistakes. A recent article in a local publication lamented the failure of Total Quality Management (TQM). TQM, along with many other management innovations, works when it’s used realistically for its intended application.

We Practitioners Must Change Our Approach to Change — Evangelism Isn’t for Everybody

Our unrealistic and conflicting expectations of leaders and managers set up internal conflicts that make their jobs increasingly difficult, considering the many other issues they must deal with, such as the complexity of today’s technologies, changing values and demographics, and increased regulations. As these almost impossible working conditions persist, leaders and managers wonder more about what they’re doing wrong than what they can do right. They become autocratic machines or detached cynics. We must work together to help.

We Practitioners Must Change Our Approach to Change — Work with Managers, Not Against Them

Thomas Moore, in “Care of the Soul,” suggests that, rather than seeking transcendence or perfection, we seek integration and meaning. We need to appreciate what we have and be much more realistic about the time and energy needed for change.

We Must Present Approaches Useful in the Day-to-Day Reality of an Organization

For example, we’ve read about the apparent business ethics “crisis.” Yet there is little ongoing information about how to manage ethics in the workplace. If there was as much of this type of information [balance of article to be restored as soon as possible].

---

For the Category of Personal Wellness:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

• Related Library Topics
• Recommended Books