Page 112 - DMGT406_HUMAN_RESOURCE_MANAGEMENT

Unit 7: Training, Development and Career Management

5. Creativity Training: In creativity training, trainers often focus on three things : Notes
(a) Breaking away: In order to break away from restrictions, the trainee is expected to
(i) identify the dominant ideas influencing his own thinking, (ii) define the
boundaries within which he is working, (iii) bring the assumptions out into the
open and challenge everything

(b) Generate new ideas: To generate new ideas, the trainee should open up his mind; look
at the problem from all possible angles and list as many alternative approaches as
possible. The trainee should allow his mind to wander over alternatives freely,
expose himself to new influences (people, articles, books, situations), switch over
from one perspective to another, arrange cross fertilization of ideas with other
people and use analogies to spark off ideas.
(c) Delaying judgement: To promote creative thinking, the trainee should not try to kill
off ideas too quickly; they should be held back until he is able to generate as many
ideas as possible. He should allow ideas to grow a little. Brainstorming (getting a
large number of ideas from a group of people in a short time) often helps in generating
as many ideas as possible without pausing to evaluate them. It helps in releasing
ideas, overcoming inhibitions, cross fertilizing ideas and getting away from patterned
thinking.

Companies like Mudra Communications, Titan Industries, Wipro encourage their
employees to think unconventionally, break the rules, take risks, go out of the box and
devise unexpected solutions.
6. Diversity Training: Diversity training considers all of the diverse dimensions in the
workplace – race, gender, age, disabilities, lifestyles, culture, education, ideas and
backgrounds – while designing a training programme. It aims to create better cross-
cultural sensitivity with the aim of fostering more harmonious and fruitful working
relationships among a firm's employees. The programme covers two things: (i) awareness
building, which helps employees appreciate the key benefits of diversity, and (ii) skill
building, which offers the knowledge, skills and abilities required for working with
people having varied backgrounds.

7. Literacy Training: Inability to write, speak and work well with others could often come in
the way of discharging duties, especially at the lower levels. Workers, in such situations,
may fail to understand safety messages, appreciate the importance of sticking to rules, and
commit avoidable mistakes. Functional illiteracy (low skill level in a particular content
area) may be a serious impediment to a firm's productivity and competitiveness. Functional
literacy programmes focus on the basic skills required to perform a job adequately and
capitalize on most workers' motivation to get help in a particular area. Tutorial
programmes, home assignments, reading and writing exercises, simple mathematical
tests, etc., are generally used in all company in-house programmes meant to improve the
literacy levels of employees with weak reading, writing or arithmetic skills.
8. Orientation Training: In orientation training, new hires get a first hand view of what the
company stands for, how the work is carried out and how to get along with colleagues.
In short, 'they learn the ropes', the specific ways of doing things in a proper manner. When
a new employee is from a different country and culture, this initial training is especially
important in helping new employees adjust.

Methods of Training

Training methods are usually classified by the location of instruction. On the job training is
provided when the workers are taught relevant knowledge, skills and abilities at the actual

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