Page 114 - DMGT406_HUMAN_RESOURCE_MANAGEMENT

Unit 7: Training, Development and Career Management

4. Job Rotation: This kind of training involves the movement of trainee from one job to Notes
another. This helps him to have a general understanding of how the organisation functions.
The purpose of job rotation is to provide trainees with a larger organisational perspective
and a greater understanding of different functional areas as well as a better sense of their
own career objectives and interests. Apart from relieving boredom, job rotation allows
trainees to build rapport with a wide range of individuals within the organisation,
facilitating future cooperation among departments. The cross-trained personnel offer a
great amount of flexibility for organisations when transfers, promotions or replacements
become inevitable.
Job rotation may pose several problems, especially when the trainees are rolled on various
jobs at frequent intervals. In such a case, trainees do not usually stay long enough in any
single phase of the operation to develop a high degree of expertise. For slow learners,
there is little room to integrate resources properly. Trainees can become confused when
they are exposed to rotating managers, with contrasting styles of operation. Today's
manager's commands may be replaced by another set from another manager! Further, job
rotation can be quite expensive. A substantial amount of managerial time is lost when
trainees change positions, because they must be acquainted with different people and
techniques in each department. Development costs can go up and productivity is reduced
by moving a trainee into a new position when his efficiency levels begin to improve at the
prior job. Inexperienced trainees may fail to handle new tasks in an efficient way. Intelligent
and aggressive trainees, on the offer hand, may find the system to be thoroughly boring
as they continue to perform more or less similar jobs without any stretch, pull and
challenge. To get the best results out of the system, it should be tailored to the needs,
interests and capabilities of the individual trainee, and not be a standard sequence that all
trainees undergo.

Job Rotation allows the manger to operate in diverse roles and understand the different
issues that crop up. If someone is aspiring to be a corporate leader, then he or she must
have this type of training. A recent study indicated that the single most significant factor
that leads to leader's achievement was the variety of experiences in different departments,
business units, cities, and countries.
5. Apprenticeship Training: Most craft workers such as plumbers and carpenters are trained
through formal apprenticeship programmes. Apprentices are trainees who spend a
prescribed amount of time working with an experienced guide, coach or trainer.
Assistantships and internships are similar to apprenticeships because they also demand
high levels of participation from the trainee. An internship is a kind of on-the-job training
that usually combines job training with classroom instruction in trade schools, colleges or
universities. Coaching, as explained above, is similar to apprenticeship because the coach
attempts to provide a model for the trainee to copy. One important disadvantage of the
apprenticeship methods is the uniform period of training offered to trainees. People have
different abilities and learn at varied rates. Those who learn fast may quit the programme
in frustration. Slow learners may need additional training time. It is also likely that in
these days of rapid changes in technology, old skills may get outdated quickly. Trainees
who spend years learning specific skills may find, upon completion of their programmes,
that the job skills they acquired are no longer appropriate.

6. Committee Assignments: In this method, trainees are asked to solve an actual organisational
problem. The trainees have to work together and offer solution to the problem. Assigning
talented employees to important committees can give these employees a broadening
experience and can help them to understand the personalities, issues and processes
governing the organisation. It helps them to develop team spirit and work unitedly

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