DeVry HRM 592 all weeks
(3,5&7) course project
The Course Project is
designed to provide you with real-life, practical experience in conducting a
training and OD needs assessment for a selected organization and in developing
a training or intervention strategy to address the needs that have been
identified. Guidelines The Course Project must be comprehensive and follow the
analytical stages below.
1. Select an organization to be studied.
2. Develop and conduct a needs assessment.
3.
Analyze the data
collected and identify training needs.
4. Develop a training or intervention strategy to
address the needs.
5. Determine the training intervention cost and
quantify expected results.
6. Develop an evaluation method.
Once the steps have
been completed, a detailed paper outlining your processes, methodologies,
results, and recommendations should be prepared. Although the length of the
paper is not predetermined, a paper of 10–15 pages in length, double-spaced, is
customarily necessary to cover the topic adequately. This does not include the
title and reference pages.
Note: There is an excellent guide online
called Human Capital: A Guide for Assessing Strategic Training and Development
Efforts in the Federal Government put out by the United States General
Accounting Office. Although this relates to the government and not the private
sector, it contains excellent information that can be applied anywhere.
Milestones: Project Phases—In
Detail
Part 1: Select an Organization to Be
Studied
There are a number of
ways in which an organization can be selected. One option is to look outside
your organization for companies that would be interested in participating in
the project. Another is to volunteer your own organization, or if you are not
currently employed, use a church, school, club, or other organization.
Once your organization
has been selected, you will need to learn a lot about it. It is essential for
you to understand the organization’s business, goals, objectives, and mission
in order to complete this project successfully.(Submit the information on your
selected organization to your Dropbox by the end of Week 1—this is an ungraded
step but required and essential to help you make sure you are on the right
track.) Also note that you will besubmitting a progress report for this project
in Week 5 in the Minipaper assignment—this is worth 100 points.
Part 2: Conduct a Needs Assessment
Training and
development processes begin with a needs assessment. Given the economic
pressures that businesses face today, it is imperative that those needs be
connected to specific organizational performance issues. There are three
different forms of analysis you will need to complete.
1. Organizational analysis involves determining the appropriateness
of training given the organization’s business strategy, its resources available
for training, and support by managers and peers for training activities.
2. Person analysis involves (1) determining whether performance
deficiencies result from a lack of knowledge, skill, or ability (a training
issue) or from a motivational or work-design problem; (2) identifying who needs
training; and (3) determining employees’ readiness for training.
3. Task analysis identifies the important tasks and
knowledge, skill, and behaviors that need to be emphasized in training for
employees to complete their tasks.
Hints for a Successful Needs Assessment
As you conduct your
needs assessment, you may want to consider four potential sources of
information that may help you in your analysis. Information such as employee
turnover analysis, incident reports, long-range production goals, employee
satisfaction studies, and physical plant layout can tell us a lot. Examples of
other documents you may wish to consider include the following.
Business documents:
Key business documents
can be used to determine areas of poor performance and developmental needs.
Such documents may include
1. unit productivity reports;
2. customer satisfaction surveys;
3. communication survey reports; and 4.
competitive analysis reports.
Organization survey:
Questionnaires can be
created that probe for areas in which systems, structures, or processes are not
functioning as intended. They can be used to look toward group, departmental,
or individual issues.(Submit your survey to be used for gathering data by the end
of Week 3—70 points.)
Potential questions
include the following.
Questionnaire
Questions
1. I am involved in decisions that directly
affect my job.
2. My supervisor communicates with me on a
regular basis.
3. I clearly understand what is expected of me.
4. I am rewarded for good performance.
5. My opinion has been asked regarding what needs
to change in my work area.
6. I understand why the decisions that affect my
job are made.
7. My supervisor gives me information that is
important to me.
8. I have the skills necessary to perform my job
properly.
9. I am rewarded for working well with others.
10. I receive frequent feedback on my performance.
11. I believe the information that I receive from
my supervisor.
12. I have the tools necessary to perform my job properly.
13. My job leaves me with a sense of
accomplishment.
14. I understand the information that I receive
from my organization.
15. I am encouraged to make decisions that affect
my job.
16. I am encouraged to communicate with my
supervisor.
17. Team goals are supported throughout my
organization.
18. My organization treats all employees well.
19. I have the information necessary to make
decisions that affect my job.
20. I am encouraged to communicate with others.
21. The feedback that I receive is directly
related to my job performance.
22. My organization treats all employees fairly.
23. My supervisor allows me to communicate my
thoughts without fear of reprisal.
24. The feedback that I receive is constructive in
nature.
25. My organization is interested in the growth
and development of its employees.
26. I believe the information that I receive from
my organization.
Observations: Individuals can be observed on the job, and their
interactions and activities can be noted for further analysis. Observations can
include the following.
Interviews: Interviews can be conducted in person or
via a distributed questionnaire that probes for areas where performance may be
improved. Potential interview questions include the following.
1. What do you think the most important part of your
job is? What is least important?
2. What would you like to learn to make your job
easier or better? What are the programs, processes, or resources available for
you to learn from?
3. How have you developed the skills that you
have?
4. Who brings problems to you and what kind of
problems are they? How do you usually solve them? Whom do you ask for help?
5. What do you find most frustrating about your
job?
6. What would you like to be spending your time
doing? What would need to happen to let you do that?
It is up to you to
determine the methodology to be used in conducting the assessment.
Considerations should include the willingness of the organization and its
employees to provide information, the availability of information from the
organization to be studied, and the availability of individuals in the
organization to be interviewed and observed.
The nature of the
needs analysis, of course, also should be based on the type of assessment
desired. Given the broad coverage of the course, assessment may include, but
would not be limited to, the following.
1. Group processes and group effectiveness
2. Departmental effectiveness
3. Decision-making process effectiveness
4. Individual skills development
5. Group skills development
6. Career development
Part 3: Analyze the Data
Collected and Identify Training Needs
Analyze the data you
have collected and identify one or more training needs for the organization. Be
sure to fully justify your recommendations and link your recommendations to the
organization’s business goals.
The data collected
must be viewed in terms of the initial intent of the project. Care must be
taken to evaluate the data for what they portray. Insufficient analysis or
understanding of data, as well as reading more into data than what they actually
portray, are equally ineffective activities.(Submit your course Minipaper that
describes your needs assessment findings and other relevant project information
in Week 5—100 points.)
Part 4: Develop a Training or
Intervention Strategy to Address the Needs Creating a developmental strategy is the objective of the
investigative segment of the project. The strategy may include the following.
1. Training Sessions
1. Traditional classroom
2. Simulations
3. Self-managed strategies
4. Opportunity to perform
2. Career management systems
1. Self-assessment programs
2. Mentoring systems
3. Action planning
3. Organizational development intervention
activities
1. Team building
2. Intergroup activities
3. Survey feedback activities
4. Education and training activities
5. Structural activities
6. Process consultation
7. Blake-Mouton grid activities
8. Third-party peacemaking
9. Coaching and counseling
10. Career planning
11. Goal setting
4. System redesign
1. Search conferences
2. Confrontation meetings
3. Strategic planning meetings
Part 5: Determine the Training
or Intervention Cost and Quantify Expected Results The fifth section of the Course Project
is conducting a cost-benefit analysis. Training costs must be evaluated against
anticipated results. This will only be palatable if, in the initial assessment,
specific behaviors and processes and their impacts on the performance of the
organization were determined. If so, conducting this final analytical segment
should be possible.
Part 6: Develop a Method of
Training Evaluation Once you have
completed the training, how will you know whether it has been successful? There
are a variety of ways to evaluate training and development programs. Clearly
identify the specific outcomes you expect from the project. Then develop a
method of evaluating the effectiveness of your project.
Submit your assignment
to the Dropbox, located at the top of this page. For instructions on how to use
the Dropbox, read these See the Syllabus section “Due Dates for Assignments
& Exams” for due date information.
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