Organisational Learning, Training, and Development Strategies for Otan

1. Introduction

In today’s tech-savvy and fast-paced business environments, organisational learning,
training, and development are becoming increasingly integral for growth and long-term
sustainability of firms. Typically, organisational learning, training, and development are defined
as a set of stepwise activities and processes intended to improve the skills, knowledge, expertise,
and capabilities of the human resource (employees, leaders, and teams) within organisational
setups. Organisational learning essentially entails the process of acquiring, interpreting, and
applying insights and knowledge within an organisation to adapt to a changing workplace and
bolster performance. The focus is on individual and collective knowledge acquisition and sharing
to support and improve continuous growth and innovation. On the other hand, training entails
planned actions that equip people with the right and specific skills and knowledge they need to
efficiently and effectively execute their roles (present and future). It entails structured courses,
workshops, and programs crafted to bolster competences, job performance, and improve
particular learning gaps/needs. Finally, development espouses the broader long-term capacity
building and growth. It entails succession planning, job rotation, on-site coaching, college
retraining, and mentoring, among others. The goal is to mold individuals to fill leadership
positions in the future and provide career growth opportunities.
The focus of this case study is to develop a learning, training, and development portfolio
for Otan, a commercial real estate firm of 1000 workers with an established presence in the UK
property market. Although the company has experienced significant growth in its 35-year-
history, it has struggled to secure new deals and retain clients. The company is keen to learn from
market trends and keep up with competition, while building the behavioural and technical

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aptitudes of its staff. The portfolio will include a review of theory and research that underpin the
decision and direction taken regarding the design and delivery of the training program, an
overview of the training schedule, programme resources required, and programme evaluation
framework.

2. Overview of Theory and Research

2.1. Learning Theories
Several theories underpin the need for Otan to bolster knowledge acquisition and build
capacity by improving workforce learning, training, and development. The common theories that
are often used to explain and understand employee learning, training, and development gaps and
importance in organizations and, subsequently, design appropriate frameworks, implement them,
and measure their performance and success include bahaviourism, cognitive theory of learning,
constructivism, social learning theory, and the theory of neuroscience and learning.
Bahaviourism is an approach that centres on the role of the external environment in shaping
observable behavior and the role of external.
The history of behavioural learning theories can be traced back to early psychological
researchers B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) and Ivo Pavlov (1849-1936). Pavlov is famous for coining
the “classical conditioning” principle. According to classical conditioning, learners build
relationships and a conditioned response between a “neutral stimulus” and a different stimulus in
the environment. Pavlov’s predecessor, Skinner, focused on a different form of conditioning
called “operant conditioning” plus the role played by negative and positive reinforcement in
influencing learning. Skinner argued that relationships are not only built between a neutral
stimulus and a different other stimulus in the environment, but these associations can either be
weakened or strengthened by the degree to which the learner is penalized or rewarded. The main

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benefit of this theory is the realization that learned behaviour can be studied, observed, and
measured. For Otan, this approach can be key in understanding the behavioural factors that have
negatively impacted the company in recent years, including the strained relationships with new
clients and behavioural incapacities of employees.
Cognitive theory of learning is another significant theory that has been used to study
learning and knowledge acquisition, including in organizations. Researchers believe cognitive
theories to learning advance bahaviourism by centering on cognitions and internal mental
processes people use for learning. However, rather than focusing on observable behaviour,
cognitive learning theory explores how people perceive, receive, retrieve, process, and retain
information through memorization/recall processes. One of the strengths of cognitive learning
theory as a learning model is that it accounts for differences and variations between people
during learning. For instance, this theory suggests that all learners do not learn in the same
manner. One limitation with the cognitive learning approach is that people cannot observe how
internal mental processes and cognitions impact the learning process, making it challenging to
quantitatively study and measure the learning process and knowledge acquisition.
On the other hand, the constructivism learning theory posits that people proactively and
directly impact their own learning processes. As people engage with others and their
environment, they leverage this engagement to build, construct, learn, and acquire knowledge
and awareness of things around them. One benefit of constructivism over other theories is that it
brings that learners’ “sense of ownership” over their learning processes and experiences.
“Context” is another critical addition to this approach; it signifies that environments influence
the learning process. However, constructivism has been criticized for lacking an overall
theoretical structure.

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Social learning theory is closely attached to the previous work by Albert Bandura (1925-
2021). Bandura reasoned that learning occurs through observing, modelling, and imitating
others. This is arguably the most practical approach for exploring learning process and
knowledge acquisition within the context the workplace (in this case Otan) because workers may
have the opportunity to learn from others, be mentored, and job-shadow. One advantage of social
learning theory is its flexibility at the workplace; managers can constantly adapt the model to
changing workplace needs and learning gaps. However, critics of the social learning theory cite
its simplistic nature and inability to explain the intricacies linked with the learning process.
2.2. Past Research

Overview of theory and research (500 words) Within this section, you should provide a
concise yet detailed overview of the specific theories and research studies that underpin the
decisions you have made and direction you have taken regarding the design and delivery of the
training programme. For example, can you refer to any theories or research that address the value
of both technical and behavioural learning and development? Does your wider reading of the
theoretical and research literature support particular types of organisational, team, individual, or
digital learning? How will you consider the learning needs of the diverse workforce within Otan?
Overall, how has research and theory regarding learning, training and development helped you to
identify the most appropriate training for Otan? Are there any additional questions you would
ask the management team, if possible, to support your analysis?

3. Overview of Training Schedule

3.1. Learning Objectives

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i. To improve the behavioral and technical expertise and skills of Otan’s
workers, allowing them to keep updated with competitors and improving their
client acquisition and retention skills.
ii. To help workers understand the present UK property market landscape,
including opportunities, challenges, and trends, such as new technologies in
the industry.
iii. To improve employee relationship building and retention skills with clients
through techniques like effective and open communication, active listening,
and collaboration.
iv. To teach workers how to perform detailed needs analyses to explore and
understand client’s challenges, tastes and preferences, needs, and goals.

3.2. Learning Outcomes

3.3. The Intended Audience

3.4. Training Activities
The first training activity is mentoring and coaching. Otan must create a mentoring
programme that pairs seasoned employees (leaders and veterans) with new hires to facilitate
knowledge sharing, support, and guidance. The benefits of coaching and mentoring for Otan may
include promoting personal growth, problem-solving, leadership development, skills
development, employee connection and bonding, and improved retention (Campbell, 2022). A
2015 case study by Ganesh et al. on the impact of mentoring and coaching on managers in the
healthcare sector after attending training workshops found a direct correlation between training

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and mentoring on employee performance. The study showed that mentoring and coaching
positively impacted work performance at a leading hospital in South Africa.
Otan also needs to develop microlearning and e-learning platforms. In today’s tech-savvy
work environments, offering workers access to a digital learning programme with tailored
content, including videos, modules, and articles, can promote an ongoing and self-paced training
and learning. Online training can also allow the company to design customized and personalized
learning programmes that address the specific interests and needs of different employees. They
can also be adapted and tailored to the specific professional development goals of workers
(LinkedIn, n.d.).
Additionally, Otan can facilitate learning by allowing staff to work on cross-functional
initiatives or projects. This can potentially expose and equip workers with diverse areas of the
company and expand their expertise and knowledge. Cross-functional collaboration essentially
means allowing individuals across various departments and teams to work on a specific goal or
project (Kitch, 2023). It leverages the specialized knowledge and diverse skills of different team
members to address intricate issues, brainstorm better ideas, and attain better outcomes. For
Otan, this can entail allowing marketing and sales teams to work together to identify new trends
and changing technology and customer dynamics in the property market.
Job shadowing is another critical training activity that can facilitate learning for
employees. For Otan, job shadowing means providing on-the-job training that permits staff to
follow and closely observe other workers executing their roles or performing specific high-skill
level duties. This type of learning can help the company to onboard new workers into the firm or
into a new role. According to Roney et al. (2019), job shadowing can play a fundamental role in
the promotion process, as it facilitates the creation of quality managers who understand their

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roles to the letter. The researchers found job shadowing to directly and significantly impact
employee satisfaction, motivation, productivity, group synergy, and knowledge of their
organization.

Job-shadowing
Coaching &Mentoring

Overview of training schedule (500 words) In this section, you should include how you
propose to design the programme of training. For example, what are the learning objectives and
learning outcomes for the programme of training? Who is the intended audience? Will there be
several different training activities? Will different employees attend the same or different training
activities? Do specific training and learning activities need to be attended in a specific order or
any order? How will the training activities be facilitated?
Programme Resources Required

Programme resources required (500 words) This section should detail the resources that
are necessary for the programme of training to be delivered. For example, will the delivery of the
programme of training require physical locations, videoconferencing facilities or both? Will e-
learning be used as part of the delivery? Will part of the delivery require other employees or
stakeholders to use their own time as a resource, for example, as a Subject Matter Expert (SME),
or as part of a Community of Practice (CoP) or Action Learning Set (ALS)? In this section you
will provide a rationale for the delivery and resource decisions you have made.
Proposed Evaluation for the Programme

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Proposed evaluation for the programme (500 words) This section should provide the
management team with the methodological framework that you will use to assess and evaluate
the success and effectiveness of the programme of training and learning for Otan employees. For
example, which model of evaluation will you use and why? How will the evaluation be
conducted? Ultimately, this section will focus on how the management and employees of Otan
will know that the programme of training has been effective.
Recommendation and Conclusion

Recommendations and conclusion (250 words) In this section, draw together all the key
points discussed within the report to provide an evidence-based summary. This should highlight
specifically how the information provided and the decisions you have made can help the
organisation to achieve their aims.

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References

Campbell, F. (2022). The benefits of coaching vs. mentoring. https://guider-ai.com/blog/benefits-
of-coaching-vs-mentoring/
Ganesh, A., Bozas, A., Subban, M., & Munapo, E. (2015). The benefits of mentoring and
coaching in the public sector. Journal of Governance and Regulation, 4(3), 16-29.
Kitch, B. (2023). What is cross-functional collaboration? Benefits & tips. Mural.
https://www.mural.co/blog/cross-functional-collaboration
LinkedIn. (n.d.). Benefits of online employee training.
https://learning.linkedin.com/resources/learning-tech/online-employee-training-benefits
Rony, Z. T., Lubis, F. M., & Rizkyta, A. (2019). Job shadowing as one of the effective activities
in the promotion process creates quality managers. International Journal of Recent
Technology and Engineering, 8(25), 388-396.