Training and Development

Designing management training and development for competitive advantage: lessons from the best.

By Kristoff, Amy L.

Publication: Human Resource Planning 

Date: Sunday, March 1 1998 

"In the 21st century the education and skills of the work force will end up being the dominant competitive weapon."

[Lester Thurow, Head to Head, 1992].

Organizations can buy skills through hiring, or they can develop skills through training and development (T&D) activities.

Ads by Google

HR Management Certificate

Improve Your Career w/ a Cornell University Certificate in HR Online

www.eCornell.com

This paper focuses on strategically aligned training and development systems that advance and sustain the organization's competitive position in its market. Traditionally, T&D systems were relegated to narrowly defined support roles, where individuals were trained around current job-based deficiencies or predicted knowledge and skill needs. A few exemplary organizations, however, view a workforce with superior skills as a primary source of sustainable competitive advantage. In these organizations, T&D becomes the critical means for creating readiness and flexibility for change across all organizational levels, and there are strong linkages between all facets of the T&D system and the strategic leadership and planning processes of the business. Readiness and flexibility are achieved largely through supervisory, management, and executive training, as these individuals set the boundaries for modification and continuous improvement of existing organizational practices.

Investment in T&D is highly variable across U.S. employers. In 1995, U.S. organizations allocated approximately $52.2 billion for formal employee T&D (Industry Report, 1995). It has been estimated that over half the money invested in training annually (approximately $27 billion) is spent by just 15,000 organizations, or merely 0.5% of all U.S. employers. Among those, only about 100 to 200 spend more than 1.5% of their...