Compare and Contrast

Compare and Contrast
by Fay Rainbow Emma and Mia

Part 1 Basic information

Part2 Training

The above 5 organizations shows different natures. The training strategies of them are various.

All organization provides training when they receive new staffs. For example,

Rainbow’s company pays great attention to education and training. Every new staff will receive training regularly and people who move to new positions will receive corresponding training.

While, staff training from Mia’s organization is quite interesting and unique. The organization demonstrates with a self-learning strategy. That means, the leaders get rid of the traditional lecturer-centered training, then let staffs to think the issue and find the solutions. In her reflection, staffs are satisfied with this mode of training, they could acquire needed knowledge in a fun way.

CItyU’s training is very professional. Many policies related to pedagogy improvement reinforce staffs to learning new knowledge and skills.

Some companies encourage their staffs life-long learning. For instance, Emma’s company pays attention to the senior staffs’ continuous training. The company encourages them communicating with managers who are working in other organizations(e.g. supplier).

After compare, these 5 organizations all provides their staffs a fair training system. However, we could not find the career plans for individual staff in any organization.

Part 3: Assessment and PD

There is one common and obvious weakness about performance evaluation among the five organizations, the assessment method is inclined to be old , unsystematic and informal.

e.g. The Motor components company: the performance evaluation is based on the achievement of employee, but different department has different standard for evaluating.  For instance, a marketing manager whose performance evaluation is judged by how many real clients he/she brings to one company. As a worker in product line, the achievement of his/her is judged by the number of quality and quantity of the products he/she produce. Except these, some basic principles also need to be evaluated, such as usual working behavior.

Every employee has a computer record which is used for final assessment.

While the surprising similarity is that performance evaluation is closely connected with payment and training opportunity .  Besides, the professional development is mainly presented on the training opportunity organizations offer.

Part 4 Learning environment

According to the table displayed above, the data vary due to the different backgrounds of the five organizations. There exists a common weak point in Leadership that reinforces learning. As for other items, the scores differ evidently.

Fay's organization stands out in Learning Process composite, Learning environment composite, Information collection, Analysis, Information transfer, Appreciation of differences and Openness to new ideas with scores of 85,84,93,86,93,86 and 100.Other organizations show a wide gap to Fay's organization. On the average, the scores of Fay's organization are higher than the other four; meanwhile, the scores of Corrine's company are a little lower than the others.

Mia’s organization under in Leadership that reinforces learning, Learning environment composite, Analysis, Psychological, Appreciation of difference, Openness to new ideas with scores of 48, 55, 54, 57, 50, 50. Mia’s organization is all worse than others organizations. In other words, other organizations do better in these aspects.

As to Rainbow’s organization, there are not any prominent sides. Its scores are almost in an intermediate level. The score of Experimentation and Analysis lower than others. But Rainbow’s organization did best in the Education and training.

Emma’s organization do worse than the average scores in Learning Process composite, Experimentation, Information collection with scores of 52, 39, 57. 

Corrine’s organization is poor performance in Education and training, Information transfer, Time for reflection with scores of 31, 50, 54.In Corrine’s organization, the Education and training side did very bad compare with others.

 There is not an organization do well in all aspects. So, most of them have to improve some sides which can be improved. 

Comments:
By Corrine

In my view, the Learning Organisation Survey is just one of the many assessment tools or indicators to generally assess an organisation's several aspects. The surveys we carried out are just small scale ones,they certainly do not reveal the whole picture of the organisation.

To raise its relaibility, I think the survey should be conducted among a large number of staff or external bodies, the more the better. External bodies should also be involved as the outsiders should have a more objective views or judgement (no bias) about the organisation. Besides, consultancy agencies and quality audit professionals can also be employed to suggest strategic plans for development and monitor the performance of the organisation for continuous improvement.


An Introduction of Different Models
(By Corrine)


1) The FiFth discipline

http://www.stephanehaefliger.com/campus/biblio/017/17_80.pdf

2) Fullan's Framework for Leadership (Principals as Leaders in a Culture of Change)

http://www.michaelfullan.ca/Articles_02/03_02.pdf

3) The Model of "Diffusion of Innovation"

http://www.enablingchange.com.au/Summary_Diffusion_Theory.pdf