Linkages between personal development process and the transfer of learning.

Zirra, Daniela

Abstract: Knowledge transfer is one of the core elements in the development of the individual growth process at high quality parameters, regardless the field of activity. The development of knowledge-based economy has generated a strong perception in favour of accelerating and increasing importance of actions resulting in new knowledge being assimilated, having a high degree of applicability within practical life. One of the most favourable environments for the achievement of knowledge transfer is an university, since this pays considerable efforts in meeting the highly dynamic conditions of labour market, particularly managerial staff active in the industrial sector, within the context of economic globalisation.

Key words: personal development, transfer of learning, lifelong learning, human resources development.

1. INTRODUCTION Considering the current stage of economic development, the core features of human resources, mainly managerial staff, are creativeness, team work abilities, communication and negotiation abilities, capacity to adapt to fast changes, willingness and continuous learning skills, entrepreneurship, abilities for drawing up viable projects and their effective implementation, etc.

All the requirements outlined above are fundamental prerequisites for increasing the economic performance of organisations and company management quality, against the background of a raising competition at national and international levels. The priorities entailed by Romania EU accession require the establishment of human resource conditions and infrastructure, needed for the absorption and management of structural instruments, including here highly qualified managerial staff.

The higher educational environment, as an area for dissemination and accumulation of new knowledge, due to teaching and scientific activities developed here, is one of the most favourable fields for conducting knowledge transfer. Hence, universities, mainly those in the economic and technical fields, must meet the requirements of businesses in terms of demand for managerial level staff training and they need to widen their educational range, providing flexible and updated lifelong training services, depending on the dynamics of the information required for achieving high and competitive economic performance.

2. PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT REQUIREMENTS

The current outstanding feature of the Romanian business environment is the increase and diversification of company development opportunities, concomitantly with an increased competition. Thus, reaching a high performance level is conditional upon the human resource development pace (Greenaway, 2007) and upon the quality of the adult training process, within which personal development (PD) holds a central position.

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But one should take into consideration that individual development is affected by several influence factors, which may be classified within three main categories (figure 1). The first category, life-long learning opportunities (LLO), is an outcome of the interaction between labour employers demand (LED) and educational system supply (ESS). The second category is the outcome of qualifications, abilities and skills (QAS), on demand in the labour market, triggered by the need of the organisation to adapt to the change within the economic and social environment (ESE). The third category, educational policies and infrastructure (EPI), is the outcome of educational strategies correlated with the demands of the business environment.

3. LLS AS A KEY FACTOR FOR PD

A performing life-long learning system (LLS), within which transfer of learning is achieved, has to comply with several principles:

* solid anchorage into economic and social facts;

* modular and flexible structure, able to stimulate the participation of employees and the interest of employers;

* able to facilitate the achievement of one's career development objectives and knowledge level of employees;

* a coherent monitoring, evaluation and control procedure of learning/teaching process;

* correlation of LLS objectives with the educational strategies at various levels.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

The evolution of lifelong learning processes, at least up to a certain individual development level, takes the form of a spiral, which has to be an ascending one, in four steps or stages (figure 2). The first step consists in establishing the human resource development objectives (HRD) within organisations, taking into account the overall economic development and performance raising strategy. Also, it is this stage when the own development objectives of employees' career are outlined (PCD).

In order to reach the objectives previously stated, a transfer of learning takes place in the second stage (ILO, 2007), using either the own lifelong learning system (LLS), should this having been created within the organisation, or an external system, which may be an university providing training services, a specialist company or a large sized company, with the same object of activity, but which has its own department specialising in lifelong training of the staff. The third step is probably the most difficult one, since it is the stage when the new knowledge, accumulated during the training period, applies effectively to practical activities, securing their capitalisation (NKV) with the aim of raising individual performances, and implicitly those of the organisations.

During the last stage, it takes place the outcome of new knowledge capitalisation (Zirra, 2005). At company level, evaluation is conducted by means of specific indicators measuring economic efficiency level (EL), such as profit earning capacity, rate of return (since here we may think that the costs incurred by the attending all the training modules become investment), the turnover rate increase percentage, labour productivity, etc.

In case of individuals, the evaluation of the knowledge accumulation outcomes is a difficult aspect, as it requires quantification of personal development level, achieved following the attendance of the training modules, which induces a rather high subjectivity degree, as well as the effectiveness of the transfer of learning.

Three situations could be outlined at the end of this cycle consisting of four stages:

* the level of the indicators used for evaluation purposes is higher than during the previous time period, which means that the objectives set for the first stage have been achieved, for the company and for the employee (nevertheless, there are situations when personal development has taken place, but the positive outcomes in relation to career occur at a later stage);

* the values calculated for the evaluation indicators are equal to those from the previous time period, which means that the level of economic performance and individual development is preserved, which is not a positive aspect, but either it does not generate loss (we may conclude by saying that the resources used could have been allotted more effectively in implementing other decisions);

* the value of the indicators is below the level prior to undergoing through the learning process, which is evidence to resource mismanagement, since either knowledge transfer has been ineffective, or the knowledge modules chosen do not match the personal and/or group needs, or the system chosen is not compliant with the principles of a well performing lifelong learning system.

Starting from the outcomes of the evaluation, new objectives for the development of the organisation and individuals are set, and the process resumes at a different level.

The core factor which one should bear in mind that a high value of knowledge transfer effectiveness is mainly conditional upon securing balance among the real needs of individuals/employees, social groups (including here companies) and communities, as well as on the resources available for this purpose, on one side, and practical possibilities, on the other side, to meet these needs by the providers of educational; services (George, 2005).

4. HRD-PROJECT

The Human Resources Development Project Phare/2004/016-772.04.02.02.01.01.811, named "Today Managers, Entrepreneurs Tomorrow! Project for entrepreneurial and managerial skills development" itself is promoting the increase the on-site productivity of the employees, for keeping a high quality of the job positions provided and for increasing the competitiveness and adaptability of the work force. A special consideration is given to the other goal of the project, respectively the need of diminishing the discrepancies between the demand and the supply of work, in connection with the new provocations generated by the necessity of training the human resources for work in EU, in a knowledge-based economy. The specific objectives to be achieved in project implementation are: to increase the on-site management and entrepreneurial skills of the employees in all the managing levels of occupation; to develop the adaptability and mobility of these persons and preparing the industrial private enterprises from the industrial sector for working in EU (Zirra, 2006); drawing up a training support in a full and complex package, in accordance with the most modern learning methods, and with the training and learning necessities generated by the rapid changes intervening in the social-economic environment; the deployment of applications in cooperation with the course participants, considering mainly the development of the entrepreneurial spirit and the improvement of the management quality.

5. CONCLUSION

The current requirements related to the pace and level of human resources development is directly connected to the evolution of manufacturing processes and technologies, as well as to the tendencies within the educational field. In order, for the ratio among these elements not to generate disturbances into the economic performance level, the following aspects need to be achieved: the education service offer has to be steadily updated, in keeping with the demand of abilities and competences in the labour market and it should even anticipate the developments of the real economy; the human resource policies within universities should be inter-linked with the staff training strategies within businesses; the promotion of lifelong learning in all economic and social fields is a continuous need for everyone.

6. REFERENCES

George, J. (2005). Vision for an Innovative Information Society-eLearning-The Best Mode, Proceedings of the second International Conference on eLearning For Knowledge-Based Society, pp. 13.1-13.6, Thailand, August 4-7, Bangkok

Greenaway, R. (2007). Leadership Training: 10 Tips for Programme Design, Available from: http://www.reviewing.co.uk/articles/leadership-training.htm Accessed: 2007-01-29

International Labour Office (2007), Learning and Training for Work in the Knowledge Society, pp. 9-15, Available from: http://www-ilomirror.cornell.edu/public/english/employment/ skills/recomm/report/ch_1.htm Accessed: 2007-03-11

Zirra, D. (2005). Employment and unemployment in economic neoliberalism, Ed. Universitara, ISBN 973-7787-84-6, Bucharest

Zirra, D. (2006). Education and Competitiveness in contemporary business world, Proceedings of The 2006 International Conference of Commerce, pp. 14-17, ISBN (13)-978-973-594-785-9, Bucharest, March, Ed. ASE, Bucharest