The Ralph Rosen Store

An employee needs assessment is an asset to have in the retail industry. In this demanding line of work it is imperative that we have employees who are fully capable of doing their job well and quickly. Therefore, the needs assessment is needed to help shine the light on those candidates who best fit our needs. One way that a needs assessment may expose any existing performance deficiencies is by looking at the candidates’ individual needs. A needs

In this paper I will complete a needs assessment and explain how I used the assessment to help complete my course project. By doing so, I hope to help the reader understand the process involved in developing a training strategy to address the needs that will be identified.

What were the sources of needs assessment (e.g., subject matter expert, intended trainees, managers, etc.)? To what extent were these the most appropriate sources?

A needs assessment is the initial step in revising a current curriculum or initiating a new educational program (Keating, 2015). Once a problem is identified, a more targeted needs assessment can be determined (Bass & Chen, 2016). From this needs assessment, identifiable, measurable objectives for developing a curriculum can be initiated (Kern, 2016).

Many companies are very keen and ready to clinch Work Base Learning in an organization, not mainly because it provide you with lifelong learning, but also it is an important ingredient of what Senge (1990) has termed as the ‘learning organization’. A learning organization is a place in which the learning and flair of persons is backed and promoted so that the organization itself be able to form its future and it also very important to gain competitive advantage.

Identifying needs, eg initial assessment, LNA/TNA (learning or training needs analysis), qualification requirements, physical or intellectual and emotional needs, learning

For most companies, identifying what a learning organization should be and actually becoming one is tricky at best, impossible at worst. One way that manager's and companies can promote the concept of being a learning organization is to assess whether the company is in need of a short-term fix or whether it is more focused on long-term results. Organizational learning is a long-term activity that will build competitive advantage over time and requires sustained management attention, commitment, and effort. Learning organizations maximize their competitive positions during strong economic times and they prudently train their employees and prepare for change even in turbulent times. As a result, learning organizations and learning

According to Lepak & Gowan (2010), needs assessment identifies the gaps that exist between what employees should be doing and what they are actually doing, and it can narrow and fill these gaps based on supporting company’s strategic goals and adding values to the company. In Lepak & Gowan (2010), three analyses should be carried out step by step to locate the gaps among the company’s management structure from top to bottom: (1) organization analysis: determines a company’s progress toward achieving its goals and objectives; (2) task analysis: identifies

Throughout our final semester of study at Maryville, our cohort has studied Peter Senge’s, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. Rather than set of management practices, the book describes how organizations, especially those that are sustainably competitive, know how to learn. These “learning organizations” are continuously learning how to work together, where the norm is producing their best. In the book, Senge identifies five essential elements, that when practiced together, create perfect conditions for an effective learning organization. These five practices are Personal Mastery, Mental Models, Shared Vision,

     In his book The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge emphasizes his model of a "learning organization," which he defines as "an organization that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future." A learning organization excels at both adaptive learning and generative learning.

Organizations that strive to excel in aspects of innovation, competitiveness, and performance must have clearly defined core values that are executed by specific learning disciplines (Senge, 2010). Giesecke and McNeil (2004) stated, "A learning organization is an organization skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights" (p. 55). In the pursuit of defining specific practices that would produce an ideal learning organization, Senge (2008) proposes five disciplines that include, "...systems thinking, mental models, personal mastery, shared vision, and dialogue" (p. 1). In this application paper I will analyze each of the five disciplines discussed by Senge (2008) and discuss how they can be applied in an organization such as the high school where I am currently teaching to address specific areas in need of improvement.

An organization’s capability to learn and convey that learning into action quickly, is the supreme competitive advantage. The learning organization is the structure that eases the realization of such competitive advantage, it empowers employees, it deepens and enhances the customer experience and cooperation with main business partners and eventually improves business performance. Organizational learning is considered as the suitable process to develop knowledge resources and capabilities/core competencies (human capital, social capital and organizational capital) that engender ongoing values; which in turn yield persistence superior performance; which lead to sustainable competitive advantage within the context of the strategic management.

Peter Senge argues that not only we humans learn, but organizations also. However, learning itself may not be enough for the organization to survive in this ever-challenging era. In his book, The Fifth Discipline, Senge introduced five ‘disciplines’, namely systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision, and team learning, that characterizes an organization as a learning organization.

Identify two to three (2-3) training needs through a Training Needs Analysis (TNA) and justify an approach for this training.

Need is defined as “the gap between current results and desired results-not gaps in resources, methods, procedures or means.” (Kaufman, 1992) Hence, the management focuses on the organization’s priority, which is the ‘What’ issue. It is important to identify the correct need to prevent wasting resources fixing the wrong needs.