GE recognizes that developmental activities such as learning has a clear and distinct relationship with learning, innovation as well as creativity, embeds learning within the organizations culture, enhances skills as well as expertise within the organization, acts as a catalyst for change, acts as a competitive tool towards competitors and improves on organizational output. (Sherpherd 1999).
The four strategic purposes of training, learning as well as development include;
• Reduction of employee skill gaps.
• Catalyst for change whereby employees are changed on how they think about the organization
• Achieving competitive advantage through the advancement of employee careers as well as increasing the levels of employee retention.
• Creating a learning environment to the employees through the use of (TQM) Total Quality Management schemes which emphasize on employee coaching, counseling as well as mentorship schemes.
GE strategically uses all this combined activities so as to release potential (intangible) assets of the organization and creates knowledge as a strategic asset.
How Training, Development as well as Learning contributes to the success of the organization
These three activities provide a comprehensive solution to certain goals of the organization by the utilization of their current processes. GE’s management first identifies goals to be achieved, and then proposes the use of training, development as well as learning to achieve those goals. (French & Bell, 1999).
The company solves the existence of inefficiencies within the organization by use of training, development as well as learning and work to improve the identified inefficiencies using the application of these three strategies. (Armstrong & Mitchell 2008).
These programs help the employees focus on managing change within the work environment. For example, GE may develop a new performance management system which better communicates the overall organizational objectives. Employees are trained to efficiently use new performance management system, therefore increasing organizational output especially for their large scale setting. (Armstrong & Mitchell, 2008).
Organization training, development as well as learning enables the company to improve the quality of the work done thus improving sales as well as customer satisfaction. For example, the company constantly trains its employees on new modes of production, using new technologies as well as educates them on ways of improving their work processes. (Armstrong & Mitchell 2008).
Training of sales staff enables the company to have a good relationships with their customers, it also enable them to use tactics learned from training to sell the Companies products. Sales staffs are also trained on handling customer complaints as a way of improving customer relations. (Boudreau & Ramstad 2007).
Introducing learning on the management as well as sales team will enable such individuals to be informed and updated with the current market information that will aid in their selling. The company conducts learning on areas such as providing information regarding competitors, providing market information such as market prices as