Module 03: Training Assignment

Training is often looked upon as a short-term investment form many organizations or human resource teams.  The trend for training has been changing from a short-term focus to include a long-term emphasis.

Using Welder Library E-Resources of Google Scholar find a peer-reviewed article within the last 10 years on the topic of organizational and/or employee training  regarding the positive or negative effects on organizations and/or employees.

Assignment:

• Write and post a brief summary (2 paragraphs) of the peer-reviewed article. (5 points)
• Include the article as an attachment. (2 points)
• Reply to a minimum of two classmates. (3 points)

The “like” feature will be enabled. You are encouraged to “like” the articles you find interesting. 

Megan Heissel

Training can be very beneficial for organizations and their employees. In the article, “Do organizations spend wisely on employees? Effects of training and development investment on learning and innovation in organizations” by Sun Young Sung and Jin Nam Choi, development of innovation directly related to the amount of investments on training made by an organization. The study suggested that learning practices may also be a mediating mechanism affecting innovative performance. The climate of an organization may also be linked to an increase in innovation for an organization. 

A conceptual framework was used in this study. Organizational training and investment is the focus of this study. By investing in training, organizations develop a strong, motivated, and capable pool of resources. Organizational learning practices can increase innovative performance for an organization. Organizations have an opportunity to promote and foster this  innovation by offering corporate training to employees. 

The article also examines how organizations offering tuition assistance to employees seeking higher education could potentially have a negative effect overall because it can be seen as favoritisms by other employees. Policies should be put in place to help protect an organization from this potential issue. 

Katie (Kathleen) Bekkerus

Module 03: Training Assignment

The background to this article references a hospital that was observe for 3 years. By the end of the third year, HR department and management were able to track turn over rate and retention rates monthly. The discovered turn over for Registered Nurses (RN), was greater than 19% within the 3 years and 30% within their first year, with a turnover rate of 40% on the medical surgical floor (Maryniak, 2017). Information was collected by means of employee satisfaction surveys and exit interview data to discover the reasons for the turnover which included: poor communication, workload, recognition, and onboarding. The average cost for turn over ranges from $37,700 to $58,400 (Maryniak, 2017).

Once this information was collected, the nurse leaders and HR department came together to create a standardized orientation process that was meant to improve efficiencies of onboarding and orientation in hopes to increase retention of new nurses. The program had new graduate nurses spend 5 weeks in a specialized unit created to stimulate real life. The new nurses completed simulations and online learning. Classes included diabetic management training, critical thinking, practicing assessments, pain management and working on communication. There were also education stations for IV starts and wound care. The individual nurse had to complete the course prior to moving on their new home unit they were hired for. At the end of the first year of the program, it was estimated that the overall cost savings from nurse retention was almost $3 million dollars and the retention rate exceeded 88.8%. Maryniak (2017), illustrates on the med-surg unit nursing retention was 100% in the first year for this department.

I have worked on the med-surg floor at my previous job for several years and I believe the turnover ratio at our hospital was close to this 40%. Med-surg is a hard floor that gets a variety of patient types and loads. However, it is the starting point for most in patient jobs to kind of get your feet wet type unit. I think this new training course could be helpful for certain education tips and tricks but wound care and IV should have been a skill learned in school.

Workers performing similar work are paid more in some industries than others. Explain why this is so.    Be sure to include examples and support your post with specific references to your text (Chapter 2) or independent research you’ve conducted.

Please respond to the following: 250 +

• Select and discuss one positive human resource issue (policy or practice), and how a related challenging topic (current event) continues to evolve in the public sector.

 Go to the Geico website to read “Total Rewards Program.” Write a five- to seven-page paper in which you: 

1. Determine which facets of the Geico total rewards program align with the five top advantages of a total rewards program outlined in Chapter 2 of the textbook. Discuss your reasoning. 

2. Create a strategy for ensuring that the Geico plan addresses all of the advantages. 

3. Evaluate the effectiveness of the communication of Geico’s total rewards program based upon the website’s descriptions of the benefits. Recommend two areas for improvement. 

4. Assuming employees are unhappy with the current plan, offer two improvements or changes to Geico’s total rewards program. 

5. Use at least five quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources 

Organizations have to develop an international human resources management strategy when they expand globally. Which do you think is more critical for international human resources management?

• Understanding the cultural environment.
• Understanding the political and legal environment.

Please choose one position and give a rationale; examples are also a way to demonstrate your understanding of the learning concepts.

DeVito, J. A. (2016). The interpersonal communication book (14th ed.). Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu

• This text is a Constellation™ course digital materials (CDM) title.

In the field of human services, it’s not uncommon to work with clients who are encountering a range of challenges that arouse feelings of sadness, anger, and frustration. Would you know how to engage appropriately with a client under such conditions? In this second discussion, you will identify and reflect on various elements related to conveying effective messages to clients.

Read Chapters 7 and Chapter 8 of The Interpersonal Communication Book and review the following five human service career paths from the Human Service Careers (Links to an external site.) video:

• Early Child Development & Services (03:01)
• Counseling and Mental Health Services (04:17)
• Family & Community Services (07:00)
• Personal Care Services (03:54)
• Consumer Services (04:11)

Initial Post: Imagine that you are a human service professional working in a career path that is different from the one you selected in the first discussion forum and prepare a reply that sufficiently addresses each of the items below,. Don’t forget that it is critical to cite your sources of information, including the textbook, using APA formatting.

• What are some ways in which effective means of emotional expression is used to engage with a client experiencing a problem (e.g., loss of job, homelessness, health concerns, etc.)?
• Identify empathy skills in interpersonal and group settings (e.g., one-on-one client interaction, facilitating a group session, etc.) that you might use as a human services professional.
• Describe one communication theory (i.e., constructivist, attachment, communication accommodation, attribution) that can apply to this situation as it relates to communicating messages (e.g., how messages are communicated, processes related to communicating messages, etc..). See Week One’s required website readings.
• Under what conditions might you, as a human service professional, use self-disclosure as a means of interacting with clients? Would it be appropriate or inappropriate in this specific situation? Why or why not?

Scope Management and Health Checks

Your brother in-law is about to submit a scope statement to the town council for the July 4thparade and picnic he has volunteered to project manage. Your town has about 6,000 households, and this is the first time the town council gave a tentative approval for the parade and picnic. The council president thinks that about $1,500 can be allocated for the event. Since your brother in-law knows you are taking a project management class, he has asked that you to look over his draft scope statement. He knows that the scope statement should be professional so that the town council will see him as responsible and allocate the money for the parade and picnic. Here is his scope statement.

4th of July Parade and Picnic in Anytown, USA

Project Objective – to organize and hold both a parade and picnic from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on July 4th

• Deliverables
• Parade security
• Picnic security
• Hour parade
• Hour picnic
• Local business sponsors
• Food Trucks
• Latrine Arrangement
• Advertisement
• Volunteer Coordination

Milestones

1. Get permits for closing the parade route to traffic
2. Finalize venue location (local school or park)
3. Police
4. Fire Department
5. Sponsorships
6. Latrines
7. Food trucks
8. Set-up
9. Clean-up

Technical Requirements

1. Parking for parade
2. Parking for picnic
3. Audio system for music
4. Traffic control

Limitations

1. Maximum 20 automobiles/floats
2. Insurance
3. Food trucks donate 10% to town council
4. Fire marshall
5. Strict adherence to time limit of 10 a.m-2 p.m.

Provide input to your brother-in-law on:

• the scope statement,
• scope creep prevention,
• stakeholder management,
• metrics for success,
• ways to recover the project should it become distressed,
• how and when he should perform health checks, and,
• any other items he should consider from a project management perspective.

Support your statements and conclusions using at least one current, peer-reviewed scholarly article.

Section 3 – PMO Recommendations

Milestone 1 & 2 Attached as a reference.

The purpose of the Portfolio Project is to synthesize current research about the project management office (PMO) for the purpose of developing a PMO recommendation. The Portfolio Project is structured to help you demonstrate understanding of the course material, as well as the implications of new knowledge gained from research beyond the course readings and lectures.

Your Portfolio Project will be developed in three independent but cohesive sections, which considered in whole constitutes your PMO recommendation. The three sections are:

• Section 1: Subject Organization and Rationale
• Section 2: PMO Mission, Charter, and Competency
• Section 3: PMO Recommendations ****************

Sections 1 and 2 will be submitted as Portfolio Project milestones in Modules 3 and 6, respectively.

Section 3 will constitute your final Portfolio Project assignment, which due at the end of the course in Module 8.

Based on your Section 1 choice, one of the two PMO recommendation options will be performed for your Portfolio Project assignment, which are described as:

Option #1: Recommendation for the implementation of a new PMO

For Section 3 (submitted in Week 8): PMO Recommendations of the Portfolio Project, you will build on the information detailed in your Portfolio Project Sections 1 and 2. Based on analysis of your subject organization and further research, develop either Option 1 or Option 2 recommendations for key aspects of the PMO that optimally support the subject organization’s PMO framework as designated in Section 2. To this end, substantively address the following key elements for your subject organization’s PMO recommendation:

• Designate recommendations, with appropriate rationale, for each of the following PMO key elements:
  • PMO type
  • PMO structure
  • PMO culture
  • PMO project methods
  • PMO project tools
  • PMO governance
  • PMO risk management
  • PMO business integration
  • PMO global challenges
  • Other relevant PMO considerations
• Recommend professional development for PMO advancement
  • Apply aspects of the project manager competency development (PMCD) framework for the PMO’s professional development.
  • Designate professional certification requirements.
  • Describe mentorship role.
  • Identify project and portfolio leadership

Submit your Section 3 Portfolio Project final assignment as a single Microsoft Word document to the Module 8 submissions area established for this purpose.

Your essay should address the following requirements:

• Your well-written PMO recommendation essay thesis should be 12 pages in length, which does not include the title, reference, or appendix pages. You need to add headings and subheadings associated with each of the bullet points listed in the Section 3 requirements.
• Format your paper per the C (Links to an external site.)SU Global Writing Center (Links to an external site.), which includes an introduction and conclusion.
• Include title and reference pages.
• In addition to your course textbook, cite at least six current (published within the past 5 years) scholarly resources (peer-reviewed, official governmental reports, and other scholarly source) to support your suppositions, assertions, and conclusions. To enhance your learning experience, scholarly resources are available from the CSU Global library.
• Include an appendix for tables and figures as appropriate.

Please write clearly, concisely, and cohesively; use section level headers to organize the key elements of your thesis.

Evaluate two cases that illustrate the degree to which unions have affected health care clinical and administrative providers, such as nurses or clinic staff. Provide specific examples to support your rationale.

Discussion 1 Week 3

 While surfing the Internet, you encounter this note posted in your favorite discussion group: “Help! I have just been assigned to head a new product design team at my company. The division manager has high expectations for the team and me, but I have been a technical design engineer for four years since graduating from college. I have never ‘managed’ anyone, let alone led a team. The manager keeps talking about her confidence that I will create a ‘high-performance team.’ Does anyone out there have any tips to help me master this challenge? Help! [signed] Pat.” As a good citizen of the Internet, you decide to answer. What message will you send out? Use and cite the course textbook in your initial post. 

Discussion 2 Week 3

 Why is it important to view leadership in a relational process and what traits have you found to be the associated with effective leadership? What has been your experience in leadership positions?  What worked well and what was not as effective?  

Week 3 Assignment

Article Critique

Investigate professional journals and locate two articles pertaining to organizational behavior that are of interest to you. You are to critique each of the two articles according to the instructions below. The articles should be less than three years old. You are encouraged to use the ProQuest Database found in the Ashford Online Library.

Each one- to two- page critique (a total of two to four pages for both critiques) must include the following three parts:

• Identification of the Article – Provide the reader with enough information about your article so he/she will be able to locate the article. Describe your search process.
• Summary of the Article – List the main points that the author has tried to establish (i.e., 1, 2, 3 or first, second, third). There normally will be three to five main points. If you are summarizing a court case, you should discuss: What provision of the law was at issue? Briefly state the facts of the case. What legal tests were applied? Were there any unusual elements in the case?
• Your Critique – Provide your reaction (insightful, critical, and logical) to the points that the author tried to make, or an overall critique of the entire article. A simple statement of agreement or disagreement is not sufficient. While you may make such a statement by way of introduction to your reaction, you must clearly and logically state the reasons for the position that you have taken.

The Article Critique

• Must be four double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA Style (Links to an external site.) as outlined in the Writing Center’s APA Formatting for Microsoft Word (Links to an external site.) resource.
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of paper in bold font
    • Space should be between title and the rest of the information on the title page.
  • Student’s name
  • Name of institution (Ashford University)
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Due date
• Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
  • For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Writing Center resources.
• Must document any information used from sources in APA Style as outlined in the Writing Center’s APA: Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.) guide.
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA Style as outlined in the Writing Center. See the APA: Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Writing Center for specifications.

Include both article reviews into one document for submission to WayPoint (do not submit two documents).