LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT

Role of Stakeholders in Learning and Development Needs of Organisation

Role of Stakeholders in Learning and Development Needs of Organisation

Introduction

A stakeholder is defined as any individual, group or organisation which has direct or indirect interest in an organization (Miles, 2012). Stakeholders have certain rights and obligations which can have an impact on the actions, policies, and objectives of the organisation. Alternatively, the actions and procedures of the organisation also have the capability of affecting those stakeholders (Friedman, & Miles, 2006). For instance, if an organisation in need to cut its overall cost tends to layoff a number of its employees, it not only negatively affect the community workers, but it also impacts the overall economy through increase in unemployment. The stakeholders of the organisation might include owners, directors, shareholders, employees, suppliers, community, unions, creditors, and government agencies. Organisations draw their resources from these stakeholders.

All the stakeholders of the organisation have their own self-interest for which they are being involved with the organisation. Apart from the self-interest of each of the stakeholders, there also include a combined goal and objective of the organisation for which all of these stakeholders work together to achieve it. One of the common goals of the organisation is to maximize the profits while also enhancing the value of shareholders. It is necessary for organisations to utilize all their resources in order to achieve their mutual as well as individual goals.

Learning and development are one of the critical aspects of the organisational processes. It requires the employees and workers of the organisation to continuously look for the recent trends in the industry and accordingly become able to learn those trends. Through learning and development program, the organisations can be able to implement positive changes within their structure (Buckley, & Caple, 2009). This helps them to gain competitive advantage over their competitors, and also allow them to achieve their goals and objectives. This paper is focusing on identifying the role of stakeholders in the learning and development needs for their organisation. It draws attention towards the importance of learning and development programs for organisations and their growth.

Discussion

Learning and development process are one of the essential and integral parts of the entire business processes. It has become very important for the organisations to remain up to date with the current changes within the industry they operate in. This includes the changing trends and preferences of the customers, the channels to reach the target customers of the company, and also processes which help them in improving the manufacturing, supply chain, and product/service delivery to the customers. Through learning and development programs companies can be able to enhance their performances and are able to achieve their objectives (Higgins, & Cohen, 2006). Through continuous development programs, companies can also bridge the gap between their capabilities and the desired results.

It does not matter whether the organisation is big or small; the critical factor is that how well the organisations tend to adopt the recent trends and changes within their ...