Organisational Learning and Development Case Study: MINDS Charity

This case study examines the organizational learning and development initiatives at MINDS Charity Retail Store in Singapore. It begins with an introduction highlighting the importance of a learning culture and its impact on employee performance and organizational success, especially in the context of a charity retail environment. The study then provides an organizational context, outlining MINDS' strategic goals, core values, and business strategies, including the use of volunteers. The analysis section focuses on the Learning Needs Analysis (LNA) framework to identify training needs and gaps. The design phase addresses the creation of learning programs tailored to volunteers, while delivery covers the methods used, such as learning by doing, reflective practice, coaching, and mentoring. The study also includes an evaluation section to assess the program's effectiveness. The report incorporates relevant models and theories, considering costs, time scheduling, and a learning and development framework to enhance sales, manage diverse populations, and promote employee commitment to the charity's mission. The study aims to improve the skills of the volunteers and generate revenue for the organization.

Organisational Learning & Development
Case Study of MINDS Charity Retail Store Singapore

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
2. Organisational Context............................................................................................................................4
3. Analysis...................................................................................................................................................8
4. Design...................................................................................................................................................11
5. Delivery.................................................................................................................................................15
6. Evaluation..............................................................................................................................................15
7. References.............................................................................................................................................17
8. Appendices............................................................................................................................................19

Introduction
An organisation works best when there is a learning culture established in the organisation. In the
contemporary market scenario it is important that every organisation becomes a learning
organisation allowing each and every member to learn while they work consistently for the
organisation. It is important to note that all the established and successful multinationals are
focused on improving their learning culture within the organisation which helps them to make
sure the employees could learn constantly while being at work. Learning and development of the
employees is one of the main focus of the established organisations for the right reasons as
practically acquired knowledge helps the employees to perform to the best of their abilities.
Employee training and development stands to be essential program for the organisations as it will
help the employees to strong and professional which is important for the organisation to perform
effectively and gain competitive advantage (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson, 2012).
Even for the charity retail employee knowledge and efficiency is important since it helps them to
perform well and engage people to show interest in buying from charity retail stores for
development of the society. Continual learning within the organisations stands to be important
since it contributes to the substantial personal and professional development of the employees
and helps the organisation to meet the target objectives successfully. In the present learning and
development report the main focus will be on enhancing the organisational and professional
skills of the employees which would help to make sure they are able to perform well for the
organisation and generate significant revenue for the organisation as well (Argote, 2012).
The company chosen for the undertaking of the learning and development report is MINDS
charity Stores which does charity retailing mainly and tries to contribute to the overall social
welfare of the organisation. MINDS charity stores are thrift shops where different kinds of
furniture, cloths, collectibles et cetera which helps to generate money for charity. Hence the
present learning and development scenario will help to infuse skills for increasing sales of the
charity stores, encourage participants to manage and handle diverse source of population
effectively, to motivate and commit the employees to work for charity and effectively develop a
stronger vision for the development of the operations of the charity shop. The learners or trainees
involved in this training and mostly volunteers involved with the charity and are willing to work

for the thrift shop. The present study will discuss the different roles and responsibilities involved
with the learning and development scenario related to the case study of MINDS. The report will
highlight the use of different models and theories which would help to discuss learning and
development closely and also take into account the key related aspects like costs and time
scheduling, learning and development framework et cetera (Burgoyne, 2012). Overall it could be
said that the present report will discuss learning and development elaborately taking into account
the case of MINDS charity retail store which would help to address the key objectives of the
study successfully.
2. Organisational Context
Learning in organisation is important since improved learning in organisations will help to make
sure the organisation is moving towards suitable and gradual development. It is important to note
that organisational learning and development is largely linked which clearly shows the
importance of learning in organisation. Organisational learning involves different strategies to
empower employees with knowledge. In the present case it is important to note that MINDS is a
charity store and in order to contribute to the health and welfare of the society it is important for
them to focus on improving the sales strategy of the organisation. In order to enhance the overall
ability of the organisation it is important that the key organisational principles are taken into
account while implementing the learning and development. In organisations training and
development are mainly related to certain key aspects of the organisation which means the
training and development approach follows certain key principles which have to be maintained
effectively in order to impart knowledge to the volunteers of MINDS charity store (Burgoyne,
2012). The principles which are undertaken for effective learning and development program
distribution are:
Strategic: Moving with the strategic goals in mind for the organisation mainly helps to make sure
the HRD needs are met relevant to strategic objectives of the organisation. In the present case the
business strategy of the organisation MINDS is to focus on reaching the consumers through
effective and suitable consumer service. The mission of the organisation is to encourage social
welfare through sales of value for money. The Vision of the organisation is to constantly work
on social welfare through activities. The business strategy mainly focuses on using volunteers
and deploying them in the stores to sale items and contributes effectively to charity. The core

values of MINDS are: strength of character, mutual respect and understanding, integrity, lifelong
learning and excellence we aspire (Argote, 2012).
As per Barham et al., (1988) (cited in Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson, 2012) there are three different
training and development approaches which are used for imparting strategic learning like
fragmented approach, formalised approach and focused approach. The fragmented approach is a
time wasting approach without any focus, the formalised approach is slowly and steadily linked
to human resource needs and finally the focused approach of training and learning is effective for
volunteers working in MINDS where the learning is clearly focused on the strategic goals of the
organisation. Hence it is important to focus on focused learning approach for effective imparting
of knowledge.
Business Led: The business led factors are mainly related to the external PESTEL factors which
is extremely important to be discussed and understood by the volunteers working for MINDS
shop. It is important that the volunteers understand the external factors in order to cope up with
the political, economic, social, technological and legal factors. The learning in these areas will
help the volunteers to work accordingly. The business led factors mostly relate to the changing
needs of the organisation and hence it is important for the organisation MINDS to focus on
imparting knowledge about mainly the political, economic and social factors which could change
the way business is done. These factors would help to improve the capability of the organisation.
As per Barham et al., (1988) (cited in Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson, 2012) PESTEL factors
influence the Learning and development needs of the volunteers as it emphasises more on
providing knowledge on communication with diverse groups, managing economic aspect of the
business where the formalised approach comes in handy.
Horizontal Integration: The horizontal integration could only be achieved when the employees
have ample knowledge about the expansion of business which needs communication. It is
important to mention that providing knowledge on the strategic aspects of the business will help
MINDS to focus on increasing their chances to interest people to increase their attachment with
charity retail stores. It could be achieved with the help of knowledgeable and efficient people for
which learning and development is important. The performance management of the organisation
MINDS is horizontally integrated and it is done with the help of the different levels of training

process for instance induction, work related training, appraisal et cetera which helps to enhance
the internal knowledge base effectively.
Structure and Culture: As per Handy (1985) (cited in Goetsch and Davis 2014) structure and
culture of an organisation largely influence the learning and development of the organisation and
hence it is important that structure and culture is decided prudently. The structure of the
organisation MINDS should be kept flat and hierarchical which would help to communicate and
get knowledge effectively and the culture should be friendly role culture which would help each
and every member to realise their work and learn from the peers effectively.
Adding Value: Adding value could be defined as the process of adding to the organisational
capability to achieve its organisational goals and meet challenges. This could be done with the
help of MINDS think tank. This includes the quality assurance system and the consumer service
provision processes are the two key aspects that add value to the organisation and its operations
(Sessa and London, 2015).
The costing consideration in this case would somewhat involve $300 for 40 volunteers for 2days
which means the total investment will be $12, 000. It is important to mention that the
government is providing 90% subsidy on the amount which means it will bear a total amount of
around $10,800 and hence the final cost incurred by the organisation MINDS is only $1200.

Fig 1: Total Cost of MINDS
MINDS should focus on having a proper knowledge of implementing workplace learning which
would help to impart knowledge effectively. There are different workplace learning methods
which are in this case effective:
Learning by Doing: This is something which has been effective forever. Learning by doing is the
best option to learn while working and hence there are many people who focus on learning while
doing their work. It could be said that it is one of the most used options for the employees and
the volunteers at MINDS could certainly avail this to gain knowledge.
Reflective practice: Certain employees are learning through reflective practice which means they
learn through reflection of their own activities done throughout the day. It is an effective
workplace learning procedure and helps make changes in the work strategy effectively.
Reflective practice comes in handy mostly while working and interacting with consumers and
colleagues as it helps to exactly understand what has gone wrong and how it could be managed
in the coming future (Swift and Hwang, 2013).
Coaching: Most of the organisations implement coaching classes in order to make sure there is a
culture of traditional coaching in the organisation. Coaching in organisations mainly takes into

account the strategic aspects and business led issues to empower employees effectively regarding
the organisation. It could be said that coaching has its success when the employees implement
them on the floor while working.
Mentoring: This is kind of guiding an individual to the path of success. Mentoring is not
coaching the person rather supervising the person and help him or her with insights to make
changes in the performance and is one of the mostly used strategy to enhance the abilities of the
employees (Cummings and Worley, 2014).
3. Analysis
It is one of the important sections which would help to make sure the training and developmental
needs are properly managed as well as effectively analysed in order to make the volunteers of
MINDS effective enough to meet the organisational goals successfully. There are different
processes and techniques which are involved in this case to enhance the skills and competencies
of the employees to increase sales and achieve organisational goals and objectives. Training and
development program is only successful when it is properly analysed to fulfill the gaps of the
program. It is important to analyse the learning and developmental needs of the employees
working within the organisation. In the present case there are certain techniques and processes
which have been implemented to analyse the training and developmental needs of the volunteers
working in the Charity stores of MINDS (Burke and Noumair, 2015). In this case the Learning or
Training Needs Analysis Framework has been used in order to understand the training needs of
the volunteers working with the organisation. The LNA framework is just the perfect tool to
analyse the key needs of the volunteers. The LNA helped the organisation to find out the key
objectives and goals of the organisation and in this case it is to increase sales and create
awareness about the activities of the Charity retail store. It also prioritises the key skills and
competencies required for the employees to meet the MINDS objectives. The framework
emphasises on the course which are important for the company to avail which would help to
make the training and development of the volunteers successful. Finally the course analyses the
current capabilities and skills of the employees that helps to frame the training plan for the
employees of the organisation (Taylor and Cranton, 2012).

Fig 2: Training Needs Analysis
The ADDIE approach is another technique which helped to analyse the learning and
developmental needs of the employees. The approach stands for analysis, design, develop,
implement and evaluate the learning needs. This tool has effectively helped to analyse the needs
and capabilities and then design and develop and training framework and then implement and
evaluate the learning and development (Crona and Parker, 2012).

Fig 3: ADDIE Approach
From the above analysis it could be said that the volunteers need to be properly trained on sales
skills and communication which is an extremely important aspect of sales. Their present sales
skills are not up to the mark and hence it is important to train them as per the training objectives
where sales has been prioritised in order to contribute to the overall revenue generation of the
organisation. It is also revealed from the analysis that they need proper cross cultural knowledge
for effective communication with the diverse groups. As a volunteer in a charity it is important to
be generous and an excellent communicator which would only happen when proper knowledge
is imparted through the training process. The implementation both the approaches had revealed
that the employees need to use the social skills which would help them to mingle with the people
and fulfill the objectives of the organisation (Salas et al., 2012).
From the implementation of these key tools to analyse the learning and development
requirements it could be said that knowledge, skills and attitude aspects have been found out.
The first things these volunteers working for the organisation MINDS need to know are
communication. Communication skill is an extremely important skill which has to be provided to
the employees, causes and effects have to be learned by them especially when handling external
factors like social communication, economic managements of the shop et cetera. One needs

communication skills to convince prospects to sale products, basic computing skills,
mathematics knowledge and finally management skills which are extremely important. One last
thing which is extremely important for the volunteers is the attitude or the behavior of the
employees. Being proactive is extremely important, interpersonal approach and being
considerate is extremely important. Overall it could be said that the skills, knowledge and
attitude requirements have been understood through the analysis of the learning and development
program (Argote, 2012).
4. Design
The design of the learning and development program is largely important for the success of the
entire program. It is important for the organisation to design a suitable training plan with the help
of the different learning styles which would help to make sure the approach to training and
development is effective for the volunteers. In order to prepare the learning and development
solution the incorporation of the different learning styles like Honey and Mumford, Knowles and
Kolb and in the contemporary workplace the Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic is implemented
(Santos-Vijande, López-Sánchez and Trespalacios, 2012).
The Honey and Mumford style is based on four different style of learning namely activist,
pragmatist, reflectors and theorists. The activists love to learn while doing, pragmatists are
practical and hence love to try new things to learn, the theorists are focused on getting effective
theoretical knowledge and reflectors observe and learn. Hence planning the training where each
one of them will be able to learn is important (Goetsch and Davies, 2014).

Fig 4: Honey and Mumford Learning Styles
The Kolb Learning style is another key tool to design training plans. The Kolb’s learning cycle is
based on reflective observation, concrete experience, abstract conceptualization and active
experimentation which largely relates to the Honey and Mumford style. It is pretty similar to
the above mentioned style of learning. It could be said that designing training plan keeping in
mind these aspects is effective to get suitable result. Application of this plan will help to identify
the diverse talent within the organisation and will also help to treat each and every employee
based on their learning style and capabilities (Kolb , 2014).