Learning and Development: An Evaluation of Organizational Dependence

This essay critically evaluates the assertion that learning and development are organizationally dependent, drawing on examples from Simply Lunch and Greencore. It explores the importance of learning and development, its impact on employee efficiency and organizational goals, and the role of various training methods such as basic literacy, technical, soft skills, and safety training. The essay also discusses evidence-based practices and the involvement of Human Resources in facilitating learning and development. By examining the organizational structures of Simply Lunch and Greencore, the essay contrasts flat and pyramid structures and their influence on learning and development. The essay further discusses the KOLB learning model and the role of developing Human Resources in enhancing employee skills and customer satisfaction. Ultimately, the essay argues that while organizational support is crucial, employees can also independently learn and develop skills, impacting both financial and non-financial returns on investment.

Developing Human
Resources

The development of the human resources can be done with the view of improving and
developing the capabilities of the employees. This can help the business in achieving the
improved employee efficiency for the day to day operations of the organization. The Simply
Lunch is an organization in UK providing the best food services to the customers in the market
(Simply Lunch, 2022). The Greencore is also a UK based company that is providing the highest
quality of their food and services to their customers (Greencore, 2022). The essay will explain
about the various aspects of the learning and development in the organization. Furthermore, The
essay will also explain about the various financial and non-financial returns of the organization.
The aim of this essay is to critically evaluate the statement that the learning and development are
dependent on the organizations.
Importance of learning and development, can be huge part in the business as well as in
the life of a person. This is because the goal of the learning and development is to improve the
behaviour of the learners the group or any individual. This can increase the abilities of a person
so that he will be able to work more effectively on his day to day tasks. This can help the
organizations in achieving their goals and objectives by developing the abilities of their
employees. The book of Mankin and Beever explains that the learning needs can be analysed and
evaluated by improving the human resources developments. This can help the organization in
achieving the peak of the efficiency of employees in their day to day tasks .
The learning and development, can be dependent on the organization and its behaviour
with the employees. These practices are used in improving the work abilities of the employees in
their day to day tasks. This can be understood by the example of the Simply Lunch company.
The organization makes the learning and development of the employees more effective by
training them on the various operations of the organization. This initiative of the organization
helps the employees to learn and develop new skills for their better performance in their day to
day operations. This initiative makes an impact on the return on investment (ROI) of the
organization in financial aspects. This increases the return on the investment that the company
has made on training and developing the new skills in the employees by making the employees
to boost the performance in their day to day tasks and work more effectively on the operations of
the company (Yaroshenko And et.al., 2020).
But, it can be critically evaluated that this aspect is true only to an extent as the
Greencore organization does not have this kind of initiative in their business. This means they

are not that much focused on the skill learning and developments of their employees. The
employees of the organization are still skilful and able to perform better on their operations. This
is because the employees does not completely dependence on the organization to provide them
with the skills and developments. The employees themselves try to learn new skills by various
other methods that are helpful for them as it makes them to perform better on their operations
and learn new skills on their own. This means that the learning and development is not
completely dependent on the organization and the employees can learn and develop their skill by
themselves. This makes an impact on the non-financial return on investment (ROI) of the
company by making the employees skilful without making any investments in the development
of the skills (Darling-Hammond and et.al., 2020).
The capabilities of the learners, can explain that every learner has their different learning
methods. This is because some learners can learn themselves by observing the environment and
exploring various information. On the other hand some learners prefers to learn and develop their
skills with the help of guidance. This helps the learners to get more motivated as they are under
the guidance of someone professional.
The learning and development types, can be used by the various learners in their day to
day tasks. These types help the organizations by providing them with a variety of learning and
development types and techniques which can be helpful for the different learners based on their
preferred learning methods.
Basic literacy skills training, can be used by the organizations for the improvement and
developments of the employee learning behaviour. The business can use this method to make the
employees to fully participate and engage the employees with the company. The organization
can teach the staff to improve the thinking skills and using of various important things such as
the documents and the computers. These can help the organization in making the staff skilful and
improve the performance of the employees on their allotted tasks and projects (Types of
development, 2021).
Technical training, can be given by the organizations for improving the skills and
abilities of the employees in various aspects. This can help the organization in making their
employees to match with the latest trends and innovations in the technical aspect. This can help
the organization in having the skilful employees who can handle the technical issues that can

occur suddenly in the organization. This will make the workflow of the organization to be
smooth and flawless.
Soft skills training, can be given to the employees by the organizations for developing the
basic skills in the employees so that they can work perfectly on the normal and basic things too.
The organizations can train their employees with the communication skills and improving the
presentable work of the employees to be more effective and professional. This can help the
organization in achieving the excellency in the day to day and most basic operations of the
business making them to be professional and attracting the employees at the first glance
(Momeni and et.al., 2020).
Safety training, can be given to the staff of the organization with a view to improve and
create a better and safe work environment for the employees. The employees of an organization
is one of the most important parts for the better performance of the business. This can make the
employees to get developed in manners of safety and security from various types of threats that
can rise in the organization or at their homes. The employees will be capable enough to handle
the situation on their own so that they can control and normalize the situations in the
organization until the professional guidance arrives.
The Evidence-based practices, can also help in improving the management of human
resource development. The practices can help in the development of the human resources with
the decisions that are supported by the evidences so that the business can ensure that the business
can achieve the desired goals and objectives (Barends and et al., 2017). But, it can be critically
evaluated that the practices can not always be the evidence based and the organizations are still
implementing it for their development of human resources. This is because the practices are
suitable and effective for their organizational operations.
The Human Resources management can play an important role in making the learning
and development easier for the employees and staff. This is because the Human resources can
help the organization by organizing various training programmes for the development of the
employees. This can help the organization in improving the learning and development of the
staff. The Human Resource management can make the employee to attend the occasional
trainings for the better understanding and learning of the organizational operations. This makes
the learning and development to be dependent on the organizational departments (Dachner and
et.al., 2021).

However, in the contrast of the involvement of the Human Resources in the learning and
development of the employees. The development can also be done by the employees on their
own by observing the working methods and techniques of the other employees. It means that the
employees on their own can learn and understand the operational techniques of the organization.
This explains that the learning and development is not completely dependent on the
organizational departments and the employees can understand and learn on their own (Batool
and et.al., 2021).
Link of the Developing Human Resources, can be explained to the effectiveness of the
statement that the learning and development is not completely dependent on the organization.
The developing Human Resources can be effective for the organization by making the
effectiveness of the development of the employees with their skills and trainings. The
Developing Human Resources can result into the effective workflow and more satisfaction of the
customers (HR development, 2022). This is because it makes the efforts in increasing the
productivity of the employees and manages to reduce the cost of the organization. It happens
because the learning and development is dependent on the organization and its operations that
creates the necessity of the improvement in the working efficiencies of the employees and the
organizational operations.
However, it can be critically evaluated that the learning and development is not
completely dependent on the development of human resources. This is because there can be
various departments that can help the improvement of the customer satisfactions and cost
reductions. This can also be done by making and understanding the external changes such as the
analysis of the market requirement and making surveys in the market for understanding the latest
trends.
The organizational structure, of the Simply Lunch LTD is a flat type of structure that
operates in the UK. The structure is consisted with the Managing director, Commercial manager,
Head of operations, Marketing managers, Customer service manager and various other
authorities (Structure of Simply Lunch, 2022). The flat which makes it the local structure
organization. It explains that the business is operated in the UK and the does not have any middle
management between executives and the employees. This improves the work and
communication efficiencies of the employees and the authorities so that there can be no barriers
in the smooth flow of the information from the upper authorities and the employees. The learning

and development does not depend on the structure of this organization as the information can not
flow from upper to lower authorities and the employees are free to their desire of learning skills
and developing on their own.
The organizational structure, of the Greencore is the pyramid structure. The company
operates its business in UK and Ireland which makes the operations of the company to be
operated on the international level. The organizational structure of the company is consisted with
the CEO, CFO, Board of directors, COO and various other authorities and departments of the
organizationv (Structure of Greencore, 2022). The structure makes to have the top leader at the
top and after that the series of authorities is continued with various authorities beneath it. The
learning and development of the employees does depends on the structure of the organization as
the information can flow from upper level authority to the lower level authority. This makes the
dependency of the learning and development on the organizational structure making the
employees to follow the instructions provided by the upper level authorities.
Theories of learning, can be used to learn and understand the various effective methods
that can be used by the organizations for effective learning and development of the employees.
KOLB learning model, can be very helpful for the organizations and the employees as it
will be able to provide various types of the benefits to the learners and the organization. There
are various steps in the model that makes the learners to use their newly gained and the existing
knowledge in their course of work.
Concrete experience, is the experience that the learner finds new or reimagine the
experience that he had before. The learner is required to engage himself in the task and the
activities. This can help the organizations by making the employees to be engaged in the various
tasks that will give them new experience of work, or they will use their experience that they had
before.
Reflective observation, can be understood as the discussion stage for the learner as it
makes them to discuss their experience with others and ask questions. This makes the
communications strong of the learners. The organizations can have the benefit of this stage as it
will make the communication skills stronger of the employees (KOLB model, 2022).
Abstract conceptualization, can be helpful for the learners as it will make them to
understand the knowledge and experience that they had and come to a conclusion. This can help

the organizations by making the employees to draw the conclusion and analyse it and if there is
any problem in their performance than they can fix it by themselves.
Active experimentation, makes the learners to participate again in the tasks but this time
with a goal of using their prior skills and conclusions on the new task. This allows the learners to
make the plans and strategies for the practice. This can help the organization by making the
employees to create the proper strategies for their new tasks based on their experience and
mistakes (Sudria and et.al., 2018).
Honey and Mumford learning styles, is the model that helps in understanding the
information by the help of various aspects and techniques. The model divides the learners into
various categories. Activist, are the learners that prefers to learn and understand the information
by doing things (Stander, Grimmer and Brink, 2019). Theorist, learners prefers to understand the
theory and concept behind the things as the way they are. They mostly depend on the facts and
concepts of the things to understand something. Pragmatist, learners are the ones who are more
concerned about the information that they are learning and putting it into practice. Reflector, are
the learners who collect the information and knowledge by observing others and their work.
Influence of Covid-19, on the learning and development can be seen as in the pandemic
there were restrictions on going out and interacting with people. This made a negative influence
on the people and their learning and development process as they were lacking the physical
presence and the guidance of the superiors. This made them to learn and develop on their own
with the limited resources that they had at the time.
Evidence based HR management, makes the various impacts on the missions and the
needs of the organizations (Koubaa and Medjani, 2019). Training, The staff is better trained and
skilled by the activities that has been implemented by the HR management such as, the training
that is given by the HR management based on the different operations of the management and
development of employees. Data, can be analysed that the food industry has been evolving after
the various implementation of the evidence HR management. The food and drink industry of the
UK is the biggest manufacturing sector in terms of the turn over valued at £104.4 billions (Food
industry of UK, 2022). Feedback, can be given that the customers of both the organizations
found better services and had a better experience in terms of the improvement of the staff. The
employees of both the organizations were also able to perform better and found ease of work
after the implementation of the evidence-based HR management.

Return on investment, of the Simply Lunch explains that the turnover after the
implementation of evidence based HR management has been increased to £14.1 millions in the
financial year of 2021 (Simply Lunch turnover, 2018). The revenue of the Greencore was £1,324
millions in the financial year of 2021.
Return on investment, was also seen in both the organizations as the improvement was seen in
the various aspects of the companies.
Non-financial, return on investment of the Simply Lunch can be seen that the company
has seen improvement in their brand reputation as many people started recognizing the
organization. The Greencore has seen the improvement in their products and services after the
implementation of the evidence-based HR management.
Learning and development, has been improving in the Simply Lunch as the employees
started to learn new skills related to their operations and day to day tasks. This made their
customers to have better and improved services. The staff of the Greencore also started giving
better focus on their services to the customers and their day to day tasks. Their customers are
now getting more loyal and showing the interest in the services of the organization.
Increased knowledge, of the staff has helped the organizations in achieving their goals
and objectives in a very rapid manner. The growth and improvement in the operations of the
Simply Lunch was the result of the trained staff and their skills making the employees to think
more innovatively in their day to day operations. The staff of the Greencore improved their
learning and developing skills by implementing the various types of the learning strategies.
Motivation of the staff, can be seen in the Simply Lunch that the company has
implemented various types of the strategies such as training the employees and providing them
with various skills. This made the employees to be more motivated and satisfied with the
organization as the staff was in the opinion that the organization is also working for the
betterment of the employees. The Greencore has implemented the technique of giving appraisals
to their staff in terms of their performance. This made the staff to be more motivated towards
their day to day operations (Yasmeen, Batool and Bajwa, 2020).
Learning and development, teams can work together by making the employees to achieve
various improvements in their operations and working methods. This can help the Simply Lunch
in achieving the goals and objectives of the company by making the staff to learn from the
provided training and develop the perfection in their day to day tasks. The employees of the

Greencore also seen the improvement in their learning abilities and made the implementation of
the developed skills in their tasks increasing the growth of the organization rapidly.
HR strategies, for the reducing the employee turnover was to recruit the right employees
and making the cost reduction in the recruitment. This helped both the Simply Lunch and the
Greencore to achieve growth and improvement in providing the better human forces that can be
allotted the work.
Thus, it can be concluded that the learning and development of the employees are not
completely dependent on the organization and can develop the skills and improve their learning
on their own. Providing the employees with various skills and training such as soft skills and
technical skills can help the Simply Lunch and Greencore in improving the work efficiencies of
their employees. The evidence-based HR management makes a huge contribution in the growth
of the organization by recruiting the right persons and providing them with the skills that can
help the company in achieving their goals and objectives.

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