HR Literature Review: Learning and Development in M&S and Rowlinson

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of learning and development (L&D) within the context of human resource management, comparing the approaches of Marks & Spencer (M&S), a large multinational retailer, and Rowlinson Knitwear, a small to medium-sized enterprise. It highlights the significance of L&D in enhancing employee skills, achieving business objectives, and adapting to evolving workforce trends. The essay explores various L&D interventions, such as attracting and retaining talent, developing capabilities, and building employer brand, while emphasizing the importance of aligning L&D strategies with organizational goals and values. It also touches upon the role of evidence-based management practices in fostering effective decision-making and promoting objectivity within businesses. This document is available on Desklib, a platform providing study tools and resources for students.

HR LITERATURE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
ESSAY.............................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is defined as the practice to recruit, hire, deploy and
manage employees of an organisation. Simply, it is referred as human resource. Human resource
department in an organisation is responsible to create, put into effect and oversee policies
governing employees and the relationship of the company with its employees. The role of human
resource management is about managing people within a workplace for achieving the mission of
the organisation and reinforcing the culture (Stiglitz, 2017). In human resource management,
learning and development is one of the methods that are performed by the human resource
managers. This is the procedure which includes examining employees to identify potential gaps
and then developing it. In this procedure, learning and development sessions are organised so
that existing employees could improve their existing knowledge as well skills for performing
their roles and responsibilities. These sessions are also given to new on-boarded employees so
that they could have necessary skills and knowledge to perform their work. Basically, human
resource determines the learning pace of each employee and develops different learning and
development programs for learning as per their own needs and requirements. The procedure of
learning and development is simple foundation for the success of organisation with the
employees. In the current report, two organisations are selected. These companies are different
from each other in respect of scope, size and scale. Due to difference in their size and scale, there
are different needs and requirements of the company. Marks & Spencer is the one of the
organisations that is selected in the current report. It is British multinational retailer specialised
in home products, food products and clothes. The other organisation that is selected in the
current report is Rowlinson Knitwear. It is producing knitwear and school wear for school
students. The former organisation is bigger in comparison to latter one.

ESSAY
In the report two organisations are selected such as Marks & Spencer and Rowllinson
knitwear. Marks & Spencer is one of the greatest retailer which is having their business in global
level and this is the major reason that the company is highly emphasised over developing
learning measures within the organisation so that they can develop their employees and in the
same manner HR supportive aspects can be rendered. The mission of Marks & Spencer is to
provide significant quality to their customers by providing higher innovation and trust to
employees. Marks & Spencer is having 959 in which the company is selling food and beverages
and clothing merchandise to their customers and headquartered in London, UK. The company is
having their existence within global market and in the same manner the organisation will lead to
develop their size in coming years. As the company is an international organisation this means
that the need or learning and development intervention is high as in order to retain their position
in global market. This is examined that learning and development needs within Marks & Spencer
is related with generating such measurements in which the organisation may sharpen skills of
their employees and at the same time business objectives can also be attained. In the current
time Marks & Spencer is considered as one of the prominent organisation that is having
significant image in the global market so in place of developing such measures this would be
beneficial for the organisation to align with their aims and vision.
Rowllinson knitwear is a small and medium organisation which is associated with the
business of selling of school uniforms and crocheted wear. The company is aimed at developing
their team and customers in such a way that in eco-friendly manner aims and objectives within
the organisation can be attained. In this manner as the company is working in its growing stage
which means that need for training and development measures are high for the organisation. On
the other hand the mission of Rowllinson knitwear is to develop their business in sustainable
manner and for this it is mandatory that to train their employees and instigate such aspects in
them so that they can work accordingly. Due to the impact of market trends this has been
observed that Rowllinson knitwear is facing some issues related to aligning with market trends
and in this manner using learning and development measures within business may lead into
gaining such access into the market and acquire business objectives.
Over the past years, the global workforce is continuously evolving because of availability
of various factors. An increasing competitive organisation landscape, increasing complexity and

the digital revolution are reshaping the employees. Persistent uncertain circumstances, a multi
generational personnel and a smaller shelf life for knowledge have placed a premium on up
skilling and reskilling. Organisations have shifted to digital world and this clearly this means that
there is requirement of vibrant workforce (Wagner, 2017). These trends have increased the
significance of the learning and development function. The function of learning and development
assists in adapting to fulfil the changing requirements of companies as well as the growing and
developing levels of investment in professional development. To carry out the most out of
investments in curriculum development and training programs, leaders of learning and
development embrace broader roles within the company and form ambitious vision for the L&D.
The essential component in the organisation is learning and development whether it is
large scale organisation or small scale organisation. The learning and development assists in
strengthening the whole position and function so that organisation could be served effectively
and efficiently (Collins, 2019). The primary responsibility of the learning and development is
managing the development of workforce and to do so in a manner that supports other important
priorities of the business. An organisation focuses on adopting different kinds of learning and
development interventions so that their workforce could be aligned with the pre-determined
objectives of the organisation. The learning and development function of the company has a
strategic roles in the accomplishment of meeting objectives of the organisation.
Attracting and retaining talent is one of common interventions that is necessary for the
companies and for this company uses learning and development. Earlier learning only focussed
on the improvement of productivity but now learning is also contributing in the procedure of
employability. Employees are the individuals in the organisation who are known as in charge of
their professional and personal growth and development. Employees retain in the organisation
when they get opportunities of learning and development. Companies have identified that when
employees are provided with various sessions of learning and development, this motivates them
to stay in the same organisation. The ROI also increases of the company when they retain
employees by giving opportunities of learning and development because employees do not leave
the company and assist company to decrease their costs on recruiting new employees. Rowlinson
Knitwear is the company which is a small medium organisation and this kind of company works
with small number of workforce (Linder, 2019). So, they use learning and development for the
retention of their existing number of employees. Human resource management of Rowlinson

Knitwear focuses on retaining employees with the assistance of learning and development and
this improves the retention rate as well as productivity of the whole business. This positively
impacts the ROI of Rowlinson Knitwear because their employees are stayed back in the
company and they continuously work for the attainment of the company's objectives.
The other intervention of the learning and development is developing capabilities of
people. Human resource management of any type of organisation requires ongoing investments
in learning and development for retaining its value. When knowledge becomes forgotten or
outdated- a more rapid occurrence today- the human capital value decreases and requirements to
be supplemented by relevant work experiences and new learning. Basically, in this company
invests so that next generation of leaders could be developed and help company to get impressive
returns (Sirois and Shultz, 2020). Marks and Spencer is the company that operates with larger
number of employees so they continuously make investments in the procedure of learning and
development. The bigger companies like Marks & Spencer continuously focuses on developing
leaders so that they can promote employees according to their capability and talent. This makes
M&S to develop new generation leaders for the company and it also positively impacts the ROI
of the company because they get great results of developed leaders. The company develops the
leaders and these leaders help in building effective and efficient employees and this is positively
linked to the ROI of the companies because they grow as well as develop. The greatest
advantage is employees get satisfied because they get developmental opportunities.
Another learning and development intervention is building employer brand. A company's
brand is one of the significant assets and communicates a great deal about the organisation's
success in the market, industry's position, products and services and financial strengths. Marks
and Spencer is the company that is focussed towards enhancing the brand in the market. M&S
invests in learning and development that could assist in enhancing the whole brand of the
company and boosting the reputation as employer of choice (Hallinger, Piyaman and Viseshsiri,
2017). This investment gives company high amount of ROI because their upcoming retiring
stage employees train other employees for the company. Company also continuously focuses on
communicating their brand strength in respect of employee training and efficiency through
employer value proposition.
The other most significant way for engaging employees is providing them with various
number of opportunities for learning and developing new competencies. Highly engaged

personnels are challenged and provided the skills for growing and developing within the selected
career path. These people are more likely to energised by new and challenging opportunities at
their workplace. L&D plays great significance in encouraging and motivating employees because
they are available with great professional opportunities. The ROI grows when employees are
motivated and encouraged with learning and development sessions. This satisfies the energy of
employees regarding the work and continue to work in the same organisation. ROI increases
because the productivity of employees get increased when they feel encouraged and motivated in
the company. The company like Rowlinson Knitwear motivates employees through learning and
development because this is known as the company that operate with smaller number of workers
so there is requirement of constantly motivating employees. The major benefit that company gets
is their employees become more confident to work in uncertain situations because they are
trained in such a manner in the sessions of training and development.
Learning and development's primary task is developing and shaping a learning strategy
based on the organisation's business and strategies of talent. The strategy of learning seeks to
support professional development and building capabilities in the company in a cost-effective
way and on time. The learning strategy could enhance the culture of company and motivate
employees for living the values of the company (Sifakis and Bayyurt, 2017). For many
companies, the function of learning and development supports the procedure of implementing
the business strategy. Learning and development plays major role in increasing and improving
the ROI of company because employees become more productive.
Evidence based management practices are defined as such approaches which are used by
the business for developing potential thinking and minimise negative impact over the
organisation. Rather than selecting irrational thinking using such practices will lead the business
to develop judgement and recognition within the organisation. With the help of evidence based
approach management may inhale such trends within business so that may policies can be
formulated. This is the method which is helpful in decision making and in the same manner
familiarizing situation can be created and at the same time judgement related with managing
business functions can be seen. This method is related with increasing objectivity and clarity of
the business so that in overall manner. Evidence based management approaches are associated
with using multiple sources so that knowledge and finding sources can be exerted.

Besides this, systematic decision making is the another approach to evidence based
managerial approaches and this can be used by leaders in order to gather evidences. Scientific
literature is the source of evidence that can be used by an organisation for developing evidence
based management approach (Heddy and et. al., 2017). For an organisation the major practice
adopted would be to retain top talent and with the help of selecting the best suitable evidence out
of other this would be easier to develop the role and to acquire benefits linked with evidence
based managerial approaches. For Marks & Spencer as the company is associated with managing
their business in global manner and for this the company would have understanding related with
selecting evidence based aspects. When a manager introduces new strategy this would lead into
gaining of new edged into the business in which changes can be adopted as this is regarded as
extraneous factor by which the company may lead to attain their aims and objectives. Similarly,
professional expertise are regarded as such measures by which evidence can be collected and in
the same manner member association can be exerted so that overall decision can be taken in the
perspective of the organisation (Barends and et. al., 2017). Professional experience within many
people is related with taking accurate decision in which perspective associated with developing
stakeholders value and perspective.
On the other side, creation of value based culture is related with using evidence based
approaches within business as this is regarded as one of the major approaches within learning
function as in context of Rowllinson Knitwear the organisation is continuously trying to motivate
their employees so that to develop their employees and to acquire skills which are related with
gaining business objectives. Building significant image is one of the greatest measure which is
helping the business to grow and develop their employees. When giant organisation such as
Marks & Spencer is using methods of learning and development which means that the
organisation is trying to instigate such measures so that functions of the organisation can be
strengthened and in the same way primal responsibility of boosting the business capacity can be
seen (Zittoun, 2017). For Marks & Spencer, it is necessary for them to make significant image of
their business as this will lead to minimise talent shrinkage and at the same time value
preposition can be given to working employees. This is one of the major practice which is used
for developing employee contribution in respect of creating competencies. Lifelong learning
abilities are required to be developed so that opportunities can be instigated in such a way that
various aspects within the organisation can be satisfied. The major function of learning and

development measures is to contribute in the success of the organisation and when the entire
transformation may take place. The functions of learning and development is used within the
organisation for acquiring success and to decide priorities as well. This is essential for the
organisation that to establish corporate structure so that capability building programs can be
exerted and at the same time capability gaps can be fulfilled (Brewster and et. al., 2016). In the
context of Marks & Spencer and Rowllinson Knitwear for both the organisation keeping of
significant HR management is one of the most essential development need which is used within
the business for assessing the human resource and develop effective leadership as well. One of
the primal stage of using evidence-based approaches within the organisation is to get over the
intimation factors so that public interest can be served and at the same time different barriers can
also be eliminated in equivalent manner.
CONCLUSION
From the above demonstrated report this can be concluded that human resource
management is regarded as one of the significant department which is having various roles
within an organisation and could be helpful in gaining significant benefits in terms of
sustainability and long edged success. Using such methods this would be easier for the
organisation to acquire talent and retain the same for gaining longer success. This is analysed
that for an organisation their employees are treated as major asset and in this manner using such
aspects would lead into gaining market prominence and developing the business into various
market territories. On the other hand, this is elaborated that using learning and development
intervention could be helpful for the businesses to deal with various issues and eradicating the
same so that to deal with challenges related to business functions. In the same manner when
learning and development interventions are used within business then this is having major
positive impact as in terms of developing skills of employees so that the same can be used in
managing business functions and attaining organisational objectives as well . The department of
human resource is executing differentiated roles which are related with developing aspects in the
business so that severe measures related with applying critical role to the business and in the
same manner such strategies can be used by the business which is used for attaining overall
business objectives. The report clearly identified arguments related with human resource
management and need for learning and development measures. Such measures are helpful for the
business in developing ways for inhaling succession measures and to provide support to their

business. In this manner the report has identified the interventions that can be used by businesses
and these are to be used by the businesses for developing succession opportunities.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Barends and et. al., 2017. Managerial attitudes and perceived barriers regarding evidence-based
practice: An international survey. PloS one, 12(10), p.e0184594.
Brewster and et. al., 2016. International human resource management. Kogan Page Publishers.
Collins, S., 2019. Neuroscience for learning and development: How to apply neuroscience and
psychology for improved learning and training. Kogan Page Publishers.
Hallinger, P., Piyaman, P. and Viseshsiri, P., 2017. Assessing the effects of learning-centered
leadership on teacher professional learning in Thailand. Teaching and Teacher
Education, 67, pp.464-476.
Heddy and et. al., 2017. Making learning meaningful: Facilitating interest development and
transfer in at-risk college students. Educational Psychology, 37(5), pp.565-581.
Linder, C., 2019. Power-conscious and intersectional approaches to supporting student activists:
Considerations for learning and development. Journal of Diversity in Higher
Education, 12(1), p.17.
Sifakis, N. and Bayyurt, Y., 2017. ELF-aware teaching, learning and teacher development.
In The Routledge handbook of English as a lingua franca (pp. 456-467). Routledge.
Sirois, S. and Shultz, T.R., 2020, December. Learning, development, and nativism:
Connectionist implications. In Proceedings of the Twenty First Annual Conference of the
Cognitive Science Society (pp. 689-694). Psychology Press.
Stiglitz, J.E., 2017. Industrial Policy, Learning and Development.
Wagner, D.A., 2017. Learning as development: Rethinking international education in a changing
world. Routledge.
Zittoun, T., 2017. Symbolic resources and sense-making in learning and instruction. European
Journal of Psychology of Education, 32(1), pp.1-20.
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