Learning and Development: Applying Theories to Employee Challenges

This essay delves into the critical role of learning and development in organizational success, emphasizing its significance in equipping employees with the necessary skills to navigate workplace challenges. The essay focuses on a specific challenge: maintaining work-life balance amidst company crises and increased workloads. It explores the application of adult learning theory, highlighting the importance of self-directed learning and experiential knowledge. The essay then examines how reinforcement theory, experiential learning, and structural functionalism can provide strategies to overcome these challenges. The student reflects on the importance of time management, prioritizing tasks, and learning from experiences to create a healthy balance between professional and personal life. The essay underscores the need for a comprehensive understanding of learning and development to address workplace issues effectively.

Running head: LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Learning as well as development is one of the most essential strategies that is
implemented by an organisation to ensure that the employees are skilled enough to deal with
every situation that takes place in the organisation. Learning as well as development is that
aspect of the organisation that helps the employees to achieve their goals by their developing
skills that they learn during the training (Bolden 2016). It also helps in developing the
capability of the workforce as well as the competency that are required that would ensure
sustainability and help in making the organisation successful. Learning can be promoted
through communication within the organisation. Learning as well as development also helps
in reducing any weak links that is present within the organisation (Beevers and Rea 2016).
The primary aim of the essay is to focus on the challenges that are faced by employees and
how they improve their personal learning by applying fundamental theories of learning and
development.
One of the biggest challenges faced by the employee within the last twelve months
was maintaining the work-life balance. As the company was facing a crisis there was a lot of
pressure on the employees to solve the problem to bring back the company to its lost
reputation. This situation therefore, led to heavy workload as a result of which it became
difficult to balance the professional as well as personal life. The physical health was also
affected due to the pressure and stress that was given by the organisation. However, this
problem can be solved by applying the fundamental theories of learning and development,
but before that one needs to understand the adult learning theory that helps in understanding
the way adults learn. The Adult Learning Theory was propagated by Malcolm Knowles in the
year of 1968 that discusses about how the learning of adults are different from those of
children. It also discusses how their learning style is different and what learning style will suit
them (Merriam 2018). With time the theory has been adapted in various ways. The theory
stated that adults prefer a learning change that is directed towards a self-approach instead of

2
LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
opting for an instructor. They want to learn from their individual experiences. Furthermore
they learn only when they find an appropriate reason to do so that also encourages them to
explore new areas (Merriam 2018).
One of the theories of learning and development is the Reinforcement theory that
focuses on the learning behaviour of a person and states that the learner will keep repeating
the behaviour if he gets positive outcome (Prashanth et al., 2016). Experiential learning states
that learning is developed from experiences. The theory was developed by David Kolb. It
stated that knowledge is the combination of transforming as well as grasping of experience
(Smith 2016). Structural functionalism theory states that there should be a separation between
work and life that will help the individual to cope with all situations (Inglis 2018). Thus the
theories stated above will help the employee to balance their professional as well as personal
life. Reinforcement theory can be applied that will help the employee to balance their work
and find time for themselves. The theory will assist the person to overcome the problem by
setting limits for themselves that will enable them to prioritise time. It will also help the
person to understand the problem that they are facing and accordingly help them to come up
with solutions (Prashanth et al., 2016). Experiential theory will help the employee to
differentiate between what is more important and what can be pushed back. It will make the
employee aware of their mistakes that will help him to learn from his experience. By doing
this there will be less workload on the employee and he will be able to balance his
professional as well as personal life (Smith 2016).
The problem mentioned above was dealt in a different manner. The problem was
looked from a positive perspective that helped the employee to cope with the unhealthy
circumstances. Motivating oneself is another way of looking at a problem differently that also
gives confidence to the employee. One of the lessons that was realized through the
experience was that maintaining a balance between work and life is very essential (Mas,

3
LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Berbegal and Alegre 2016). There should be a clear division of time between work and
personal life and that the person should be vigilant enough to learn from their experiences.
Therefore, to conclude it must be noted that an employee faces a lot of challenges
while he is at his workplace. However, these challenges can be overcome with proper
understanding of learning as well as development. If one understands the importance of the
former then he will be able to face the problems of his workplace.

4
LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
References
Beevers, K. and Rea, A., 2016. Learning and Development Practice in the Workplace. Kogan
Page Publishers.
Bolden, R., 2016. Leadership, management and organisational development. In Gower
handbook of leadership and management development (pp. 143-158). Routledge.
Inglis, D., 2018. An invitation to social theory. John Wiley & Sons.
Mas-Machuca, M., Berbegal-Mirabent, J. and Alegre, I., 2016. Work-life balance and its
relationship with organizational pride and job satisfaction. Journal of Managerial
Psychology.
Merriam, S.B., 2018. Adult learning theory: Evolution and future directions.
In Contemporary theories of learning (pp. 83-96). Routledge.
Prashanth, L.A., Jie, C., Fu, M., Marcus, S. and Szepesvári, C., 2016, June. Cumulative
prospect theory meets reinforcement learning: Prediction and control. In International
Conference on Machine Learning (pp. 1406-1415).
Smith, A., 2016. Experiential learning. Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.