Portfolio Exercises on Employee Learning, Development, and Job Security Assignment Sample

Introduction Of The Academic Practice Assignment (Career Learning Through Portfolio Exercises)

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1. Portfolio exercise 

1. A) Key themes in the article

Career-related continuous learning, formal education programs, and continuous development activities of employees are some of the key themes that have been identified from the journal article. Career-related continuous learning enhances the skills and competencies of the employees. However, in the present journal, it has been argued that the key sources of competitiveness for a particular organization are the potential and capability of an organization to develop the competencies of its employees and use them for enhancing productivity and quality. This is one of the reasons companies invest in developing the competencies of the workers. It has also been argued that Total quality management and lean management in organizational restructuring highlight a second trend that necessitates companies to spend on their workers' ongoing training and education.

1. B) Practical implications

The journal article illustrates informal and formal training programs for employees. According to Rowold and Kauffeld, (2009), off-the-job training, special software training, and voluntary training programs are some of the programs that help in the development of employees in a particular organization. Various training programs for the employees imply that an employee's career prospects improve and their skill set grows through experiences like reading, talking with coworkers, participating in voluntary training programs, and executing challenging jobs. Employee development programs help in building up the competencies of the employees which is one of the practical implications that has been extracted from this journal article. The implication also states that the competencies are nurtured by exposure to formal and informal learning environments.

2. Portfolio exercise 

Identification and summary of main arguments

2a. The author concludes that the perception of working from home has been improved globally. Younger employees and individuals rely on a more strategic approach while working from home. Remote work has been developed into a hybrid environment in the present times which concludes the fact of increased perception of employees from working from home. With hybrid workplaces, employees are now able to increase their skills and communicate and interact with colleagues at a more advanced level. The arguments in the article state that young people may benefit from attending office instead of remote work. The arguments also state that working from home results in fewer promotions and career advancements from a particular individual. The article states that being with colleagues results in greater advancements in the career of employees in a particular organization.

2b. The arguments provided in the article are logical as there are several data and information that has been collected and illustrated in the article. The arguments that are presented in the article clearly justify the conclusions. The UK data has been presented in the article that illustrates surveys conducted by the Office for National Statistics. The office for National Statistics is the executive office of the UK statistics., hence, it can be assumed that the evidence is strong enough to justify the conclusions. The content of the article is focused more on the young professionals and the situations of the working professional in remote and office-based environments. From the content of the articles, it can be analyzed that the author is focusing more on the factors that affect the career development and skills of the young employees. Moreover, the article also develops a comparison between the old and young generations in the professional field.

3. Portfolio exercise 

An individual's capacity to internalize the teachings they've picked up informally is enhanced by the tools and context provided by formal education. Lack of collaboration and reduced collaboration by people may also stifle informal learning, leading to a toxic atmosphere that may have negative effects on individual performance and morale. In the access and diversity agenda, informal learning interventions including "mentoring", "coaching", and "networking" are often used. The role played by informal learning also illustrates knowledge of personal experiences. Knowledge of personal experience allows individuals to develop skills and competencies to a greater extent than formal learning techniques. Due to reforms that made education more open, adaptable, and modular, informal education gained legitimacy at the expense of more conventional forms of schooling.

An individual's sense of hopelessness and disorientation after relying only on informal learning is understandable. Without guidance from learning or educational resources, employees would wander aimlessly. The capacity to absorb and apply the knowledge gained via informal learning is enhanced by the resources and environments provided by formal education. Informal learning in a workplace is achieved through participating and engaging in social activities by the employees in a particular organization. This is one of the similarities that has been identified between the two journal articles. The concept of socialization is one of the differences between the two articles as one article illustrates the concept of socialization whereas the article inclines less towards the concept of socialization. Personal experience as one of the roles of informal learning is a similarity that has been described by the two articles. With personal experience, employees are able to achieve skills more effectively and efficiently.

4. Portfolio exercise 

Educators and trainers nowadays are said to have a more relaxed, forward-thinking, contextualized, adaptable, and learner-focused approach. In this new setting, informal, experiential, and accidental learning play a larger role than their more-traditional counterparts. Most formal education takes place in a classroom setting and adheres to a strict curriculum designed by the sponsoring institution. While certain forms of informal learning, such as incidental learning, may take place in formal educational settings, such settings are not characteristic of informal learning in general. Incident learning allows individuals and employees to develop problem-solving abilities and also helps in developing time management skills.

E-Learning is one of the forms of formal learning. The arguments in the article state that e-learning systems are not appropriate due to their excessive automation and assume that students need to have a technological background. However, in certain cases, every employee in an organization may not consist of technological literacy in software. Thus, it can be stated that formal learning is less likely to be useful than the informal means of learning. Informal learning represents social participation that allows individuals to engage in different forms of activities while gathering knowledge about specific skills and competencies. In the case of formal learning, there is a structured process of conveying skills and competencies to individuals. Furthermore, formal learning also involves technological aspects which may not be suitable for certain employees. This is one of the reasons that informal learning is more beneficial than formal means of learning in a particular workplace.

5. Portfolio exercise 

The extract lacks effectiveness as the limitation of skinner is not stated in a clear and concise manner. The extracts state that the theory of Skinner is outdated however there is no evidence of the limitation of Skinner's theory. On the other hand, the extract provides comparative content of Skinner's works with other theorists. There is no clear content of limitations of Skinner's contribution to inhuman resource department practices. The extract also states the areas which best describe the work of Skinner. The problem with the extract is it does not clearly state the limitation of Skinner's work instead it states a comparison and the areas where the work of Skinner can be used effectively. The strength of the extract is that Skinner's work can be used in a mechanistic organization where the trainer defines the goals and sets the objectives.

The second extract is effective as it is clearly stated aligning with the topic. In the field of human resource management practices, the challenges and issues of convergence are accepted in terms of the extent to which the set of management practices are being adopted. Analyzing the extract it can be assumed that there are some issues with the extract as the extract does not include globalization clearly and precisely within the extract. However, it has been identified there is no evidence of globalization in the extract that is stated in the original question. This is one of the inaccuracies which has been identified in the extract. The strength of the extract is it briefly states the convergence and divergence debate in the context of human resource management practices. Political and cultural dimensions are also included in the extract which is considered to be one of its strengths of the extract.

The third extract does not define the factors such as social class and ethnicity in a clear manner. On the other hand, gender had been illustrated clearly in the extract. Furthermore, the extract defines biases more than culture, ethnicity, and gender in the extract. Therefore, it can be stated that the extract is not stated effectively. The incorrectness that has been identified in the ecstatic is it states professions and trades instead of ethnicity and culture which is considered to be an incorrect area in the extract. There are no strengths that can be identified from the extract as the extract does not state any positive idea or situation which relates to the strategy of the extract. The extracts consist of more than rules and regulations in the school and less of culture and ethnicity. The more rules and regulations and less ethnicity and culture prove the incorrectness of the extract. However, there is some evidence of social class in the extract as the students in the schools had to deal with physical punishment in case of missing the Sunday mass. The Sunday Mass is one example of social class in the extract.

6. Portfolio exercise 

The five extracts state the same content with different sentences and words. However, in some of the extracts, the content is the same as the original one stating plagiarism of the original content. The first extract is the same as the original extract which states that the first extract is plagiarized content. Moreover, in the first extract, there is the absence of an intext citation which clearly presents that the extract 1 is a plagiarism content as the original extract. In the extract 2 there is the presence of an intext citation which states that the plagiarism has been reduced to some extent. Thus it can be stated that the extract 2 is plagiarism but up to a certain extent. The third extract is the same as extract 2 however there is no plagiarism in the content as double quotes have been included in the content. Double quotes allow the content to be free from plagiarism. Extract four consists of the minimum content that has been included from the original extract. Hence, it can be stated that extract 4 is not plagiarism. The content between extract 5 and the original content is entirely different which states that the extract 5 is not plagiarized.

7. Portfolio exercise 

The first statement of the extract “ Job Security, according to Pfeffer (1998)" is a bibliographic error as a comma is missing in the in-text citation. A comma should be included in an open-ended text. There is no human resource management journal that has been published since 2003. On the other hand, there is a journal that has been developed by Paauwe and Boselie. However, the statement included the title of the journal instead of including the errors which are considered to be one of the bibliographic errors. In the statement " For example, Marchington and Grugulis highlight that organizations which provide greater job security often balance this by requiring employees to work longer hours or accept other detrimental conditions" the year is missing. However, the name of the author has been presented which is another error in the bibliography. The author's name must be presented with the year. 

The statement “ it may increasingly be the case that employees are not particularly motivated by job security as they are more focussed upon flexibility and high financial rewards (BBC, 2016)" consists of a wrong in-text citation as in the bibliography the year is not mentioned in the website referencing for BBC. However, in the extract, the BBC is mentioned along with the year 2016 which is a bibliographic error.