Research on

Career Development
In Zamil Steel

To:

Submitted by:

Dr. Mohammad Saad

In the course of:

Mostafa Refaat El-Sharkawy

ID:

Introduction to Human Resource Management

HROB-901

S0900500
Date:

6/July/2010

HROB 901

CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN ZAMIL STEEL

Table of Content
Topic Page

Introduction The Business Definition of Career Development The Problem Confronting Zamil Steel Zamil Steel Reaction What Else Could Be Done A Final Word References

3 3 4 4 5 10 11

Page | 2

HROB 901

CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN ZAMIL STEEL

Introduction
Career development is seen as the process of managing life, learning and work over the lifespan. It encompasses the provision of services to assist people to gain the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors that help them to manage their career more effectively. Career development is a lifelong process. Individuals will continue to build and draw on their dispositions and capabilities in order to live, learn and work creatively, innovatively and collaboratively, while managing life s future possibilities. The process is unique to each individual and is to be understood in relation to each person s environment and the many factors affecting life, such as family, society, school, social policy and the labor market. The definition of career has changed. Career no longer refers to particular pathways through work or to an occupational title or a job. Careers are no longer chosen ; they are constructed, through the series of choices we make throughout our lives. Career is the sequence and variety of work roles (paid and unpaid) that one undertakes throughout a lifetime. More broadly, career includes life roles, leisure activities, learning and work. The need for career development services is founded in evidence that the development of an individual s career provides a foundation for that person s feeling of self worth. Career development is recognized as a public good. It improves the efficiency of the education and training system while supporting the interface with and the requirements of the labor market. Career development can play an important part in raising the aspirations of disadvantaged groups and supporting them to access and manage opportunities that might otherwise be denied to them.

Business Definition of Career Development

The term career has several meanings. In popular usage, it can mean advancement, a profession, or a long-life sequence of jobs. For our purpose, career is defined as the sequence of positions held by a person during his or her lifetime. Career development is a very important topic for the human resource management. Career development programs were typically designed by organizations to help employees advance their work lives within a specific organization. The focus of such programs was to provide the information, assessment and training needed to help employees realize their career goals. Career development is also a way for organizations to attract and retain highly talented people.

Page | 3

HROB 901

CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN ZAMIL STEEL

The Problem Confronting Zamil Steel

As the annual performance review and promotion season begins, a great percentage of employees feel they deserve to be promoted, and they will have to switch organizations to progress their career if they couldn t be promoted in their organization. Most of the employees said that their organization s approach to promotion remains a mystery, and were unsure of how development in their role was linked to promotion prospects. Highlighting just how frustrating the promotion process can be, some employees believed they had been unnoticed for promotion in the past and the knock-back was compounded by the fact that the reasons weren t explained to them. Other employees said that although the reasons were explained, they didn t understand them. During the period from 2005 to 2008 Zamil Steel lost almost more than 40% of its talented employees. In the exit interview when asked about the reasons behind their resign decision, the answer was almost the same; there is no place to go here and we must find a way to progress our career . The growing turnover rates put Zamil Steel in front of a big problem, not only cost time and money to replace the employees, but also it ultimately benefits the competition that are happy to snap up new talent.

Zamil Steel Reaction

In their way to stop the great turnover rates, Zamil Steel focused mainly on two methods in order to develop and motivate its frustrated employees. First, at the beginning of 2009 Zamil Steel had implemented a new organization structure that includes a wide range of titles as breathing slots for the deserving promotion employees, that what is called vertical job rotation. Beside the new structure, Zamil Steel had also implemented a clear succession plan as an explanation for the reasons of promotion. The second approach for Zamil Steel to resist the growing turnover rates was the training courses and seminars. These help individuals acquire knowledge and develop their conceptual and analytical abilities. Zamil Steel offered courses and seminars in the following fields: y Leadership. y Human Resources. y Motivation. y Organizational Behavior. y Communication Skills.
Page | 4

HROB 901

CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN ZAMIL STEEL

What Else Could Be Done

In addition to what Zamil Steel had done, there are many ways to career development that an organization can follow. A. On-the-Job Training Methods 1. Job instructions:
y y y

It is received directly on the job, and so it is often called on-the-job training (OJT). It is used primarily to teach an employee how to do their current jobs. A trainer, supervisor, or coworker serves as the instructor.

OJT includes several steps: 1. The trainee receives an overview of the job, its purpose, and its desired outcomes, with an emphasis on the relevance of the training. 2. Trainer demonstrates the job to give the employee a model to copy. 3. Employee is allowed to mimic the trainer s example. 4. Demonstrations by trainer and practice by the trainee are repeated until the job is mastered. 5. Employee performs the job without supervision. 2. Job rotation:
y y

Job rotation involves moving employees to various positions in the organization to expand their skills, knowledge and abilities. It can be either horizontal or vertical.

1. Vertical job rotation is promoting a worker into a new position. 2. Horizontal job rotation is short-term lateral transfer. Horizontal job rotation is an approach to management development where an individual is moved through a schedule of assignments designed to give him or her breadth of exposure to the entire operation. Job rotation is also practiced to allow qualified employees to gain more insights into the processes of a company, and to reduce boredom and increase job satisfaction through job variation. The term job rotation can also mean the scheduled exchange of persons in offices, especially in public offices, prior to the end of incumbency or the legislative period. This

Page | 5

HROB 901

CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN ZAMIL STEEL

has been practiced by the German green party for some time but has been discontinued. At the senior management levels, job rotation - frequently referred to as management rotation, is tightly linked with succession planning - developing a pool of people capable of stepping into an existing job. Here the goal is to provide learning experiences which facilitate changes in thinking and perspective equivalent to the "horizon" of the level of the succession planning. For lower management levels job rotation has normally one of two purposes: promotion ability or skill enhancement. In many cases senior managers seem unwilling to risk instability in their units by moving qualified people from jobs where the lower level manager is being successful and reflecting positively on the actions of the senior manager. Many jobs use the job rotation strategy to allow the employees to develop a wider range of experiences, and an exposure to the different jobs of an occupation. Benefits:
y y y y y y

It is excellent method for broadening an individual s exposure to company operations and for turning a specialist into a generalist. Increase the individual s experience Allows an employee to absorb new information Reduce boredom Stimulate the development of new ideas. Provide opportunities for a more comprehensive and reliable evaluation of the employee by supervisors.

3. Assistant-To Position:
y y y

Assistant-to positions allow employees with potential to work under and be coached by successful managers. Working as staff assistants, perform many duties under watchful eye of a supportive coach. Benefits: o Employee experience a wide variety of management activities o Groomed for the duties of next higher level position

4. Committee assignments:
y

Committee assignments provide opportunities to an employee for:

Page | 6

HROB 901

CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN ZAMIL STEEL

1. Decision-making 2. Learning by watching others 3. Becoming more familiar with organizational members and problems Temporary committee:
y y

Act as a taskforce to delve into a particular problem, ascertain alternative solutions, and recommend a solution. Temporary assignments can be interesting and rewarding to the employee s growth.

Permanent committee:
y y y y

Increases the employee s exposure to other members of the organization Broadens his/her understanding Provide an opportunity to grow and Make recommendations under the scrutiny of other committee members

5. Apprenticeships and Coaching:

y y y y y y y

Apprenticeships involve learning from a more experiences employee or employees. It may be supplemented with off-the-job classroom training. Assistantships and internships are similar to apprenticeships because they use high levels of participation by the trainee and have high transferability to the job. Coach attempts to provide a model for the trainee to copy. It is less formal than an apprenticeship program because there are few formal classroom sessions. Coaching is handled by the supervisor or manager not by HR department. Manager or another professional plays the role of mentor; give both skills and career advice.

B. Off-the-Job Training Methods 1. Lecture Courses & Seminars:

y y y y

Traditional forms of instructions revolve around formal lecture courses and seminars. Helps the individuals acquire knowledge and develop their conceptual and analytical abilities. Many organizations offer these in-house, through outside vendors, or both. Lecture courses and seminars benefit from today s technology and are often offered in a distance-learning format.

Page | 7

HROB 901
y y

CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN ZAMIL STEEL

Feedback and participation can be improved when discussion is permitted along with lecture process. Benefits: o Relative economic method

2. Vestibules:
y y y y

Learning tasks on the same equipment that one actually will use on the job but in simulated work environment. Separate areas or vestibules are setup with equipment similar to that used on the job. This arrangement allows transference, repetition, and participation. Benefits: o Not disrupting normal operations

3. Role Playing and Behavior modeling:

y y

y y

y y y y

Role-playing is a device that forces trainees to assume different identities. For example, a male worker may assume the role of a female supervisor and a female supervisor may assume the role of a male worker. Then both may be given a typical work situation and told to respond, as they would expect the other to do. It is used to diversity training, to change attitudes and also helps to develop the interpersonal skills. Behavior can be learned, modified and altered through this method where individual is either matching or copying or imitating , through the observation of some other individual. It is an observational learning technique. Learning takes place not through experience but through observing the others behavior. The re-creation of the behavior may be videotaped so that trainer and the trainee can review and critique it. Trainer and trainee observe the positive and negative consequences; the employee receives vicarious reinforcement that encourages the correct behavior.

4. Simulation:
y y y

Simulation refers to any artificial environment that attempts to closely mirror an actual condition. Learning a job by actually performing the work May include case studies/case analysis, experimental exercises/decision games and role-plays and group interactions and are intended to improve decisionmaking.
Page | 8

HROB 901
y y

CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN ZAMIL STEEL

It is similar to vestibules, except that the simulator more often provides instantaneous feedback on performance. Benefits: o Opportunities to attempt to create an environment similar to real situations manager face, without high costs for poor outcomes. Disadvantage: o Difficult to duplicate the pressures and realities of actual decision-making on the job, o Individuals often act differently in real-life situations than do in simulated exercise.

4.1. Case-study:
y

y y y

Take actual experiences of organizations, these cases represent attempts to describe, as accurately as possible, real problems. Trainees study these cases to determine problems, analyze causes, develop alternative solutions, select what they believe to be the best solution, and implement it. If cases are meaningful and similar to work-related situations, it means transference is there. Participation can also increased by discussing these cases. Benefits: o Provide stimulating discussions among participants o Excellent opportunities for individuals to defend their analytical and judgmental abilities. o Improving decision-making abilities within the constraints of limited information.

4.2. Decision Games/ role-playing:

y y y y

Played on computer program, Player makes decision, and computer determines the outcome in the context of the conditions under which it was programmed. Provide opportunities for individuals to make decisions and to witness the implications of their decisions for other segments of the organization. Role-playing allows participants to act out problems and to deal with real people.

5. Self-study & Programmed Learning:

y y

Carefully planned instructional materials can be used to train and develop employees. It is computer programs or printed booklets that contain a series of questions and answers.

Page | 9

HROB 901
y

CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN ZAMIL STEEL

y y y

After reading and answering a question, the reader gets immediate feedback. If right, the learner proceeds; if wrong, the reader is directed to review the accompanying materials. Programmed materials provide learner participation, repetition, relevance, and feedback. It ranges from manuals to prerecorded cassettes or videotapes. Benefits: It is useful when employees are dispersed geographically or when requires little interaction.

6. Outdoor Training:
y y y

Outdoor training typically involves challenges, which teach trainees the importance of teamwork/working together. It typically involves some major emotional and physical challenge. Purpose is to see how employees react to the difficulties that nature presents to them. Do they freak ? Or are they controlled and successful in achieving their goal? Benefits: It reinforced the importance of working closely with one another, building trusting relationships, and succeeding as a member of a group.

A Final Word
Bosses need to be much clearer about the opportunities available and create a clear plan of action to help employees achieve their goals. Managers should also remember that promotion isn t just about new titles or salary increase for many employees, being given new responsibilities is more important. Every organization needs well-adjusted, trained and experienced people to perform its activities. As jobs in today s dynamic organizations have become more complex, the importance of employee education has increased. Employee training is a learning experience; it seeks a relatively permanent change in employees that improves job performance. Training involves changing skills, knowledge, attitudes, or behavior. This may mean changing what employees know, how they work, or their attitudes toward their jobs, coworkers, managers, and the organization.

Page | 10

HROB 901

CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN ZAMIL STEEL

References
Management-8th edition, ROBBINS/COULTER 2005 Fundamentals of Human Resource Management-8th edition, DECENZO/ ROBBINS 2005 www.mbaknol.com www.managementhelp.org www.wikipedia.org

Page | 11