In today's volatile business environment, companies are becoming highly aware of the importance to maintain training, learning and development levels during economic recession. Companies are becoming conscious of the strong correlation between the development of training activities and productivity growth, which leads, therefore, to the rapid increase in outputs.
According to Deloitte's 2015 Global Human Capital Trends report, the third most important challenge this year was the need to transform and accelerate corporate learning. The percentage of companies that rated learning and development as very important tripled since last year. They are always actively exploring new approaches to learning and development amid concerns of skills gap crisis. As a result, training budgets and resources are being managed and optimized as any other investment.
Nowadays, modern management practices are promoting training and learning development at the heart of any organization, since it increases employees' satisfaction, commitment and productivity whenever their employers invest in their development.
Looking more closely, commitment is not only a human relation concept. It generates as well human energy and stimulates human mind. Without commitment, the implementation of new ideas and initiatives will be compromised (Jaw and Liu, 2004). This is so essential for a company that is looking to gain a sustainable competitive advantage over its competitors, with a continuous need for new and creative ideas.
It is worth mentioning that commitment has many aspects. In a study by Allen and Meyer (1990), a three-component organizational commitment model was developed: an affective component that includes desire and emotional attachment; a continuance component that involves need and a normative component that describes the way to maintain employment in an organization. However, the affective form of commitment appears to be the focus of most management interest as shown in existing studies.
Therefore, never underestimate the heart of your organization; it is a key to real sustainable competitive advantage.
