Transformative learning theory: A pilot and some implications for human resource training to help NHK furniture company toward sustainable development

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<b>TRANSFORMATIVE LEARNING THEORY: A PILOT </b>

<b>AND SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR HUMAN RESOURCE </b>

<b>TRAINING TO HELP NHK FURNITURE COMPANY </b>

<b>TOWARD SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT</b>

Pham Duc Thieng1

Mai Van Hung2

<b>Abstract: </b>It is witnessed that the capacity of labors at small-sized enterprises
is generally low for different reasons. Capacity is formed with three factors

including attitudes, skills and knowledge, so-called ASK model (Bloom, 1956).

Low capacity of labors results in low productivity, high production cost and a

low rate of profit, which also means low competitiveness among companies.
With such low rate of profit, the company can manage to make a limited

investment in human resource development, which remains low capacity of
labors. Therefore, the company could escape from this repeated loop as well
as improve its competitiveness by increasing investment budget in human

resource training. To fulfill this task, it is necessary first for theDirector Board

to change the irrelevant frames of reference for human resources. In this
context, the transformative learning theory developed by Jack Mezirow is
considered to be an effective method.

<b>Keywords: </b>Transformative; learning; theory; human resource; training; capacity

<b>1. Introduction</b>

The global knowledge economy has undergone a period when existing
dominant opinion and knowledge have been in a non-stop wheel of movement

with changes. Transformative learning theory, which was first developed in 1978
and finalized in 1997 by Jack Mezirow, is considered as an ideal learning model for

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adults and an educational vision for 21 century (O’Sullivan, 1999). Accordingly, a
transformative learner will be more active in questioning himself/herself, and then
adjust his/her mental or behavioral activities.

NHK Furniture Company (with a total number of 57 labors) is classified as

a small-sized company (Vietnam Government, 2018). After more than 6 years of
establishment, the company is currently facing with the crisis of self-management

and under the risk of being out of control. To be more specific, communication

among departments is always stressful. Therefore, service quality and supply
capacity are getting lower and lower, that is, late orders are a common practice. In
addition, orders from some key customers have been recently reduced. Those are
the reasons why the Board of Diretors has decided to restructure the company and

make much more investment in human resource training. However, neither specific

strategy nor orientation for training program was implemented in 2016.

By piloting the transformative learning theory in human resource training at

NHK Furniture Company, the research aims to improve capacity of labors, making
contribution to the sustainable development of the company.

<b>2. Methodology</b>

<i><b>2.1. Approaches</b></i>

Three approaches used to conduct the research are systematic approach,
interdisciplinary approach, and participatory approach.

- Systematic approach: Both supporting and limiting factors to the human
resource training are systematically considered in order to design the most
appropriate intervention solutions. According to the Minto Pyramid Principle
(Minto, 1987), it means all factors are fully and comprehensively analyzed (i) in
progress (e.g. the stages of group development are forming, storming, norming,
and performing), (ii) in structure (e.g. NHK Furniture Company has 5 departments
namely Sales Department, Planning Department, Production Department, Finance
& Accounting Department, and Administration & Human Resource Department),
and (iii) in causality (e.g. situation, causes and solutions of human resource
training). All the intervention solutions are also considered to be integrated into the

company’s management system in order to influence the attitude and behavior of

labors in a long term.

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- Participatory approach: The human resource training program requires the
participation from different stakeholders such as the Board of Director, labors
and trainers. The program will be adjusted from time to time so as to meet the
company’s actual demands and its development strategy.

<i><b>2.2. Methods</b></i>

Three groups of methods used to conduct the research are literature review,
non-empirical method and empirical method.

- The purpose of literature review is to review previous researches related
to the transformative learning theory, human resource training and sustainable
development for enterprises.

- Non-empirical methods used include (i) focus group discussion with the
Board of Director to understand the situation in general, (ii) in-depth interview for
labors to understand the situation in details, and (iii) direct observation to collect
visual information.

- For empirical method, results-based management (RBM) is applied to
develop pilot intervention solutions, which are focused on achieving results. The

Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) defines RBM as a <i>“management </i>
<i>strategy by which processes, outputs and services contribute to the achievement of </i>
<i>clearly stated expected accomplishments and objectives. It is focused on achieving </i>
<i>results, improving performance, integrating lessons learned into management </i>
<i>decisions and monitoring and reporting on performance”</i>.

RBM covers theories on the planning, monitoring, evaluation and management
of the whole intervention solutions, that is, the handling of the changing process
from a start to an end. The purpose of RBM is to achieve sustainable results,outputs,
outcomes and impacts.

<b>3. Results and discussion</b>

<i>The situation of human resource training at NHK Furniture Company</i>

Overall, the capacity (attitudes,skills and knowledge) of labors at NHK
Furniture Company is low. Poor communication and cooperation skill, low
commitment, and indisciplinable attitude are probably some main reasons for this

situation. Moreover, regular conflicts are found among departments.

As can be seen from the figure 1, the percentage of those whose work is relevant to

their professional knowledge is limited with only 18.9%. Meanwhile, the proportion of

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proportion of labors is those with no professional knowledge (60.4%).

<b>Figure 1. Labor structure with the professional knowledge</b>

Some training courses have been designed for the labors by the Board
of Director to cope with these challenges. However, the situation has not been
much improved ever since. The ineffectiveness may come from the fact that the
labors’ attitudes, skills and knowledge have not been supervised and motivated.
Furthermore, another emerging problem is that after the courses, the application
to their work has not been monitored. Therefore, just after a short time, the
knowledge they have learnt will soon be in vain. As a result, with no clear strategy
and orientation, the Board of Director failed to set up an effective training program
in 2016.

Looking at the figure 2, it can

be clearly seen that after more than
6 years of establishment, NHK

Furniture Company has stuck into
a repeated loop. The vicious cycle
shows that low capacity of labors
leads to low productivity, quality and

efficiency causing high production
cost; hence, low profit is an obvious

thing. The unfavorable condition of

low profit leaded to the fact that the

company has tight investment fund
for human resource. Accordingly,
labors have no chance to improve
their capacity. If no effort and
prompt actions are taken, the loop

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will repeat annually.

<i>Causes of shortcomings of the human resource training at NHK Furniture </i>
<i>Company</i>

There are four main causes for the shortcomings of human resource training
at NHK Furniture Company.

Firstly, the human resource training has not been paid full attention to due to
the frame of reference of both Board of Director and the labors. It can be explained
that while implemeting the company’s development strategy, the Board has only

focused mainly on tangible assets such as turnover and cash flow but not on

intangible ones such as human resource capital in which labors are not considered
as an assets of the company.

Regarding to the effectiveness of some training courses, the learning purposes
are various among labors. A large proportion of the labors (88.7%) had an aim to
gain much more knowledge but only a few of them (28.3%) came up with a wish
to improve their performance at work. The sad evidence is that none of them was
ready to change their attitude after those courses.

Secondly, there has never been a vision of an adequate program for long-term
human resource training. In the previous training courses, labors were assigned to
attend with an intention of focusing mainly on knowledge, but not on attitude and
application at work. The previous training courses have proved to be discontinuous,
unsystematic and ineffective because they failed to meet the need and they lacked
practicality for labors

who are adult learners.
Thirdly, there is no
environment for labors to
applywhat they have learnt
to their work. Therefore,
after those training
courses, the labors will
soon forget the content
and demotivate to access
themselves to application
and improvement at work.

Lastly, internal
communication activities

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their strength to promote the human resource training. Those activities have not
been impressed on the importance of the human resource training and promotion
of its impacts.

<i>Solutions to improve the human resource training at NHK Furniture Company</i>
In order to overcome the above mentioned problems, it is highly recommended
to have interventions to improve the human resource training. The intervention

solutions can be found with the four activities in the result framework (figure 4).

Accordingly positive expected outputs, outcomes and impacts are also listed.
Firstly, improper frames of reference of the Board of Director and labors
should been changed before any intervention so that they can change their attitude
and behavior accordingly.

Secondly, an adequate program for long-term human resource training should
be developed. To do so, it is required to investigate the company’s development
strategy and its actual demands of human resource training.

Thirdly, to build a skill, labors need to practice it regularly. Therefore, it is
necessary to create the environment for labors to apply what they have learnt to
their work. It would be great if the application environment is integrated into the
company’s management system.

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<b>Figure 4. Result framework</b>

<i><b>3.4. Piloting the human resource training at NHK Furniture Company</b></i>

After a period of piloting the human resource training, some positive results
have been achieved.

Firstly, improper frames of reference of both the Board of Director and labors
have been changed. Take an illustration of the habit of minds called “training
objective”. The transformation has been occurred with an aim to change the point
of view of both the Board of Director and labors from focusing on knowledge
into capacity (including attitudes, skills and knowledge). Afterwards, the Board
of Director would create favorable condition and active environment for labors to
apply what they have learnt into their work.

Secondly, a human resource training program has been developed for a
three-year-period (from March 2017 to February 2020) with core focuses on both soft
skills and technical skills for middle managers and labors respectively. After
18 months of implementation, 29 courses with 2,636 training hours have been
conducted so far.

Thirdly, application environment such as enterprise culture, monthly meetings
of the management board, communication language at work, revenue meter, and
acknowledgement corner are also created enabling chances for labors to apply the
acquired skills into practice.

Finally, internal communication activities are made full use to promote
applications by labors after training courses. In such a competitive economy, good
relationships seemingly plays an important role in the success of a company.

<i><b>3.5. Evaluation of the human resource training program embedded with the </b></i>
<i><b>transformative learning theory at NHK Furniture Company</b></i>

Five criteria by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development/
the Development Assistance Committee (ThomazChianca, 2008) including

relevance, efficiency; effectiveness, impact, and sustainability are used to evaluate

the human resource training embedded with the transformative learning theory
at NHK Furniture Company. Firstly, the human resource training program is in
the NHK Development Strategy 2020, so it is obviously relevant and its activities
are consistent with the intended impacts. Secondly, it is implemented in the most

efficient way compared to the alternatives and its activities are costly-efficient.

Thirdly, it comes into effect because its activities are delivered as planned. The

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of reference, high commitment of the Board of Director and middle managers or

proper training methods are promoted. Meanwhile, the major factors influencing

non-achievement of the objectives such as workload of each labor or labors’
comfort zone during the process of transformative learning have now been under
tight control. Fourthly, the human resource training program has achieved some
good impacts which can be seen as the dicision of the Board of Director to make
investment in the human resource development, improvement in the capacity of
labors (attitudes, skills and knowledge), more attention paid to production wastes,
and crisis under initial control. Last but not least, the human resource training
program is promised to experience sustainable development by February 2020.
These positive impacts will remain thanks to good working environment with
practical application.

<b>4. Conclusion </b>

By piloting the transformative learning theory in human resource training
at NHK Furniture Company, the research has (i) analyzed the situation of

human resource training at NHK Furniture Company, (ii) identified causes of

shortcomings, (iii) recommended solutions to improve shortcomings, and (iv)
piloted the transformative learning theory in human resource training at NHK
Furniture Company.

After 18 months of piloting, the human resource training program embedded
with the transformative learning theory at NHK Furniture Company has achieved
some impacts namely (i) the decision of the Board of Directors to make investment
in the human resource development, (ii) improvement in the capacity (attitude,
skill and knowledge) of labors in general and the middle manager in particular,
(iii) application environment created for labors after training topics, and (iv)
self-management crisis under initial control, which help the company move to the stage
of management by objectives.

The human resource training program embedded with the transformative
learning theory at NHK Furniture Company will be continuously implemented
in the next 18 months. Therefore, it is recommended to (i) closely monitor
its results from now to February 2020 and (ii) promote the major factors
influencing the achievement of the objectives and control those of
non-achievement one sas well.

<b>References</b>

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Cranton P. (1994). Understanding and promoting transformative learning - A
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Dirkx J. M. (1998). Transformative learning theory in the practice of adult
education - An overview. PAACE Journal of Lifelong Learning, Vol. 7.

Mezirow J. (1990). How critical reflection triggers transformative learning.

San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Mezirow J. (1996). Contemporary Paradigms of Learning.

Mezirow J. (1997). Transformative learning - Theory to practice. San
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Minto, B. (1987) The Pyramid Principle. FT Pitman Publishing, London.

Örtengren K. (2016). A guide to Results-Based Management (RBM), efficient

project planning with the aid of the Logical Framework Approach (LFA).
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A/63/268/.Available
from />

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<b>ÁP DỤNG THÍ ĐIỂM THUYẾT HỌC TẬP CHUYỂN HOÁ </b>

<b>TRONG ĐÀO TẠO NGUỒN NHÂN LỰC NHẰM </b>

<b>PHÁT TRIỂN BỀN VỮNG CÔNG TY NỘI THẤT NHK</b>

Phạm Đức Thiềng1
Mai Văn Hưng2

<b>Tóm tắt: </b>Vì nhiều lý do khác nhau, năng lực của người lao động tại các
doanh nghiệp quy mơ nhỏ nhìn chung thấp. Năng lực được cấu thành từ ba
yếu tố, gồm thái độ, kỹ năng và kiến thức. Năng lực của người lao động thấp
dẫn đến năng suất thấp, chi phí sản xuất cao và tỷ suất lợi nhuận thấp. Điều
này cũng đồng nghĩa với việc năng lực cạnh tranh của doanh nghiệp thấp.
Khi tỷ suất lợi nhuận thấp, công ty chỉ có thể dành một khoản ngân sách hạn
hẹp cho hoạt động phát triển nguồn nhân lực. Và điều này khiến năng lực của
người lao động tiếp tục duy trì ở mức thấp. Cơng ty có thể thốt khỏi vịng
luẩn quẩn này cũng như nâng cao năng lực cạnh tranh của mình bằng cách
tăng đầu tư cho phát triển nguồn nhân lực. Để làm được điều này, đầu tiên
cần thay đổi những hệ quy chiếu liên quan đến nguồn nhân lực khơng cịn
phù hợp của ban giám đốc công ty. Trong phạm vi này, thuyết học tập chuyển
hoá do Jack Mezirow xây dựng được xem là một phương pháp hiệu quả.
<b>Từ khóa: </b>học thuyết, học tập, chuyển hoá, đào tạo, nguồn nhân lực,
năng lực.

1 Khoa các khoa học liên ngành, ĐHQGHN

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