【第136回】“Structured On-The-Job Training”, Ronald L Jacobs

On-The-Job Training is very famous here in Japanese companies as OJT. Most of Japanese traditional makers put emphasis on OJT at especially their factories. But OJT was sometimes used as an excuse when senior colleagues didn’t have enough time to train younger staffs. They tend to say that “Look! Do it by yourself, as I do.” Considering about this trend, some professionals have regarded OJT as a bad habitat in company.

This author has a different attitude to this trend. He distinguishes Do-It-Yourself OJT (old type OJT) from new one. He called the latter one Structured OJT. Why he put emphasis on OJT was based on the implications by Carnevale and Gainer. They suggested that 80 to 90 percent of an employee’s job and knowledge would probably be learned through. OJT is still important for many employees, as we like it or not.

When we introduce Structured OJT into our business, the author suggests that there are five factors for us to considere, the nature of the work, the resources available, constraints in the work setting, financial considerations, and individual differences. Key points of these factors are as below;

1. the nature of the work ; immediacy, frequency, difficulty, consequences of error
2. the resources available ; people, time for training, equipment, tools, data
3. constraints in the work setting ; training location, work distractions
4. financial considerations ; number of trainees, predicted financial benefits
5. individual differences ; trainee prerequisites, trainee preferences, cultural differences

Considering about latest studies in area of Organizational Behaviors, there have been a new key word Work Place Learning (WPL). Though the target of the word is similar to one of Structured OJT, there is a big difference, training and learning. According to many scholars, training is the external information that is presented to individuals for them to respond to. On the other hand, learning is the internal process by which the individuals change as a result of the information they take in.

In my opinion, there will be more possibility to use learning in current business scene. Because of rapid changing business conditions, there will be less rigid knowledge and information which employees should get, but more flexible attitude to continue to study for a long time by themselves. Though I don’t know which is better to use OJT or WPL, but it is important for us to have a viewpoint of changing ourselves in and out of our companies.