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Chapter 8
Developing Employees for Future Success
This chapter continues to build on previous chapters by focusing on employee development and
its role within the organization (LO 8-2), and how it is related to employee career growth (LO 8-
1). The chapter explores the purpose and activities of employee development and begins by
discussing the relationships among development, training, and career management. Next, it looks
at development approaches, including formal education, assessment, job experiences, and
interpersonal relationships. The chapter emphasizes the types of skills, knowledge, and behaviors
that are strengthened by each development method, so employees and their managers can choose
appropriate methods when planning development. The third section of the chapter describes the
steps of the career management process, emphasizing the responsibilities of employee and
employer at each step of the process. The chapter concludes with a discussion of special
challenges related to employee development—the so-called glass ceiling, succession planning,
and dysfunctional managers.
Chapter Outline
• Employee development is the combination of formal education, job experiences,
relationships, and assessment of personality and abilities to help employees prepare for
the future of their careers.
Training, Development, and Career Management
• Training is more focused on improving performance in the current job, but training
programs may support employee development.
Approaches to Employee Development
• Organizations can link mentoring to development goals by establishing a formal
mentoring program.
• Mentoring programs tend to be most successful when they are voluntary and participants
understand program details.
• Assessment centers combine a variety of methods to provide assessment information.
Managers must share assessments, along with suggestions for improvement.
• Job experiences contribute to development through a combination of relationships,
problems, demands, tasks, and other features of an employee’s jobs.
Systems for Career Management
• Data gathering
• Feedback
• Goal setting
• Action planning and follow-up
Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, 8e Instructor’s Manual
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Development-Related Challenges
• Organizations can ensure that women and minority employees receive access to
development resources such as coaches and mentors.
Learning Objectives
LO 8-1: Discuss how development is related to training and careers.
LO 8-2: Identify the methods organizations use for employee development.
LO 8-3: Describe how organizations use assessment of personality type, work behaviors, and
job performance to plan employee development.
LO 8-4: Explain how job experiences can be used for developing skills.
LO 8-5: Summarize principles of successful mentoring programs.
LO 8-6: Tell how managers and peers develop employees through coaching.
LO 8-7: Identify the steps in the process of career management.
LO 8-8: Discuss how organizations are meeting the challenges of the “glass ceiling,” succession
planning, and dysfunctional managers.
Society for Human Resource Management Body of Competency &
Knowledge
This chapter contains content, which may be identified within the following content areas:
• Employee Engagement
• Learning & Development
• Workforce Management
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Business & HR Strategy
Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, 8e Instructor’s Manual
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Human Resource Certification Institute’s A Guide to the HR Body
of Knowledge
This chapter contains content, which may be identified within the following content areas:
• Business Management & Strategy
• Human Resource Development
Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, 8e Instructor’s Manual
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Question Guidance to Vignettes and Discussion Questions
Best Practices
Valvoline’s Development Program Ensures a Flow of New Managers
1. Describe how the activities summarized here fit the definition of employee development.
2. How would it affect the business for Valvoline to hire its managers externally, rather than
developing entry-level employees to fill the positions?
HRM Social
Using Social Media for Career Development
1. Describe a few possible advantages of using social media to offer ideas and advice rather
than just asking for help and information.
2. Suppose you work in the HR department of a consumer products company and are
interested in making a lateral move to another department as a way to develop your
career. Your company has a social-media site where employees can search for co-
workers with particular interests, experiences, and skills. How might you use that site to
plan your lateral move?
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HR How To
Coaching Employees
1. Why do coaches ask questions instead of just delivering information directly?
2. Do you believe people can change? In order to use this belief to motivate yourself and
others, what is one step you can take to show yourself people’s power to improve?
HR Oops!
Show Some Appreciation or Employees Will Leave
1. How did data gathering support decision making in this case?
2. Suppose you are an HR manager at a company experiencing high turnover. Write an
email message to the company’s executives in which you suggest the use of a career
development program to address this problem.
Did You Know?
Men Named John Outnumber Women at the Top
1. What issues do the data presented here suggest that organizations could (or should)
address with employee development?
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End of Chapter Questions and Cases
Thinking Ethically
Should Companies Tell Employees They Have “High Potential”?
1. Can a leadership development program for high-potential employees be fair and
equitable? If so, how? If not, why not?
2. If the company has identified high-potential employees, should managers tell these
employees that they have high potential? Why or why not?
Review and Discussion Questions
1. How does development differ from training? How does development support career
management in modern organizations? (LO 8-1)
2. What are the four broad categories of development methods? Why might it be beneficial
to combine all these methods into a formal development program? (LO 8-2)
Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, 8e Instructor’s Manual
3. Recommend a development method for each of the following situations, and explain why
you chose that method. (LO 8-2)
a. An employee recently promoted to the job of plant supervisor is having difficulty
motivating employees to meet quality standards.
b. A sales manager annoys salespeople by dictating every detail of their work.
c. An employee has excellent leadership skills but lacks knowledge of the financial side
of business.
d. An organization is planning to organize its production workers into teams for the first
time.
4. A company that markets sophisticated business management software systems uses sales
teams to help customers define needs and to create systems that meet those needs. The
teams include programmers, salespeople who specialize in client industries, and software
designers. Occasionally sales are lost as a result of conflict or communication problems
among team members. The company wants to improve the effectiveness of these teams,
and it wants to begin with assessment. How can the teams use 360-degree feedback and
psychological tests to develop? (LO 8-3)
5. In an organization that wants to use work experience as a method of employee
development, what basic options are available? Which of these options would be most
attractive to you as an employee? Why? (LO 8-4)
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6. Many employees are unwilling to relocate because they like their current community and
family members prefer not to move. Yet preparation for management requires that
employees develop new skills, strengthen areas of weakness, and be exposed to new
aspects of the organization’s business. How can an organization change an employee’s
current job to develop management skills? (LO 8-4)
7. Many people feel that mentoring relationships should occur naturally, in situations where
senior managers feel inclined to play the role. What are some advantages of setting up a
formal mentoring program, rather than letting senior managers decide how and whom to
help? (LO 8-5)
8. What are the three roles of a coach? How is each coach different from a mentor? What
are some advantages of using someone outside the organization as a coach? Some
disadvantages? (LO 8-6)
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9. Why should organizations be interested in helping employees plan their careers? What
benefits can companies gain? What are the risks? (LO 8-7)
10. What are the manager’s roles in a career management system? Which role do you think is
most difficult for the typical manager? Which is the easiest role? List reasons why
managers might resist becoming involved in career management. (LO 8-7)
11. What is the glass ceiling? What are the possible consequences to an organization that has
a glass ceiling? How can employee development break the glass ceiling? Can succession
planning help with this problem? Explain. (LO 8-8)
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Hill Education.
management jobs as manages retire. Without the threat of a glass ceiling, women and
minorities have an equal chance for such vacant positions.
12. Why might an organization benefit from giving employee development opportunities to a
dysfunctional manager rather than simply dismissing the manager? Do these reasons
apply to nonmanagement employees as well? (LO 8-8)
Taking Responsibility
Employees Ambitions Drive Development at West Monroe Partners
1. For employees pursuing protean careers, how appropriate is West Monroe Partners’
development approach? Explain.
2. What development methods not mentioned in this case could also help prepare
consultants for a larger leadership role in the organization?
Managing Talent
Mondelez Bakes Development into Its Talent Strategy
1. What kinds of value could Mondelez International reasonably expect to get from the
development programs described in this case?
Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, 8e Instructor’s Manual
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Hill Education.
In addition, the social-impact problem provides a real-world example of problem-solving,
critical thinking, and decision making that will have a payoff when those skill sets are
focused on Mondelez owned products.
2. How might a career management process increase the value of these development
programs?
HR in Small Business
How Service Express Serves Employees First
1. How does the description of careers at Service Express fit the chapter’s description of a
protean career? What is the role of employee development in this context?
2. Suppose SEI continues growing and asks you to advise management on how to maintain
its focus on employee development. Suggest two or three development methods from the
chapter, and explain why you recommend each.
Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, 8e Instructor’s Manual
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Recommended Connect Activities
Determining Employee Development
Learning Objective: 08-01 Discuss how development is related to training and careers.
Activity Summary: In this case analysis, students answer questions on the issues surrounding
employee development and employee training.
Follow-Up Activity: Activities that reinforce the concepts of development versus training can be
found in a multitude of locations. One suggestion would be for students to discover any
development/training opportunities with a current employer and then report back to class.
Another option would be to have the career services department at your school come in to
discuss the development/training partnerships with local employers.
Employment Experiences
Learning Objective: 08-04 Explain how job experiences can be used for developing skills.
Activity Summary: This case analysis walks students through a variety of job experiences that
lead to the development of an employee.
Follow-Up Activity: Have students take the terminology they learned in this chapter and provide
depth based on positives/negatives of why an employee would pursue the given terms.
Additional activities could include working from the perspective of the employer and why they
would want to offer the same options. Terms would include job rotation, job enlargement,
promotion, transfer, sabbatical, etc.
Allstate Embraces Employee Development
Learning Objective: 08-02 Identify the methods organizations use for employee development.
Activity Summary: The video case reinforces the importance of employee development at the
corporate level.
Follow-Up Activity: Working in groups, have students pursue greater depth on each one of the
Good Work, Good Life, Good Hands initiatives and provide their analysis on why it works for
Allstate. Going further, students should make recommendations on how to improve the GW, GL,
GH program, or they could apply the same principles to another company.
CHRO Conversations: SVP of HR Susan Peters, GE
Learning Objective: 08-03 Describe how organizations use assessment of personality type,
work behaviors, and job performance to plan employee development.
Activity Summary: The video case provides a link between employee engagement/motivation
as a result of development and challenging work.
Follow-Up Activity: Have students discuss the three tenets of GE’s formula: Visibility,
Accountability, and Feedback. The subject matter can be open on a number of different areas but
Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, 8e Instructor’s Manual
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could start about expectations in the classroom, i.e., how best to succeed in the course. To bring
the concepts to a more professional setting, present the situations in the following article from
HR Bartender, Change Management: 5 Situations When You May Need It and have students
build Visibility, Accountability, and Feedback to give the situations more structure.
Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, 8e Instructor’s Manual
Classroom Exercises
Students may benefit from exercises that illustrate the concepts of the chapter. Use these along
with CONNECT activities.
1. Training and Development
Instructors may engage students in a general discussion concerning training and
development. Students could be asked to respond to Review and Discussion question #1.
Then, the instructor may have students discuss the Taking Responsibility vignette. Using
both may help further student understanding of these concepts.
2. Employees and Careers
Students may be asked to consider the HR in Small Business vignette and discuss the
concept of the protean career. Instructors may then ask if the students would enjoy
working for an organization such as the one described in the vignette. Lastly, students
may be asked to respond to Review and Discussion question #9.
3. Managers and Development
Review and Discussion questions #10 and #12 could be utilized to juxtapose the role
managers have in the development of employees and the overall success of organizations.
Additionally, students may be asked to describe the impact a dysfunctional manager may
have on the development of their employees.
4. HRM Career Considerations
Instructors may wish to have students identify components in Chapter 8 within both the
Society for Human Resource Management Body of Competency & Knowledge and the
Human Resource Certification Institute’s A Guide to the HR Body of Knowledge.
Discussion could be focused on how these chapter concepts are important to the
development of their careers and potential certification.
5. Vignette Discussions
Any of the vignettes (see above), may be employed for classroom discussion. Students
could be asked to respond as individuals or placed into groups for discussion. Individuals
and/or groups may then be asked to defend their responses and rationale when comparing
and contrasting other responses.