This course, in spite of its short duration, engaged and fostered discussions on up-to-date occurrences of human performance problems in organisations through reading case-studies where we made sense of the readings and provided summaries. Moreover, we were able to research worldview perspectives of our identified problem. However, conceptual knowledge of human performance was not the sole focus of the course. As course participants, we actively engaged in a hands-on experience of identifying and analysing human performance problems in our work environments through conducting research and following the Human Performance Technology (HPT) model. Because of the rigour of the model, especially for the multiple roles the performance analyst goes through, a critical component of the course was to reflect. I have recognised how invaluable culture is to the analysis stage. Due to its hands-on approach and also having similar experiences of analysing work environments in EDID 6507: Needs Assessment for Learning and Performance, I have incidentally learned how important identifying organisational culture is to analysing human performance. This may include Hofstede’s culture dimensions and looking at how senior members are treated and so on. Thus, in the analysis stages, human performance technologists should always pay attention to culture as it could help explain organisational silos, initial understandings of the problem or the cause of the problem and determine whether workers would be receptive to interventions. In fact, I am interested in publishing articles or perhaps an e-book on culture in organisations and its impact on human performance improvement.

Moreover, it is by reflecting on culture that I have realised how unique organisations are and how contemporary the Instructional Designer’s problem solving skills should be. As a novice following the HPT model, I felt that it successfully guided me through a process of identifying the problem and looking at the problem from a multifaceted of ways such as from the organisational perspective, performer, work and worker point of view. Moreover, the solutions provide practical guidance especially for its training and non-training solutions. However in retrospect, as my insights have grown, it is this level of comfort that the HPT model provides that I would like to revolutionise and disrupt as I make my mark as a professional in the field. Since organisations are unique because of their different cultures, I opine that the HPT’s solutions should not be heavily relied on. It is my belief that rigidly following the model almost diminishes one’s problem-solving skills. According to Jonassen (2011), engaging in problem-solving causes an individual’s schema to be constructed and he or she gets better at problem-solving because of the schemata building of prior knowledge that he or she can extract. However, the HPT model’s predefined structures and solutions can be argued do not firmly build a solid schema and distance the problem from the practitioner. As such, since organisations are not ‘one size fit all’ entities and vary based on their cultures, environments and other unique contexts, it is my personal belief that by relying on the model, many unique and nuanced solutions can be missed. Therefore, as I progress in my professional practice, one change that I propose to make is fully immersing myself into the organisation and using a grounded theory model to guide my actions into diagnosing and solving the problem and designing and evaluating appropriate solutions. Whilst this perspective may be limited by some of the strengths of using the HPT model such as having a prescriptive knowledge of performers’ behaviour, it may still have merit to not heavily rely on the HPT model.

Reference

Jonassen, D. H. (2011). Learning to solve problems: A handbook for designing problem-solving learning environments. New York: Routledge.

Select the artefact that follows to read about how my groupmates and I collaboratively worked on the development, implementation and evaluation stages of the solution in an organisation in Jamaica.