Aaron’s Company: Purpose of the Needs Assessment

Aaron’s Company Ltd

Aaron’s Company Ltd is a large electronics corporation based in Los Angeles. Its purpose statement is to provide sufficient good quality products and services to its customers while also growing its business. The examination of this company’s demands will provide a direction for the investments it will need to undertake for its future development objectives (Roberson, Kulik & Pepper, 2003). It is critical to examine the company’s specific skill and knowledge requirements before deciding on the best techniques to meet them. Aaron’s Company needs invest in its personnel in order to improve its production performance. The employees need to achieve full potential through accessible, stimulating and relevant learning (Jones & Brinkert, 2007).

Statement of the Problem

In the recent past, Aaron’s Company has been experiencing faults in the performance and frequent conflicts within the organization. The conflicts were not only among the employees but also among the board members. No evaluation has been done for the company to identify the performance gap and determine the appropriate training needs. This study, therefore, investigates the importance of training need in closing the performance gap of the company. The Aaron’s Company will benefit from the research by identifying appropriate methods to determine the company’s needs.

Purpose of the Needs Assessment

The primary objective of this study is to carry out a needs assessment to understand the company’s management problem and assess training needs that will be appropriate to improve the performance of the Company. Upon completion of the analysis, the Company will be able to understand its problem and determine the best method to solve the problem (Jones & Brinkert, 2007). The needs will be identified through the analysis of the performance gap. The results of the study will help the company to know which development is required and the appropriate training needed to better the performance of the business.

Methodology

Introduction

Performing a gap analysis is the process of assessing the current performance of the employees or the current state of the organization and comparing the results with the desired state. The difference between the two states is referred to as the performance gap.

Research Design

The study to analyze Aaron’s company’s needs should be conducted quantitatively. The information gathered would help to determine whether training is the only solution to the poor performance of the Company (Kaufman & Guerra-Lopez, 2013).

Target Population

The target population will be composed of the people working in different departments of Aaron’s Limited Company. A larger number of employees and the board members will be involved in providing a diverse group of individuals.

Sample

Since the company has many people, a sample of 50 people out of 200 workers will be selected using a simple random sampling method.

Instrumentation

A survey will be developed which will involve the use of questionnaires and a set of questions touching on the competence of the workers. This will help in assessing the knowledge and the attitude of the employees. Another set of questions will enable the researcher to understand the causes of conflicts in the organization. Several issues will address the possible training that will be appropriate in the company. Individual interviews will also be conducted with senior managers, supervisors and the employees. The answers to the questions will enable the researcher to determine whether training will be a necessary need in the Company.

Data Collection and Analysis

The developed questionnaires will be emailed to the participants with a letter detailing the purpose of the survey. The letter increases the confidentiality of the participant. The data will then be collected in a week’s time and analyzed using the standard statistical approach.

Results

A systematic need assessment to understand the management problem experienced in Aaron’s Limited Company was conducted through a survey. Questionnaires were emailed to 50 participants, and after a week, 30 surveys were completed.

The first question that was asked was “Have you ever engaged in any conflict within this company?” Among the 30 completed surveys, 20 of the participants responded affirmatively while 10 of them indicated a negative answer.

The second question was: “What do you think is the cause of conflicts in this organization?” The response to this question varied, most of the participants indicated that poor communication and difference in personalities were causes of conflicts in the company. Other participants reported that competition was one of the leading causes of conflict in the organization. Questions 3, 4, and 5, were used to assess the employees’ competence and ability to resolve a conflict.

The rest of the issues in the questionnaire were needs assessment-based questions. The answers provided helped the researcher to determine whether training the workers on conflict resolution would be beneficial to the company. The questions also helped in identifying other solutions to conflict other than training which includes, giving transfers to workers and motivating the workforce.

Conclusion

The study revealed that training is not the only solution to conflicts in Aaron’s Limited Company. Therefore, other conflict resolution methods should be employed in the company. Training of the workers only reduces clashes in the company by 20%. Aaron’s Company can reduce cases of conflicts by focusing on the social welfare of its worker, motivating the employees, specifying duties and responsibilities, increasing resources and setting up the ethical code and conducts. When all these factors are put in place, the desired performance of the company will be attained and all conflicts resolved.

References

Jones, T. S., & Brinkert, R. (2007). Conflict coaching: Conflict management strategies and skills for the individual. Sage Publications.

Kaufman, R., & Guerra-Lopez, I. (2013). Needs assessment for organizational success. American Society for Training and Development.

Roberson, L., Kulik, C. T., & Pepper, M. B. (2003). Using needs assessment to resolve controversies in diversity training design. Group & Organization Management, 28(1), 148-174.