Human Resource Management (HRM) is a distinctive approach to manage people. People make a business function efficiently and yet they cause the greatest difficulties. Especially in the new information-based economy, people, not physical assets, are now critical. But people, unlike coalmines and factories, cannot be owned. Organizations therefore must create an environment that makes the best people want to stay.
In this regard, Training and Development (T&D) can be the most important HRM function to treat people well and increase the competitive power for the organizations. Training refers to improving competencies needed today or very soon. In comparison, development refers to activities intended to improve competencies over a long period of time (Jackson & Schuler, 2003, p350-351). Training and development, although different from their focus, are of course closely related to influence the individuals and firms. In this respect lots of authors have paid more attention on this issue. Following, the papers open by a review of literature, and conduct critical review on TCL Corporation 's practice compared with the literatures.
2. Literature review
T&D 's primary, traditional roles have been to insure that the workforces are provided with the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to perform a given function well (Harrison, 1993) (Stone, 2002, p344-348) (Pinnington & Edwards, 2000, p186-190) (Price, 2001, p325).
To employees, T&D provide the means of maintaining their own competition by improving knowledge, skills and abilities (Lane & Robinson, 1995). To shareholders, T&D can be seen as foundation to meet the profit targets (Pfeffer & Veiga, 1999). Some benefits of basic skills training include increased productivity, higher quality products, reduced absenteeism, and increased commitment and job satisfaction (Washburn & Franklin, 1992).
In terms of some authors (Jackson & Schuler, 2003, p360-392) (Ivancevich & Lee, 2002, p156-184), the HR
References: Anfuso, D. & Frazle, V., (1997) "HR is Everywhere", Personal Journal January, p81. Anonymous, (2004) "How Training Managers 'Fix ' The Loss of Corporate Trust". IOMA 's Report on Managing Training & Development. Apr. Vol. 4, Iss. 4; p5. Berge, Z., deVerneil, M., Berge, N., Davis, L. & Smith, D. (2002) "The increasing scope of training and development competency". Benchmarking. Vol. 9, Iss. 1; p43. Brinkerhoff, R.O. & Gill, S. J. (1995), "The learning alliance: systems thinking in human resource development", Training and Development Yearbook, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Burke, R. J. & McKeen, C. A. (1989) "Developing formal mentoring programs in organizations", Business Quarterly, Vol. 53, p69-76. Freeman, J. M. (1993), "Training needs analysis". Management Quarterly, Fall, Vol. 34, Iss. 3; p32 Grugulis, I Hunt, D.M. & Michael, C. (1983) "Mentorship: a career training and development tool", Academy of Management Review, Vol. 8, p475-85. Ivancevich, J. M. & Lee, S. H., (2002), Human Resource Management in Asia, McGraw-Hill Education (Asia), Singapore. Jackson, S. E. & Schuler, R. S., (2003), Managing Human Resources: Through Strategic Partnerships, 8th edn. Thomson/South-Western, Canada. Kirkpatrick, D. L. (1975) Evaluating training programs. American Society for Training and Development Inc. Washington, DC. Klauss, R. (1981) "Formalized mentor relationships for management and executive development programs in the Federal Government", Public Administration Review, Vol. 41, p489-496. Lane, G., and A, Robinson (1995) "The development of standards of competence for senior management", Executive Development, Vol.32. Leat, M. J. & Lovell, M. J. (1997) "Training needs analysis: weaknesses in the conventional approach". Journal of European Industrial Training. Vol. 21, Iss. 4; p143. McCole, P., Morrow, T., Ponsonby, S. & Kelly, B. (2001) "The potential training impact of technology on SMEs in Northern Ireland". Journal of European Industrial Training. Vol. 25, Iss. 2/3/4; p90. Paton, D. (1996) Training disaster workers: promoting wellbeing and operational effectiveness. Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 5, Iss. 5, p11. Pfeffer, J., and Veiga, J. F. (1999) Putting people first for organizational success, Academy of Management Executive, 13 (2) p37-48. Pinnington, A. & Edwards, T., (2000), Introduction to Human Resource Management, Oxford University Press, Great Britain. Price, A., (2001), Human Resource Management in a Business Context, Thomson/Learning, Croatia. Rosenberg, N. (1982) Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics, Cambridge University Press, New York. Stone, R. J., (2002), Human Resource Management, 4th edn, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd, Singapore. Waldroop, J. & Butler, T., (1996) The Executive as Coach, Harved Business Review, November-December, p111-119. Washburn, S. & Franklin, G. (1992) A Modem Workplace in the Face of an Age-old Problem: Illiteracy. Industrial Management, 34, p2-4.