Section Onenew learning also help to prevent obsolescence and facilitate
development. It is important to prevent employees from
becoming overspecialized. Although the organization may
benefit in the short term, excessive specialization may be
exploitative and not be in either the individual’s or the
organization’s long-range best interests. Organizations can
explicitly encourage employees to stay abreast of developments
in the field by incorporating knowledge acquisition activities and
accomplishments in performance evaluation and reward
systems. Organizations also can set goals for updating
knowledge and reward such goal accomplishments. In addition
to these suggestions, funding attendance at conferences and
providing time to read professional literature can help to
prevent obsolescence.^44
An example of one company’s intensive efforts to prevent
obsolescence is provided by Hewlett-Packard. The company’s
approach with its engineering workforce has involved the
establishment of cooperative programs with universities. In one
year alone, 1,000 Hewlett-Packard employees were able to take
courses at Stanford University while another 200 took courses
at California State University, Chico. Although Hewlett-Packard
is a company involved at the leading edge of rap-idly changing
technology, it also will be important for other companies in
lower-technology industries to make investments in their
current employees.^45 As the rapid rate of technological change