Comparison of the influences of structured on-the-job training and classroom training approaches on trainees’ motivation to learn

Increasing trainees’ learning motivation is critical to help them perform well in the training programme. This paper aims to examine the influences of the structured on-the-job training (S-OJT) and classroom training approaches on trainees’ learning motivation and learning performance. An exploratory study was conducted with 90 students from a vocational school located at the Yunlin County in the Midwest of Taiwan who enrolled in a course entitled ‘hair coloring’. The training modules for S-OJT and classroom training were developed and delivered in the training courses. The survey was administered prior to and after the training courses to assess the influences of the training approaches. It was found that the trainees who received S-OJT generated higher learning motivation and learning performance compared with those who received the classroom training. Moreover, the trainees with lower initial learning motivation were motivated more and generated higher learning performance after receiving S-OJT. This study provides the potential theoretical and practical implications and can serve as reference when choosing the training approach for a designed training programme.     

Labour migration and National Human Resource Development in the context of post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan

Training participants' cognitions (training self-efficacy and training instrumentality) can be powerful motivational forces (and impact their motivation to learn and motivation to transfer) and influence important distal outcomes (such as training transfer). Our paper provides a set of ideas linking training cognitions with training outcomes. In addition, we support our propositions with a preliminary empirical test, based on a sample of 254 employees, who provide information on their training perceptions of training and development efforts at their organization. The results indicate that although the ‘can do’ (training self-efficacy) is a primary predictor or motivation to learn, the ‘will do’ aspect (training instrumentality) is the primary predictor for motivation to transfer. In addition, training transfer is predicted primarily by motivation to transfer, and has a strong relationship with training instrumentality. Given the paucity of research on the instrumentality aspect, we discuss theoretical and practical implications, and directions for future research.     

Organisation structure,management style and company performance

This paper examines the relationship between organisation structure and management style and their influence on organisational effectiveness measured in both ‘human’ and financial terms. Account has also been taken of related contextual factors such as differences in task, size and environment of a company. Using information collected from a sample of fifty small and medium size printing and building firms the authors have elaborated a conceptual model involving the independent attributes; integration, control, task orientation and people orientation. The validity of this model has been operationally tested and examined against the background of evidence reported by other research workers on the contextual determinants of organisational structure and management style. Substantially different patterns of association between ‘organisation’ and ‘style’ and company performance are found for the two industries and an important outcome of the research has been to produce further evidence in favour of the contingency theory of organisation. The paper concludes with some implications for management practice and organisational design.     

Safety training: An overview of current needs

Abstract

This article considers the changing nature of the demands and pressures faced by today's training practitioner. It emphasizes that safety is no longer a matter of ‘tin hats, safety guards and first aid boxes’, and explores the problems created by new legislation and rapidly changing technology. It also points up the skills required by the safety practitioner in effectively dealing with his/her organization, and the constraints placed on them by social and economic factors. The article reviews the training implications of this developing scenario.     

Introducing the expatriate ‘Entry-Mode’: an exploratory qualitative study of a missing link in global mobility and expatriate management research

ABSTRACT

This article introduces the novel concepts of expatriate ‘entry-modes’, ‘comb-patriates’, and ‘Fourth-Country Nationals’ (FCNs), emerging from an exploratory qualitative investigation of 51 Scandinavian expatriates in Hong Kong. Global mobility research has traditionally been overly focused on the characteristics and background variables of expatriates or accumulated experiences after arrival, and has neglected the phase and mode of entering the new host country. Unveiling new global mobility patterns is significant for multinational enterprises’ (MNE) global talent recruitment, and has implications for training and development. This is due to directing the focus towards the increasing numbers of those individuals who are not expatriating in the conventional linear fashion, such as between an MNE’s headquarter (HQ) and its subsidiaries overseas. The critical stance taken in this article is articulated through a theoretical lens comprising a social constructionist epistemology. Theoretical contributions, future research avenues, as well as managerial relevance and policy implications are also discussed.     

The effect of career exploration on subsequent training performance

In recent models of training effectiveness, it has been proposed that career exploration predicts training outcome variables such as training performance. Implementing the Career Exploration Survey developed by Stumpf and colleagues (1983), the present study explored the impact of sixteen dimensions of career exploration on subsequent training performance. A total of 145 call centre agents participated in the present study. Results demonstrated that four dimensions of career exploration predicted subsequent training performance. More specifically, trainees who (a) scored high on focused career exploration, (b) were more satisfied with information, (c) reported a higher internal search instrumentality, and (d) reported a lower external search instrumentality achieved higher training performance scores. Implications for theory, practice and future research are discussed.     

Impact of influence and skill on managerial performance

Part of Heller's contingency model of leadership and decision making [11] has been modified. The basic components of the modified part of the model are influence, skill use, job performance and job satisfaction. Data from a study of 97 British and Sudanese managers are used to test the modified model. Positive relationships have been found between the four components. The major findings of this research are that while the strength of the relationship between ‘influence and satisfaction’ on the one hand and ‘skill use and satisfaction’ on the other differs only slightly, the relationship between ‘skill use and performance’ is much stronger and much more established than the relationship between ‘influence and performance’. These results have been established in both the Sudan and Britain.     

Women and technology: A review of training initiatives

This paper considers the entry of women into technological areas of work, their subsequent career progression and return to work after a career break. It considers the development of those training programmes and related initiatives which have attempted to encourage girls and young women to enter non-traditional areas of work, and others which help women return to work after a career break. It emphasizes that such training needs to address the psychological and social issues which arise, as well as provide for new technical knowledge and skills. In doing so it reviews some of the courses which are currently available and comments on their apparent success. In its concluding problems it refers to the on-going problem of funding such training and of providing a supportive database.     

No longer a solo practice: how physician leaders lead

The authors conducted a national study to determine the factors associated with the success of physician leaders. They utilized the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) and a demographic survey followed by individual interviews with respondents. Data analysis revealed several implications for the selection, training, management, and career development of physician leaders. The results suggest that: Physician leadership training should have a strong focus on the "human side" of management, including negotiation, organizational "politics," conflict resolution, team building, and motivation. Data management and finance should be a focus represented in the curriculum. Mentoring relationships should be developed as an aspiring physician leader pursues a career shift. Self assessment, including an analysis of style, strengths, best potential organizational fit, and specific areas of strength and weakness should be an integral part of the development of an aspiring physician leader. Screening mechanisms to ascertain a physician's motivation to move toward a full-time leadership role should be developed to ensure appropriate intent. To facilitate this implication, more effective assessment tools need to be developed.     

The relationship between training outsourcing and employee commitment to organization

In many countries, the human resource practice of training outsourcing has emerged as one of the fastest growing segments of the broader business process outsourcing industry. In spite of the growing popularity in professional practice, training outsourcing continues to be subjected to critical review and ongoing debate with most attention focused on the decision to ‘outsource’ or ‘not to outsource’. However, there exists a shortage of research on training outsourcing as a human resource development (HRD) practice and the potential relationships with desired organizational outcomes including employee commitment. This exploratory international study extends previous research that has examined the relationship between training and organizational commitment by focusing exclusively on outsourced training. Data were collected from information technology firms in two countries: India and the United States. Results showed positive relationships between specific measures of employee perceptions of quality, usefulness and supervisor support for outsourced training with organizational commitment. Recommendations are made for future research as well as for professional practice to guide HRD practitioners involved in the rapidly growing global practice of training outsourcing.     

Perceptions of the effectiveness of training and development of ‘grey-collar’ workers in the People's Republic of China

An important human resource development (HRD) implication of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) rapidly expanding economy has been the emergence of a critical shortage of grey-collar workers (GCW). Although ‘grey-collar’ has been commonly used in the West to describe an aging population within the workforce, in China it refers to people who are neither white nor blue collar workers but technicians. The shortage of GCW constrains the PRC's economic and developmental sustainability, and has been recognized in central and provincial government initiatives to increase training and development of employees within these fields. While acknowledged as a policy and organizational problem, there has been no research investigating what organizations are doing to develop these employees. Drawing upon a survey of 310 semi-skilled and skilled employees in Beijing, our findings suggest that while the surveyed organizations are investing heavily in both on- and off-the-job training, employees' perceived value of such differs markedly according to age and position. The research has important implications for China's HRD strategy in suggesting links between training and other human resource management (HRM) functions are yet to be evidenced.     

Personality traits and career satisfaction of human resource professionals

Occupational choice frameworks suggest that personality factors influence person-job fit. This paper focuses on personality factors and career satisfactions of human resources (HR) managers. ‘Big Five’ and narrow personality traits as well as managerial style variables were drawn from an archive of 1846 HR managers and 1375 non-managers. Results indicated that HR managers differed from 51,297 individuals in other occupations and from non-managerial HR specialists on many of the study variables, most of which were also related to career satisfaction. Implications for differentiation selection and development of HR managers were discussed.     

Women and technology: A review of training initiatives

Abstract

This paper considers the entry of women into technological areas of work, their subsequent career progression and return to work after a career break. It considers the development of those training programmes and related initiatives which have attempted to encourage girls and young women to enter non-traditional areas of work, and others which help women return to work after a career break. It emphasizes that such training needs to address the psychological and social issues which arise, as well as provide for new technical knowledge and skills. In doing so it reviews some of the courses which are currently available and comments on their apparent success. In its concluding problems it refers to the on-going problem of funding such training and of providing a supportive database.     

Transfer interest: measuring interest in training content and interest in training transfer

ABSTRACT

Motivational influences are important predictors of training effectiveness and transfer of training to the workplace. The present study introduces the Transfer Interest Questionnaire (TIQ) to measure trainee interest. Grounded in the person-object theory of interest, the construct encompasses two dimensions: interest in training content and interest in training transfer. The results of exploratory factor analyses of questionnaire data from 203 trainees provided strong support for the proposed scales. Based on the perspective of age-related motivational maintenance, socioemotional selectivity theory, the gender-similarities hypothesis, and research on training motivation and motivation to transfer, a series of moderator analyses tested the effects of six trainee and training-design characteristics: trainees’ age and gender, work experience, number of semesters completed, training course’s content area, and voluntary vs. mandatory training participation. Furthermore, based on social cognitive theory, the theory of planned behavior, and the expectancy-value model of achievement motivation, the study tested the TIQ scales’ associations with utility value, self-efficacy, normative beliefs, control beliefs, and transfer intentions. Implications for theorizing the role of interest in transfer of learning, screening training participants’ interest profiles in training evaluations, and future research directions on the role of interest in adult education, corporate training, and human resource development are discussed.     

Gauging the unique developmental strategies towards human resource at Saudi Aramco

Saudi Aramco’s unrivalled upstream oil operations over the years would not have been possible without an unparalleled commitment towards the development of people. The human resource department of Saudi Aramco was successful in creating a healthy and productive environment by shifting the focus from ‘administration’ to being a ‘strategic partner’. The purpose of this paper is to identify and illuminate the human resource developmental strategies that are aligned with core business practices leading to exceptional performance at Saudi Aramco. As an academician, the author believes that this paper will provide an insight into gauging human resource development strategies for any aspiring firm and can be referred for further research.     

What it Means to Succeed: Personal Conceptions of Career Success Held by Male and Female Managers at Different Ages

This paper describes the findings of a qualitative study which analyses how managers define career success for themselves on their own terms. In exploring career success from the perspective of the individual, not the organization, the research attempts to fill an identifiable gap in the career literature. The paper examines the criteria which individuals use to describe what career success means to them, and expresses them by means of a series of orientational categories – Climbers, Experts, Influencers and Self-Realizers – which classify the different ways in which managers talk about career success. The variations in the way that the male and female, and older and younger, research participants describe what career success means to them are discussed and compared. The women managers and older managers who took part in the study appear less inclined to define career success in terms of hierarchical and financial progression: the paper considers the implications of this for individuals and for organizations.     

A Study of the Promotion to Partner Process in a Professional Services Firm: How Women are Disadvantaged

Increasing numbers of women are attracted to careers in the professional services. However, when their progress is considered to partner positions, it is found that they are not advancing to the levels anticipated. When the literature in relation to the partnership promotion process is explored, we find explanatory models are rare, and rarer yet is work that considers the impact of sex bias on the process. The article adds to the limited work available by presenting findings from a behavioural process perspective through an empirical study with male and female management consultants in a professional services firm which indicates that the promotion to partner process is indeed sex biased. Two areas of disadvantage for women are identified: the presence of a self-managed career advancement process necessitating a proactive approach to demonstrating individual contribution; and the need to ‘fit’ a prevailing model of success within the firm which is a masculine model and is more problematic for women. The article calls for a differentiated treatment of the glass ceiling phenomenon, capable of capturing disadvantage accruing from societally based factors and sector-based factors. The implications of the findings for future research and professional service firms are discussed.     

Cognitive Style and its Relevance for Management Practice

This review paper addresses some of the semantic issues associated with the nature of cognitive style, identifies some of the most often cited dimensions of cognitive style, examines ways in which these styles can be classified and considers the implications of cognitive style for management practice.     

Vulnerability and Agenda: Context and Process in Project Management

This paper explores how the project management role is conditioned by the context in which change is progressed. The argument draws on Pettigrew's (1985, 1987) contextual and processual view of change, a view which does not clarify the management implications of contextual variation. Using data from a two-stage research design combining diary and survey methods, four context dimensions are identified, concerning ‘interlocking’, ‘shifting sands’, ‘ownership’ and ‘senior management view’. For analytical purposes, two extreme contexts are characterized as exposing the project manager to high and low levels of ‘vulnerability’ respectively. Project management literature typically offers a rational-linear account of change, and concentrates on ‘content’ and ‘control’ agendas, concerning technical expertise on the one hand, and planning, budgeting and monitoring techniques on the other. Sociological analyses reveal the limitations of the rational-linear account, and focus on the political and cultural dimensions of the ‘process’ agenda. The data suggest how contextual variation affects the relative priority of these agendas. The management implications of these findings are explored, for project management selection, career progression, and the development of diagnostic skills and ‘agenda management’ strategies.     

Exploring the influence of pre-training factors on training effectiveness-moderating role of trainees’ reaction: a study in the public sector in India

Organizations invest in training initiative with an objective to improve the performance of its employees and ultimately organizational performance. However, training literature highlights the gap between the learning and the transfer of learning at the workplace. Thus, there is a need to have a deeper understanding of those variables which contributes to training transfer/effectiveness. This study is an attempt to understand those organizational factors that can help in improving training effectiveness. Data was collected at three different points of time (before training, immediately at the end of training and after some time of training) to determine the antecedents of motivation to learn and the training effectiveness. Findings of the study reveal that motivation to learn mediates the relationship between the predictor variables – training needs analysis, training information and type of training, and the resultant variable training effectiveness. Also, trainees’ reaction towards training was found to moderate the relationship between trainees’ motivation to learn and training effectiveness. The study reinforces the significance of organizational factors in ensuring motivation to learn and training effectiveness. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed in the paper.