TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

Training and Development of Employees

Training and Development of Employees

Introduction

Training and development remains an important human resource (HR) practice of interest to researchers, managers, governments, and employees. Training research is of substantial interest and reviews show its enormous and continued growth (e.g., Aguinisand Kraiger, 2009; Ford and Kraiger, 1995; Goldstein, 1980; Goldstein and Gessner, 1988; Latham, 1988; Salas and Cannon-Bowers, 2001; Sonnentag et al., 2004; Tannenbaum and Yukl, 1992; Wexley, 1984). Training is of major interest to practitioners and managers in order to update employee skills, improve job performance and productivity, and develop the competencies employees need to meet the strategic objectives of their organizations (Sugrue and Rivera, 2005; 2006). Training is of significance to governments who facilitate its use to provide the capabilities a country needs for economic growth and to address skill shortages in a highly competitive global economy (Aguinis and Kraiger, 2009). Lastly, training is important to employees for whom it increases employment duration and continuity, pay, and career advancement (Tharenou, 1997).

However, problematic issues continue to arise in regard to the usefulness of and return on training and development (Bunch, 2007). Managers want to know what the return is on their investment (ROI; Phillips and Phillips, 2007). Yet, the impact of training on performance continues to be rarely evaluated and its ROI rarely calculated (Kraiger et al., 2004; Sugrue and Rivera, 2005). Scholars lament that practitioners do not use the results of research to incorporate the well-developed scientific knowledge about training into needs analysis, design, delivery, transfer, and evaluation (Kraiger, 2003; Salas and Cannon-Bowers, 2001; Salas and Kosarzycki, 2003). Governments are criticized for under investing in the training and development needed by their countries for economic growth (Tharenou, 1997).

This chapter provides an audit of the training and development literature and its issues and developments. Training is defined as the systematic acquisition and development of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes required by employees to adequately perform a task or job or to improve performance in the job environment (Goldstein, 1980; Latham, 1988) and as a planned effort by an organization to facilitate the learning of job-related behavior on the part of its employees (Wexley, 1984). The chapter begins by considering the discipline approaches that underlie research on training. Then it examines the process of training by considering its stages: the pre-training stage (training needs analysis, factors predicting participation in training and development, the antecedent conditions to training effectiveness, training design), the training itself (training delivery); and the post-training stage (transfer of training, evaluation of the effects of training). The chapter closes with consideration of future development and research needs in the area.

The Stages of Training and Development

Traditionally, training and development had been conceived of as a five-stage process: needs analysis, design, delivery, transfer, and evaluation. In effect, three stages exist: what occurs prior to training (training needs analysis, the organizational, job, adperson factors that predict participation, antecedent conditions affecting training effectiveness, training design); what occurs during training (its delivery including the methods of training used); and what occurs ...