CHAPTER 7: TRAINING

Learning Objectives

LO 7-1 Discuss how training, informal learning, and knowledge management can
contribute to continuous learning and companies’ business strategy.

LO 7-2
Explain the role of the manager in identifying training needs and
supporting training on the job.

LO 7-3 Conduct the needs assessment.

LO 7-4 Evaluate employees’ readiness for training.

LO 7-5 Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of presentation, hands-on, and

group training methods.
LO 7-6 Explain the potential advantages of e-learning for training.

LO 7-7 Design a training session to maximize learning.

LO 7-8
Choose appropriate evaluation design and training outcomes based on
the training objectives and evaluation purpose.

LO 7-9 Discuss how to design a cross-cultural preparation program.

LO 7-10 Develop a program for effectively managing diversity.

INTRODUCTION

Competition forces business organizations to implement new

competitive strategies. In this sense, training and retraining activities should be
an ongoing process for the organizations in order to compete successfully.
Giving employees opportunities to learn and develop creates a positive work
environment, which supports the business strategy by attracting talented
employees as well as motivating and retaining current employees.

Training can:
✓ Increase employees’ knowledge of foreign competitors and cultures.
✓ Help ensure that employees have the basic skills to work with new
technology.
✓ Help employees understand how to work effectively in teams to
contribute to product and service quality.
✓ Ensure that the company’s culture emphasizes innovation, creativity,
and learning.
 ✓ Ensure employment security by providing new ways for employees to
contribute to the company when their jobs change, their interests
change, or their skills become obsolete.
✓ Prepare employees to accept and work more effectively with each
other.

TRAINING: ITS ROLE IN CONTINUOUS LEARNING AND

LO 7-1
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Working in organizations should be a continual learning process.

Continuous learning is vital for the organization to create effective employees
and for them to easily adapt with changes in skill requirements, work roles and
work structures.

Continuous learning refers to a learning system that requires employees

to understand the entire work system and they are expected to acquire new
skills, apply them on the job, and share what they have learned with other
employees.

Training refers to a planned effort by a company to facilitate learning of

job-related competencies, knowledge, skills, and behaviors by employees. The
goal of training is for employees to master the knowledge, skills, and behaviors
emphasized in training and apply them to their day-to-day activities.

Formal training refers to training and development programs, courses,

and events that are developed and organized by the company. On the other
hand, informal learning refers to learning that is learner initiated, involves
action and doing, is motivated by an intent to develop, and does not occur in
a formal learning setting.

Explicit knowledge, sometimes referred to as “know-what”, refers to

knowledge that is formalized and codified, well documented, easily
articulated, and easily transferred from person to person. Examples of explicit
knowledge include processes, checklists, flowcharts, formulas, and definitions.

Tacit knowledge, sometimes referred to as “know-how”, refers to

personal knowledge based on individual experiences that make it difficult to
codify. It is best acquired through informal learning.

Knowledge management is the systematic way of enhancing company

performance in storage, assessment, sharing, refinement, and creation of an
organization's knowledge assets.
LO 7-2 DESIGNING EFFECTIVE FORMAL TRAINING ACTIVITIES
A key feature of training activities that contribute to competitiveness is
that they are intended according to the instructional design process to
address the specific objectives. Training design process refers to a systematic
approach for designing training programs to be effective and produce
learning. Figure 7.1 illustrates the six stages of this process, which emphasizes
that effective training practices involve more than just choosing the most well-
liked or lively training method. The training design process should be systematic
yet flexible enough to adapt to business needs.

Needs assessment
- Organizational analysis
- Person analysis
LO 7-3 Needs Assessment
- Task analysis

The first step in the instructional

Ensuring employees’ readiness for
training
design process, needs assessment, is a
- Attitudes and motivation diagnostic phase of a training plan.
- Basic skills
Needs assessment refers to the
process used to address issues and
determine if the employees need
Creating a learning environment
- Identification of learning objectives training to improve organizational
and training outcomes performance. Needs assessment
- Meaningful material -Feedback
- Practice -Observation of Others measures the competencies of a
- Administering and coordinating company, a group, or an individual as
program
they relate to what is required. It is
necessary to find out what is
happening and what should be
Ensuring transfer of training happening before deciding if training
- Self-management strategies
- Peer and manager support
will help, and if it will help, what kind is
needed.

Selecting training methods

- Presentational methods
- Hands-on methods

Evaluating training programs

- Identification of training outcomes
and evaluation design
- Cost-benefit analysis

Figure 7.1 Training Process

 Figure 7.2 The Needs Assessment Process

Training needs can be determined by analyzing organizational

outcomes and looking at future organizational needs. Organizational analysis
involves determining the business appropriateness of training, given the
company’s business strategy, its resources available for training, and support
by managers and peers for training activities

Person analysis helps identify who needs training. Person analysis

involves (1) determining whether performance deficiencies result from a lack
of knowledge, skill, or ability (a training issue) or from a motivational or work-
design problem; (2) identifying who needs training; and (3) determining
employees’ readiness for training.

Task analysis includes identifying the important tasks and knowledge,

skills, and behaviors that need to be emphasized in training for employees to
complete their tasks.

LO 7-4 Ensuring Employees’ Readiness for Training

The second step in the training design process is to evaluate whether

employees are ready for training. Readiness for training refers to employee
characteristics that provide employees with the desire, energy, and focus
necessary to learn from training.

Motivation to learn is the desire of the trainee to learn the content of the
training program.
Self-efficacy is the employees' belief that they can successfully learn the
content of the training program.
 Managers can increase employees' self-efficacy level by:
◆ Letting employees know that the purpose of training is to improve
performance, not identify incompetencies.
◆ Providing as much information as possible about the training
program and its purpose.
◆ Showing employees the training success of their peers.
◆ Providing employees with feedback.

Creating A Learning Environment

◆ Employees need to know why they should learn.
◆ Employees need meaningful training content.
◆ Employees need to have opportunities to practice.
◆ Employees need feedback.
◆ Employees learn by observing, experiencing, and interacting with
others.
◆ Employees need to commit training content to memory.
◆ Employees need the training program to be properly coordinated
and arranged.

Ensuring Transfer of Training

Transfer of training refers to on-the-job use of knowledge, skills, and

behaviors learned in training.

Figure 7.3 illustrates that

transfer of training is
influenced by manager
support, peer support,
opportunity to use learned
capabilities, technology
support, and self-
management skills.

Figure 7.3 Work Environment Characteristics

Influencing Transfer of Training

Managers can facilitate transfer through use of action plans. An action

plan is a written document that includes the steps that the trainee and
manager will take to ensure that training transfers to the job.
LO 7-5
Selecting Training Methods
LO 7-6
Presentation methods refer to methods in which trainees are passive
recipients of information. ads. These methods ideal for presenting new facts,
information, different philosophies, and alternative problem-solving solutions or
processes.
◆ Instructor-led classroom format
- least expensive, least time-consuming ways to present information.
- more active participation, job-related examples, and exercises
that the instructor can build, the more likely trainees will learn and
use the information presented
◆ Distance learning
- save on travel costs
- lack of interaction between the trainer and the audience.
◆ Audiovisual techniques
- Learners can work independently
- allow users to access the materials at any time or place.
- learners get a consistent presentation.
- problems result from having too much content for the trainee to
learn, overuse of humor or music, and drama that distracts from the
key learning points

Hands-on methods are training methods that require the trainee to be

actively involved in learning. These methods are ideal for developing specific
skills, understanding how skills and behaviors can be transferred to the job,
experiencing all aspects of completing a task, and dealing with interpersonal
issues that arise on the job.
◆ On-the-job training
- needs less investment in time or money for materials, trainer’s salary,
or instructional design
◆ Simulations
- eliminate the need to travel to a central training location
- get trainees involved in learning provide a consistent
- message of what needs to be learned
- safely put employees in situations that would be dangerous in the
real world
◆ Business games and case studies
- stimulate more learning than presentation methods
- help trainees develop the willingness to take risks given uncertain
outcomes.
◆ Behavior modeling
- one of the most effective techniques for teaching interpersonal
skills.
◆ E-Learning
- takes advantage of the web’s dynamic nature and ability to use
many positive learning features.
 - gives learner control over the pace of learning, exercises, and use
of links to other material.
- allows activities to be incorporated into training without trainees or
the instructor having to be physically present in a training room.

Group- or team-building methods are training methods designed to

improve team or group effectiveness. In group-building methods, trainees
share ideas and experiences, build group identity, understand the dynamics
of interpersonal relationships, and get to know their own strengths and
weaknesses and those of their co-workers.

LO 7-7 Advice for Choosing A Training Method

In choosing a method:
1. Identify the type of learning outcome that you want training to
influence.
- Group-building methods are unique because they focus on individual
as well as team learning.

2. Compare the presentation methods to the hands-on methods.

- most hands-on methods provide a better learning environment
- presentation methods are less effective
- E-learning or blended learning can be an effective training method for
geographically dispersed trainees.
-To take advantage of the positive features of both face-to-face and
technology-based instruction, you should consider a blended
learning approach.

LO 7-8 Evaluating Training Programs

Training Outcomes is a way to evaluate the effectiveness of a training

program based on cognitive, skill-based, affective, and results outcomes.

Table 7.1 Outcomes Used in Evaluating Training Programs

LO 7-9 SPECIAL TRAINING ISSUES

CROSS-CULTURAL PREPARATION

An expatriate is an employee sent by his or her company to manage

operations in a different country.

To be successful in overseas assignments, expatriates need to be:

◆ Competent in their area of expertise
◆ Able to communicate verbally and nonverbally in the host
country.
◆ Flexible, tolerant, and sensitive to cultural differences.
◆ Motivated to succeed, able to enjoy the challenges, and willing
to learn.
◆ Supported by their families.

Figure 7.4 Three Phases of Cross-Cultural Preparation

Phase One:
Predeparture Phase

Phase Two:
On-Site Phase
Phase Three:
Repatriation Phase

LO 7-10 MANAGING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Diversity training refers to learning efforts that are designed to change

employee attitudes about diversity and or/develop skills needed to work with
a diverse workforce.

Managing diversity and inclusion involves creating an environment

that allows all employees to contribute to organizational goals and
experience personal growth.

To successfully manage a diverse work force, companies need to ensure

that:
◆ Employees understand how their values and stereotypes influence
their behavior toward others of different gender, ethnic, racial, or
religious backgrounds.
 ◆ Employees gain an appreciation of cultural differences among
themselves.
◆ Behaviors that isolate or intimidate minority group member
improve.

Types of diversity training:

◆ Attitude awareness and change programs
◆ Behavior based programs

Key Components of Effective Managing Diversity Programs

1. Top Management Support
2. Recruitment and Hiring
3. Identifying and Developing Talent
4. Employee Support
5. Ensuring Fair Treatment
6. Holding Managers Accountable
7. Improving Relationships with External Stakeholders

Onboarding, or socialization, refers to the process of helping new hires adjust

to social and performance aspects of their new jobs.

Figure 7.5 The Four Steps in Onboarding

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. What learning condition do you think is most necessary for learning to

occur? Which is least critical? Why?
2. What factors contribute to the effectiveness of e- learning training
programs?
3. What can companies do to encourage informal learning?

Reference:

Noe, Raymond A., et. al (2017). Human Resource Management Gaining a

Competitive Advantage, 10th Edition. USA: McGraw- Hill Education.