Why training is important

Why training is important

1. Organizations with superior training often prevail over organizations with poor training, all else bring equal.

2. To become good at anything takes training and practice.

3. Training is a principal method for adapting an organization’s workforce to a changing environment.

4. Advanced economies in the twenty first century are based on sophisticated human skills that can only be acquired through extrnsive training.

Some Functions of Organizational Training Programs

6. Fosters communication7. Skill building8. Sends signals about management’s

priorities9. Develops team spirit and teamwork10.Socialization11.Generates new ideas

LEARNING

A process by which an individual’s pattern of behavior, knowledge, or attitudes is changed by experience.

TRAINING

The systematic acquisition and maintenance of skills and task-

specific knowledge.

EDUCATION

The systematic acquisition of abilities, general knowledge, and attitudes.

DEVELOPMENT

A systematic, long-term process of education, training, on-the-job

experiences, and socialization to prepare an individual to fulfill an

upper-level role in an organization.

Skill

Behaviors or mental operations related to the performance of a task or set of related tasks.

Ability

Behaviors or mental operations useful for adapting to a variety of environmental demands.

Aptitude

A hypothetical construct signifying the potential to learn a skill.

KNOWLEDGE

Symbolic representations in the mind that can be recalled.

Developing a Training Program

1. Conduct a needs analysis2. Design training using principles of learning3. Use training methods that are most

appropriate for the type of skills to be learned

4. Teach best-practice skill techniques5. Structure supportive learning environment6. Evaluate

Training Needs Analysis

Training needs analysis is…

An assessment of the training requirements for an organization, job, or individual.

Organization Analysis

• Organizational values

• Long and short term goals

• Desired behaviors and attitudes

• Where training is needed

Teaching Brotherly Love:

Philadelphia offers taxi drivers training on civic pride and customer service. Last week, it started briefing graduates on coming conventions – just in time for the arrival of 7,000 Mennonites for their church convention. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission considers requiring the training of all cabbies.

-Wall Street Journal, August 3, 1993, p. A-1.

Task Analysis

Analyze job into component tasks

Determine the importance of the tasks to effective job performance

Determine what job encumbents must do to perform the job well

Person Analysis

• Who needs training?• In what areas do they need training?• Sources of information to determine

a person’s training needs- formal performance appraisal- self appraisal- peer appraisal

Some Reasons Why Needs Analysis Is Not Done

1. Managers do not know what they want

2. Lack of a strong value orientation

3. Lack of priorities

4. Determining one’s values, objectives, and goals is hard work

5. Changing environment

6. Conflict over values, objectives, and goals

7. It may be politically expedient to be vague

Why Needs Analysis is Not Always a Good Idea

• Minimizes variation of skills• Is a top-down approach to knowing

what is best to do - Over-planned and centralized- over-reliance on experts- Time consuming, slow, and

can be unresponsive to fast-paced change

Alternatives to Needs-Based Training

• Allow employees select a percentage (40%) of training programs of their own choice- you never know what skills will be useful- people usually have a good idea of their own

strengths and limitations• Be tolerant of fads

- new information- imitation isn’t always a bad thing

Principles of Learning

Psychological principles, derived from

research, which suggest the optimal conditions for learning.

Some Principles of Learning

1. Motivation to learn2. Ability to learn3. Practice4. Knowledge of results5. Meaningfulness of material 6. Over learning

Low-tech Training Methods

What learning outcomes can each produce? What are the pros and cons of each?

• Lecture• Behavior• Role playing• Experiential groups• Case studies• Simulations• Guided trial and error• Internships• On-the-job training

High Technology Training Methods

What learning outcomes can each produce?What are the pros and cons of each?

•Video and cassette tapes•CD (computer) courses and modules•Web courses and modules•Interactive TV (ITV)•Virtual reality

Training and the World’s Best Runners

Which country dominates long distance running?

• Since 1968___________ has taken at least one gold medal in men’s middle and long distance events in each Olympic Game; it has also taken 14 silver and eight bronze medals.

• How high tech are this country’s training methods?

Training and the World’s Best Baseball Players

• Which country has produced more professional and major league baseball players than any country, apart from the United States?

• Which country has produced proportionately more players than any country, including the United States?

• How high tech are this country’s training methods?

Dear fellow-artist, why so free

with every sort of company,

With every Jack and Jill?

Choose your companions from the best;

Who draws a bucket with the rest,

Soon topples down the hill . . .

And I may dine at journey’s end

With Landor and with Donne.

-W. B. Yeats

The surest and fastest way to Improve is by playingWith better players.

Faye Young Miller and Wayne Coffey (Winning Basketball For Girls)

Situated Learning

• Learning is a social phenomenon

• Apprenticeship modelMoving from peripheral to full legitimate participationLearning from old timers

• Importance of identity development in learning

• Social context facilitates: Motivation, skills, feedback

The Development of Expertise

• The 10-year rule• Deliberate practice• Frequent, intensive practice• Rest and recuperation• Initial abilities make little difference• Practice changes abilities and physiology• Practice as the key to skill development

makes evolutionary sense

Training: The Bottom Line

• “You play the way you practice.”John Wooden (Former UCLA basketball

coach)

• If you want to acquire a skill and become skillful, you have to practice – a lot.

Skill Development

Time

Deliberate Practice Skill

Structure

Criteria for Evaluating Training Programs

ReactionsKnowledgeBehaviorResultsAttitudes and Values

Evaluating Training Programs

Think multidimensionally –Training programs usually have

Multiple effects

To what extent are criteria:Compatible IndependentContradictory

Evaluation Designs

1. Group T1 X T2

2. Experimental Group (R) T1 X T2

Control Group (R) T1 X T2

3. Group T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8

Additional Considerations In Training Evaluation

One-shot evaluation vs.constant vigilance andevolutionCritical mass of trainingWhen should criteria be measured

Multiple and latent functions of training

Training Recapitulation

1. The importance of training2. Needs analysis3. Conditions for training4. Principles of learning5. Learning environments6. Training techniques7. Training implementation8. Cross-cultural training9. Training evaluation