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Introduction

Since the beginning of the twentieth century and especially after World War II, training programs have
become widespread among organizations in the United States, involving more and more employees and
also expanding in content. In the 1910s, only a few large companies such as Westinghouse, General
Electric, and International Harvester had factory schools that focused on training technical skills for
entry-level workers. By the 1990s, forty percent of the Fortune 500 firms have had a corporate
university or learning center. In recent decades, as the U.S. companies are confronted with technological
changes, domestic social problems and global economic competition, training programs in organizations
have received even more attention, touted as almost a

panacea

for organizational problem. The enormous expansion in the content of training programs over time has
now largely been taken for granted. Now people would rarely question the necessity of training in
conversational skills. However, back to the 1920s, the idea that organizations should devote resources
to training employees in such skills would have been regarded as absurd. Such skills clearly were not
part of the exact knowledge and methods that the employee will use on his particular job or the job just
ahead of him. Nevertheless, seventy years later, eleven percent of U.S. organizations deem
communications skills as the most important on their priority lists of training, and many more regard it
as highly

important. More than three hundred training organizations specialize in communications training
(Training and Development Organizations Directory, 1994). Previous studies on training have largely
focused on the incidence of formal training and the total amount of training offered. This study,
however, draws attention to the enormous expansion in the content of training with an emphasis on the
rise of personal development training (or popularly known as the "soft skills" training, such as
leadership, teamwork, creativity, conversational skills and time management training). Personal
development training can be defined as training programs that aim at improving one's cognitive and
behavioral skills in dealing with one self and others. It is intended to develop one's personal potential
and is not immediately related to the technical aspects of one's job tasks. Monahan, Meyer and Scott
(1994) describe the spread of personal development training programs based on their survey of and
interviews with more than one hundred organizations in Northern California. "Training programs
became more elaborate; they incorporated, in addition to technical training for workers and human
relations training for supervisors and managers, a widening array of developmental, personal growth,
and self-management courses. Courses of this nature include office professionalism, time management,
individual contributor programs, entrepreneur, transacting with people, and applying intelligence in the
workplace, career management, and structured problem solving. Courses are also offered on health and
personal well-being, including safe diets, exercise, mental health, injury prevention, holiday health,
stress and nutrition."

Training Excuses

Training is one element many corporations consider when looking to advance people and offer
promotions. Although many employees recognize the high value those in management place on training
and development, some employees are still reluctant to be trained. It is not uncommon to hear excuses
regarding why someone has not received training.

Some people are just comfortable in what they are doing. Some fail to see the value of training because
they really believe that they already know it all. And while that might be true, the knowledge value of
training and development is not the only perk. Training and development offers more than just
increased knowledge. It offers the added advantage of networking and drawing from others‘
experiences. When you attend a seminar or event with others who have jobs that are much like yours,
you have the added benefit of sharing from life experience. The seminar notes or the conference leader
might not give you the key nugget you take back and implement in the workplace. Your best piece of
advice for the day might come from the peer sitting beside you. Another common excuse is that there is
not enough money budgeted to pay for training. Who said that training always carries a heavy
enrollment fee? Training can be free. You can set up meetings with peers who are in similar positions
and ask how they are doing their jobs. Follow someone for a day to see how he organizes or manages
his work and time. The cost to you is a day out of your normal routine, so the only drawback may be
working a little harder on an assignment to catch up from a day out of the office. You usually don‘t think
twice about taking a day of vacation, so why should a day of training be any different? Time is another
often-heard excuse when training and development is mentioned. Have you considered that training
and development might actually give you more time? Often the procedures, ideas, short cuts, and
timesaving hints learned in training and development sessions equal more time in the long run. Have
you heard the old saying that you have to spend money to make money? Well, in a sense, the same is
true for training and development. You have to devote some time to training and development to make
you more productive in the long run.

What is Training in terms of organization?

Transferring information and knowledge to employers and equipping employers to translate that
information and knowledge into practice with a view to enhancing organization effectiveness and
productivity, and the quality of the management of people.

It also means that in organizational development, the related field of training and development (T & D)
deals with the design and delivery of workplace learning to improve performance.
Difference between Training and Learning

There is a big difference:

 'Training' implies putting skills into people, when actually we should be developing people from
the inside out, beyond skills, i.e., facilitating learning.
 So focus on facilitating learning, not imposing training.
 Emotional maturity, integrity, and compassion are more important than skills and processes. If
you are in any doubt, analyze the root causes of your organization's successes and your failures -
they will never be skills and processes.
 Enable and encourage the development of the person - in any way that you can.
 Give people choice - we all learn in different ways, and we all have our own strengths and
potential, waiting to be fulfilled.

Talk about learning, not training. Focus on the person, from the inside out, not the outside in; and offer
opportunities for people to develop as people in as many ways you can.

A Brief Critique of Previous Approaches to Employee Training

It is a classic question in the training field, first raised by human capital theorists, that why firms train
their employees. Many attempts have been made to address this question, but the question of why
firms provide general-skill training has not been fully understood. There have been two main theoretical
approaches towards employee training, namely, the human capital approach and the technology-based
approach. The human capital approach regards training as investment in human capital. Training is
provided only when the benefit from productivity gains is greater than the cost of training. The
technology-based approach regards training as a skill formation process. According to this approach, the
expanded training in the contemporary period is driven by the rapidly changing technologies and work
reorganization. These two approaches are popular in academic and policy discussions. What they have
in common is that they assume an instrumental logic and technical rationality behind training decisions.
Training is provided because it satisfies the functional needs of an organization. Studies with these
approaches have largely overlooked the content of employee training, as if all kinds of training programs
equally contribute to human capital accumulation or skill formation. Moreover, personal development
training becomes a puzzle if viewed from these approaches, because it does not seem to follow from an
instrumental logic or technical rationality.

The Puzzle about Personal Development Training

The puzzle about personal development training comes in the following four ways. First,

it is not innately or immediately related to the technical aspects of specific job tasks

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Second, prior

need analysis is rarely conducted for such training, despite suggestions to do so in many training
handbooks

. Third,

organizations and trainers seldom conduct evaluations of behavior or outcome changes brought out by
such training

. Evaluation, when there is one, is often about how one feels about the training or what one has learned.
The evaluation questionnaire is often called a

"smile sheet,"

as trainees often respond happily to the questions. But the impact of the training remains uncertain.
Fourth, the

rapid expansion of personal development training has taken place

in the absence of scientific evidence of any link between such training and improvement in
organizational bottom lines.

Core Argument

So, why have organizations increasingly engaged in personal development training? It is because that
the rise of the participatory citizenship model of organization over time has driven the expansion of
personal development training in organizations. This argument is based on an institutional perspective
towards organizations. It is distinct from previous approaches to training in two ways. First, it recognizes
that training is not only provided to satisfy functional needs of firms, but is also shaped by the shared
understanding about individuals and organizations, which is called "organizational model" in this study
and is independent of the functional needs. Second, training decisions are not only affected by the
internal conditions of an organization, but are also affected by the dominant ideologies and practices in
the organizational field.

Importance of Developing a Role in Training

Developing a national role in training is important for an employers' organization for several reasons.

First, it enables the organization to contribute to the development of a country's human capital, through
its influence on education policies and systems and training by public training institutions, to better
serve business needs. It also enables it to influence employers in regard to the need for them to invest
more in training and employee development - which employers should recognize as one key to their
competitiveness in the future. Second, it provides an important service to members, especially in
industrial relations in respect of which sources of training for employers in developing countries are few.
Third, it is an important source of income provided the organization can deliver relevant quality training.
Fourth, it compels its own staff to improve their knowledge without which they cannot offer training to
enterprises through their own staff. Fifth, the knowledge required for training increases the quality of
other services provided by the organization - policy lobbying, advisory and representation services.
Sixth, it contributes to better human relations at the enterprise level and therefore to better enterprise
performance, by matching corporate goals and people management policies. Finally, it improves the
overall image of the organization and invests it with a degree of professionalism, which can lead to
increased membership and influence. Many entrepreneurs seem to view employee training and
development as more optional than essential...a viewpoint that can be costly to both short-term profits
and long-term progress. The primary reason training is considered optional by so many business owners
is because it's viewed more as an expense than an investment. This is completely understandable when
you realize that in many companies, training and development aren't focused on producing a targeted
result for the business. As a result, business owners frequently send their people to training courses that
seem right and sound good without knowing what to expect in return. But without measurable results,
it's almost impossible to view training as anything more than an expense. Now contrast that approach to
one where training's viewed as a capital investment with thoughtful consideration as to how you're
going to obtain an acceptable rate of return on your investment. And a good place to start your
"thoughtful consideration" is with a needs analysis. As it relates to training and development, needs
analysis is really an

outcome analysis--what do you want out of this training? Ask yourself, "What's going to change in my
business or in the behavior or performance of my employees as a result of this training that's going to
help my company?" Be forewarned: This exercise requires you to take time to think it through and focus
more on your processes than your products. As you go through this analysis, consider the strengths and
weaknesses in your company and try to identify the deficiencies that, when corrected, represent a
potential for upside gain in your business. Common areas for improvement in many companies is
helping supervisors better manage for performance. Many people are promoted into managerial
positions because they're technically good at their jobs, but they aren't trained as managers to help
their subordinates achieve peak performance. Determining your training and development needs based
on targeted results is only the beginning. The next step is to establish a learning dynamic for your
company. In today's economy, if your business isn't learning, then you're going to fall behind. And a
business learns as its people learn. Your employees are the ones that produce, refine, protect, deliver
and manage your products or services every day, year in, year out. With the rapid pace and international
reach of the 21st century marketplace, continual learning is critical to your business's continued success.
To create a learning culture in your business, begin by clearly communicating your expectation that
employees should take the steps necessary to hone their skills to stay on top of their professions or
fields of work. Make sure you support their efforts in this area by supplying the resources they need to
accomplish this goal. Second, communicate to your employees the specific training needs and targeted
results you've established as a result of your needs analysis. Third, provide a sound introduction and
orientation to your company's culture, including your learning culture, to any new employees you hire.
This orientation should introduce employees to your company, and provide them with proper training in
the successful procedures your company's developed and learned over time.

Every successful training and development program also includes a component that addresses your
current and future leadership needs. At its core, this component must provide for the systematic
identification and development of your managers in terms of the leadership style that drives your
business and makes it unique and profitable. Have you spent time thoughtfully examining the style of
leadership that's most successful in your environment and that you want to promote? What steps are
you taking to develop those important leadership traits in your people? Financial considerations related
to training can be perplexing, but in most cases, the true budgetary impact depends on how well you
manage the first three components (needs analysis, learning and leadership). If your training is targeted
to specific business results, then you're more likely to be happy with what you spend on training. But if
the training budget isn't related to specific outcomes, then money is more likely to be spent on courses
that have no positive impact on the company. In many organizations, training budgets are solely a
function of whether the company is enjoying an economic upswing or enduring a downturn. In good
times, companies tend to spend money on training that's not significant to the organization, and in bad
times, the pendulum swings to the other extreme and training is eliminated altogether. In any economic
environment, the training expense should be determined by the targeted business results you want, not
other budget-related factors. To help counter this tendency, sit down and assess your training and
development needs once or twice a year to identify your needs and brainstorm how to achieve your
desired results effectively and efficiently. Your employees are your principle business asset. Invest in
them thoughtfully and strategically, and you'll reap rewards that pay off now and for years to come.

Beyond Training: Training and Development

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Training is generally defined as "change in behavior" - yet, how many trainers and managers forget that,
using the term training only as applicable to "skills training"? What about the human element? What
about those very same people we want to "train"? What about their individual beliefs, backgrounds,
ideas, needs and aspirations? In order to achieve long-term results through training, we must broaden
our vision to include people development as part of our strategic planning. Although training covers a
broad range of subjects under the three main categories (skills, attitude, knowledge), using the term
"training" without linking it to "development" narrows our concept of the training function and leads us
to failure. When we limit our thinking, we fall into the trap of: a.

Classifying people into lots and categories b.

Thinking of "trainees" as robots expected to perform a job function c.

Dismissing the individual characteristics of people and the roles they play d.

Focusing only on "what needs to be done" without adequately preparing the trainees involved to accept
and internalize what is being taught. We are dealing with human thoughts, feelings and reactions which
must be given equal attention than to the skill itself. We thus create a double-focus: people
development and skills training. These two simultaneous objectives will give us the right balance and
guide our actions to reach our goal. To clarify our training and development objectives, and identify our
criteria for success, we must ask ourselves a few questions:

Do we expect an automatic, faultless job performance?

Does attitude count?

Does goodwill count?

Do loyalty and dedication count?


Does goal-sharing count?

Does motivation count?

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Do general knowledge and know-how count?

Do people-skills count?

Does an inquisitive mind count?

Does initiative count?

Does a learning attitude count?

Does a sense of responsibility count?


Do team efforts count?

Do good work relations count?

Does creative input count?

Do we want employees to feel proud of their role and contribution? How can we expect such qualities
and behavior if we consider and treat our personnel as "skills performers"? However, we could achieve
the desired results if we address the personal development needs of the employees involved. When we
plan for both "training" and "development", we achieve a proper balance between the needs of the
company and those of the trainees. The synergy created takes us to new levels, to a continuing trend of
company growth. Our consideration of the people involved results in work motivation, goal-sharing, and
a sense of partnership. Not only do the employee-trainees perform at the desired levels, but they offer
to the company and its customers their hidden individual gifts and talents, and this reflects itself in the
quality of service. Customers feel and recognize efficient performance, motivation and team-work. They
become loyal customers. We can learn from the case of a small restaurant operator who had become
desperate at the negligent attitude of his servers, resulting in customer complaints. He decided to seek
professional expertise to help him replace his employees with "motivated, trained" people fresh out of a
waiter's training school. Following some probing questions it came to light that, besides hourly pay, he
did not offer much to attract and retain loyal and dedicated employees. Through professional
consultation, he came to realize that even if he paid higher wages to new "trained"

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employees, the problem would persist because employees want more than wages from their work
place. They want:


Organization and professional management

Information regarding the business and its customers

Recognition for their role in the company's success

Acknowledgement of their individual capacities and contributions

Positive discipline / fairness

A say in the way the business is run. The restaurant operator realized that until then he had treated his
employees as "plate carriers" and this is exactly how they had behaved and performed. He was ready to
change his mode of operation: he diverted his focus to the needs of his employees, re-structured his
organisation, planned new operational strategies, a human resources strategy, training and
development guidelines, disciplinary rules and regulations. He communicated and shared these in a
meeting with his employees and handed out the employee handbook prepared for that purpose. He also
reminded them of their responsibilities towards the business, the customers, and themselves (taking
charge of their own training, development, and work performance). They were more than pleased when
he asked them to express their opinions, make comments and suggestions. He was surprised at the
immediate transformation that took place. He began receiving excellent reviews from his customers, the
employees worked as a team, their motivation sky-rocketed and he never had to replace them! All this
was accomplished by extending the previous concept of training to that of training and people
development. Training and Development represents a complete whole that triggers the mind, emotions
and employees' best work performance. It is not only business managers and owners who must do this
shift in thinking, but Human Resources Directors and Training Managers (whose title should be "Training
and Development" Managers). By their actions, they should offer a personal example, coaching and
guiding all the people in an organisation to think "beyond training" and invest efforts in people:

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Professional development

Personal development. Contrary to what some

manager‘s

think, people do not quit a place of work as soon as they have grown personally and professionally
through training and development programs - at least they do not do so for a long while. They become
loyal to their employer and help him/her grows business-wise, which offers them more opportunities.
They chart their own course for career advancement within the broader framework of organizational
growth. Do we not call employees our "human resources asset"? Whatever their positions, each expect
to be treated as such; when they are, they give more than their physical presence at work.

Training & Evaluation

Training

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Improving business performance is a journey, not a destination. Business performance rises and falls
with the ebb and flow of human performances. HR professionals lead the search for ways to enhance
the effectiveness of employees in their jobs today and prepare them for tomorrow. Over the years,
training programmes have grown into corporate with these goals in mind. Training programmes should
enhance performance and enrich the contributions of the workforce. The ultimate goal of training is to
develop appropriate talent in the workforce internally. In India, training as an activity has been going on
as a distinct field with its own roles, structures and budgets, but it is still young. This field is however;
expanding fast but controversy seems to envelop any attempts to find benefits commensurate with the
escalating costs of training. Training has made significant contributions to development of all kinds.
Training is essential; doubts arise over its contribution in practice. Complaints are growing over its
ineffectiveness and waste. The training apparatus and costs have multiplied but not its benefits.
Dissatisfaction persists and is growing at the working level where the benefits of training should show up
most clearly. This disillusionment shows in many ways

reluctance to send the most promising people for training, inadequate use of personnel after training
etc. With disillusionment mounting in the midst of expansion, training has entered a dangerous phase in
its development. Training is neither a panacea for all ills nor is it a waste of time. What is required is an
insight into what training can or cannot do and skill in designing and carrying out training effectively and
economically. The searchlight of inquiry may make the task and challenges stand out too starkly, too
simply. Using experience with training in India and other rapidly developing countries has this advantage
at similar risk. The contribution that training can make to development is needed acutely and obviously.
At the same time, the limited resources available in these countries make this contribution hard to come
by. These lines are sharply drawn; on the one hand, no promise can be ignored; on the other, no waste
is permissible.

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Much of the training provided today proceeds as if knowledge and action were directly related. This
assumption is itself a striking illustration of the wide gulf that separates the two. On a continuum with
personal maturation and growth at one end and improvement in performance of predetermined tasks
at the other, education lies near the former, and training near the later. Focusing training on skill in
action makes the task wide and complex. Training embraces an understanding of the complex processes
by which various factors that make up a situation interact. For every training strategy, no matter which,
the proper focus right from the very outset is on one or more people

on-the-job-in-the-organization

this whole amalgam. Wherever the focus moves during the training programme, the starting point
becomes the focus again at the end. The difference lies in what people have learned that they now
apply. That difference, in terms of more effective behavior is the measure of the efficacy of training. The
training process is made up of three phases:

Phase 1: Pre-training

. This may also be called the preparation phase. The process starts with an understanding of the
situation requiring more effective behavior. An
organization‘s concerns before training lie mainly in four areas: Clarifying the precise

objectives of training and the use the organization expects to make of the participants after training;
selection of suitable participants; building favorable expectations and motivation in the participants
prior to the training; and planning for any changes that improved task performance will require in
addition to training.

Phase 2: Training

. During the course of the training, participants focus their attention on the new impressions that seem
useful, stimulating and engaging. There is no guarantee that the participants will in fact learn what they
have chosen. But the main purpose remains: participants explore in a training situation what interests
them, and a training

institution‘s basic task is to provide the necessary opportunities.

Having explored, participants try out some new behavior. If they find the new behavior useful, they try
it again, check it for effectiveness and satisfaction, try it repeatedly and

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improve it. Finally, they incorporate this new facet into their habitual behavior in the training situation.
If they do not find it useful, they discard it, try some variant, or discontinue learning in this direction. The
intricate process of selection and testing is continuous and more or less conscious. It is important that
work organizations meanwhile prepare the conditions for improved performance by their participants
upon their return.

Phase 3: Post-training.

This may be called the "follow up" phase. When training per se concludes, the situation changes. When
the participants return back to work from the training, a process of adjustment begins for everyone
involved. The newly learned skills undergo modification to fit the work situation. Participants may find
their organizations offering encouragement to use the training and also support for continuing contact
with the training institution. On the other hand, they may step into a quagmire of negativity. More
effective behavior of people on the job in the organization is the primary objective of the training
process as a whole. In the simplest training process, improvement is a dependent variable, and
participants and organizations independent variables. The training process has the following major
objectives:

1) Improvement in Performance

Training will be an important aid to managers for developing themselves as well as their subordinates. It
is not a substitute for development on the job, which comes from doing, experiencing, observing, giving
and receiving feedback and coaching. Research has
shown that 80% of a person‘s development takes place on the job. However, training can

contribute the vital 20% that makes the difference. Training can bring about an

improvement in a person‘s:

Knowledge

Skills

Attitude

Thereby raising his potential to perform better on the job.

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