Prepared for UHS2062 students at UTM
by Siti Rokiah Siwok
October 2011
srsiwok@gmail.com
Training
 Why?
 When?
 What?
 Who?
 How?
Introduction
 Training is the “systematic acquisition of skills, rules,
concepts, or attitudes that result in improved
performance” (Goldstein & Ford, 2002 in Aamodt,
2007).
 Training can also be defined as “an organized efforts
by an organization to provide employees with
structured opportunities to learn and to develop
within their work-roles”(Arnold, 2005).
The Importance of Training
 For new employees.
 When the organization is in difficulty in finding
applicants for the job; training compensates for the
inability for the desired applicants.
 Job change
 Change within the employees.
 Arrival of new tools or technologies within the
organization.
 “There is always room for improvement”.
The Importance of Training
 Training is recognized to be very important;
organizations put priority to it by allocating a
substantial amount of the organization’s budget.
 Considered central to an organization.
 Some organization goes to the extent of putting
training as one of the organization mission’s statement
(Aamodt, 2007).
 Paying high wages to trainers.
The Importance of Training
 Training and development has the potential to benefit
individuals , organizations and society as a whole.
 Consequence of training : employees can develop
skills , increase promotion opportunities , participate
in various organization’s activities and has “career
mobility”.
 Skilled workers work faster and paid more attention to
safety; thus less mistakes and produce high-quality
works.
 Economic competitiveness is skill-based related.
The training cycle: an overview
Needs
Analysis
Training
Evaluation
Training
Design
(Arnold, 2005, pg 359 )
A Model for Successful Employee
Training Programme
• Assessing Training Needs
1
• Establish Training Objectives
2
• Develop and Test Training Materials
3
4
• Implement Training Programme
5
• Evaluate Training Programme
(Riggio, 2009, page 162)
Why the need to do needs
analysis?
Determining Training Needs
 The first step is to a conduct needs analysis (Noe,
2005 in Aamodt, 2007) .
 Meta-analysis indicates that training is more effective
when needs analysis is done prior to the creation of the
training programme ( Arthur, Bennett, Edens and Bell,
2003, in Aamodt 2010)
 The purpose of needs analysis is to :
 To determine types of training needed by the
organization.
 To ascertain the extent to which the training is the
means to achieve the organizational goals.
Needs Analysis
Typical needs analysis include:
 Organizational analysis
 Task analysis
 Person analysis
(Goldstein & Ford, 2002 in Aamodt, 2007)
Needs Analysis: Demographic
Analysis
 Needs analysis has also to be done on demographic
level ( Latham, 1988 in Riggio, 2009)
 Demographic analysis involves identifying the
specific training needs of various demographic
groups such as men and women, certain ethnic
minorities and employees of different age groups
Training Needs Assessment Process
(Aamodt 2010, pg 289)
Organizational Analysis (OA)
 The purpose of OA is to determine those
organizational factors that either facilitate or inhibit
training effectiveness.
 Examples of inhibiting organizational factors:
 Not enough money to fund the training
 Cannot afford employees to be away for training,
 Personnel not wishing to train employees (as they tend
to leave the organization after a short period of time).
Organizational Analysis (OA)
 Proper OA will focus :
 On the goals the organization wants to achieve.
 The extent the training will help achieve the
goals.
 The organization’s ability to conduct training.
 The extent to which the employees are willing
and able to be trained (survey of employees
readiness may be included).
(McCabe, 2001 in Aamodt, 2007)
Task analysis (TA)
 TA is done after the organizational analysis shows that
a positive organizational climate for training exists.
 Using the job analysis method, TA identifies :
 the tasks performed by each employee.
 The conditions under which these tasks are
performed.
 The competencies needed to perform the tasks under
the indentified conditions.
Task Analysis (TA)
 If the job analysis has been properly done, and the job
descriptions have been detailed, the TA would be
fairly easy and does not take much time.
 If the job analysis has not been done, the TA process
can be expensive and time consuming.
 Once the task and competencies for a job have been
indentified, the next step is to determine how
employees learn to perform each task or obtain each
competency.
Task Analysis (TA)
 TA is usually done by listing tasks in one column
and how tasks are learned in a second column.
Person Analysis
 The third and final step in the needs analysis process
is determining which employees need training and
in which areas.
 Person analysis is based on the premise that not every
employee needs further training for every task
performed.
 To determine the individual training needs for each
employee, person analysis utilizes performance
analysis scores, surveys, interviews, skills and
knowledge tests and /or critical incidents techniques.
Person Analysis: Using
Performance Appraisal Scores
 This is the easiest method as low ratings on a
dimension for most employees indicates the need for
training.
Performance appraisal however scores has three
disadvantages:
 Rating errors which reduces accuracy.
 Making the wrong conclusion by examining the
“average”.
 If not specific enough the performance appraisal score
will not provide useful information.
Person Analysis: Surveys
 A survey is another common approach to determine
the training needs ; which offers several advantages ,
such as:
 Eliminate performance rating errors
 Giving opportunity for employees to self rate
(assumption: employees know their strengths and
weaknesses best)
 In cases where effective performance appraisal system
and adequate job descriptions are not available, surveys
can provides information to determine training needs.
Person analysis: surveys
 The main disadvantages of surveys:
 Employees may not be honest.
 The organization may not be able to
afford the training as suggested by the
employees.
Person analysis: interviews
 Interview is another method in needs analysis .
 Usually done with selected number of employees,
yielding in-depth answers to questions regarding
training needs (Patton & Pratt 2002 in Aamodt, 2007).
 The main advantage with interviews is that it will
reveal more clearly the needs than with survey
approach.
 Data obtained from interviews can be analyzed using
the various qualitative methods of data analysis.
Various software are currently available such as Nvivo
and ATLAS.ti
Person analysis: Skills and
knowledge test
 Skills and knowledge test is another way of
determining training needs.
 Examples : knowledge of lending laws for loan officers,
knowledge of company policies for new employees etc.
 If employees score poorly, that means there is a need
for training as a whole ; or if only a few employees
score poorly, then there is a need for individualized
training.
 The challenge for using this method to determine
training needs is the availability of test.
Person Analysis: Critical incidents
Techniques (CIT)
 CIT is not a common method used to determine training
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

needs.
First developed and used by John Flanagan and his
students in late 1940 and early 1950.
CIT is used to discover actual incidents of job behaviors
that make a difference between successful and
unsuccessful performance.
Advantage: It is relatively easy to use especially if a proper
job analysis is available.
Drawback: As CIT emphasis on the difference between
excellent and poor performance, routine duties tend to be
overlooked.
Training Design( Developing a
Training Programme)
 Training design is the second component in the
training cycle.
 Training design relates to the content of the training
program including the information presented to the
trainees and the methods of how the information to be
conveyed.
 As training is designed to bring about changes in
people’s behavior through acquisition of knowledge
and skills, thus how training is delivered is crucial.
Developing a training programme
Establish Goals and Objectives
2. Motivate employees
3. Choosing the best training method
1.
Goals and Objectives
 Realistic
 Specific and concrete
 What employees are expected to do
 The conditions under which they are expected to do.
 The level at which they are expected to do.
Motivating Employees
 Motivating employees to attend training.
 Motivating employees to perform well in training.
 Motivating employees to apply training to their
jobs.
Choosing Training Methods
 Training methods consideration includes :
 Training media (lecture, or video or computer
etc ).
 Who conducts the training?
 Where the learning takes place (in a lecture
hall? Or in learners’ homes? etc.)
 Training approaches.
 Duration
 Sequencing of the materials.
Training Methods: Approach
 It is important to understand how people learn;
therefore the need to understand learning theories.
 Learning theories represent ideas about how learning
occurs and provides directions within training
practices by identifying the most appropriate
methods of instructions (Arnold, 2005).
Learning Theories
 There is no single universally accepted theory for
learning process(Arnold, 2005);
 However, regardless of perspectives, theories share
several instructional commonalities that enhance
learning(Schunk, 2008) :
 Learners progress through stages or phases
 Material should be organized and presented in small
steps
 Learners require practice, feedback and review
 Social models facilitate learning and motivation
 Motivation and contextual factors influence learning
Learning Theories
 Among the learning theories are:
 Behavior Theory
 Social Cognitive Theory
Behavior Theory
 This theory focuses on observable behavior, not
thoughts or feelings.
 B.F. Skinner, a famous behaviorist, distinguished
between two types of behavior: respondent and
operant.
Behavior Theory
 Respondent behavior refer s to the kind of behavior
shown during classical conditioning when a stimulus
triggers a natural reaction (such as salivation in
Pavlov’s dogs) or other automatic responses such as
excitement and fear.
 Operant behavior ( behavior that operates on the
environment) are forms of behavior which are not
the result of simple automatic responses.
 According to Skinner, operant behavior is learned and
strengthened by a process of operant conditioning.
Behavior Theory
 Thus learning is the result from strengthen stimulus (S) –
response (R) links through reinforcing appropriate behavior
(reward).
 Example:
The senior supervisor in department A has been asked to speak
on behalf of the department A manager at a dinner party
(stimulus){the manager had a bad sore throat}. The senior
supervisor agreed (response), although he was scared of public
speaking. During the dinner party, the senior supervisor
managed to give his speech and the manager smiled and nodded
in agreement to what has been said by the senior supervisor
(reward/reinforcement ).
The effect of the reward/reinforcement is that most likely the
senior supervisor will agree to give more public speaking in the
future.
Behavior approach
 The process of operant conditioning is often described
in a three-term framework : antecedents (A), behavior
(B) and consequences (C).
 Antecedents refer to the conditions or stimuli
preceding the behavior.
 Consequences refer to the reinforcement (or
punishment) that the behavior produce.
 With animals, the reinforcement often take in the
form of food, while in humans – variety : smiles, gifts,
money, compliments etc .
Behavior Theory
 In general, reinforcement is anything which follows
an operant behavior and increases the probability that
the behavior will be repeated.
 The behavior research in operant learning provides
rich information into learning experience, which can
be applied in a wide range of organizational and
various contexts.
Social Cognitive Theory
 Social Cognitive Theory originated from the work of
N. E. Miller & J. Dollard in 1941. Their proposition
posits that if humans were motivated to learn a
particular behavior, that particular behavior would be
learned through clear observations. By imitating these
observed actions the individual observer would
solidify that learned action and would be rewarded
with positive reinforcement (Miller & Dollard, 1941).
The proposition of social learning was expanded upon
and theorized by Albert Bandura from 1962 to the
present (Wikepedia)
Social Cognitive Theory
 Social cognitive theory stresses the idea that much of
human learning occurs in social environment.
 Assumptions within the social cognitive theory, are
(Schunk, 2008):
 Interactions between persons , behaviors and
environments are reciprocal (diagram in the next slide)
 Learning occurs either enactively (through actual doing)
or vicariously (observing models perform)
 There is a distinction between learning and
performance.
Reciprocal Interactions
person
environment
behavior
Social Cognitive Theory: Enactive
and Vicarious Learning
 Enactive learning involves learning from the
consequences of one’s actions; behaviors which
results in successful consequences are maintained
while those results in unsuccessful consequences are
refined or discarded (Schunk, 2008)
 Social cognitive theory contends that behavioral
consequences serves as sources of information and
motivation rather than strengthening behavior as
proposed by operant theory (Schunk, 2008).
Social Cognitive Theory: Enactive
and Vicarious Learning
 Consequences informs people of the accuracy or
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appropriateness of behavior.
People who succeed at a task or are rewarded
understand that they are performing well .
People who fail or are punished know that they did
something wrong and will try to correct the problem.
Consequences motivate people.
In social cognitive theory, people’s cognition, rather
than consequences affect learning.
Social Cognitive Theory: Enactive
and Vicarious learning
 According to the social cognitive theory, much of
human learning occurs vicariously (that is without
overt performance by the learner at the time of
learning), such as observing or listening to models
who are live (in person), symbolic or nonhuman(e.g
cartoon characters), electronic (television, computer,
videotape) etc
 Vicarious learning also save people from personally
experiencing negative consequences.
Social Cognitive Theory: Learning
and Performance
 Social cognitive theorists assert that learning and
performance are distinct processes (Schunk, 2008), in
contrast to the behaviorist which contend that learning
involves connecting responses to stimuli or responses and
consequences.
 According to the social cognitive theory, although much
learning occurs by doing, we learn a great deal by
observing; thus modeling is a critical component in this
theory.
 Whether we ever perform what we learned through
observation depends on various factors such as motivation,
interest etc.
Training methods
 Classroom
 On-the-job Training
 Distance learning
Classroom Training
 Preparation
 Delivery
 Methods to help employees apply training to jobs
 Case studies
 Simulation
 Role play
 Behaviour modelling
On-the-job Training
 Learning through Modelling
 Learning through Job Rotation
 Learning through Apprentice Training
 Learning through Coaching and Mentoring
Training through Distance Learning
 Utilizes the concept of programmed instruction.
 Media materials
 Computer –based training or web-based
Instruction
Ensuring Transfer of training
 Similarity of training situations to actual job
situations.
 Lots of practice. The concept of “overlearning”.
 Practice in different situations as possible.
 Lots of opportunities and encouragement.
Evaluation of Training Results
 Various designs for evaluation of training
 Challenges in the various designs.
 Evaluation criteria : content validity, employee
reactions, employee learning, application of
training, business impact, return on investment.
References:
 Aamodt, M.G (2010). Industrial /organizational
psychology. An applied approach (6th ed.)Belmont,
CA: Thomson
 Riggio, R. E( 2009). Introduction to Industrial
Organizational psychology (5th ed) New York : Harper
Collins
 Aamodt, M.G (2007). Industrial /organizational
psychology. An applied approach. Belmont, CA:
Thomson
 Schunk, D. H (2008). Learning Theories. An
Educational Perspective (5th ed). New Jersey: Pearson