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The Training Context
Dr. Steve
Training & Development
INP6325
What is Training?
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U.K. Dept of employment – The systematic
development of the attitudes/knowledge/skill
behavior pattern required by an individual in order
to perform adequately on a given task or job
Goldstein – The acquisition of skills, concepts, or
attitudes that result in improved performance in
another environment
Training vs. Education
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Both involve instruction
Learning is necessary, but not sufficient to be considered
training
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Must have improved performance
Performance may not reflect learning
Education aims at developing knowledge and
understanding across a broad spectrum of activities
(language, creativity, social influences, etc.)
Glaser’s criteria to differentiate training and education
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2.
Degree of specificity of objectives
Whether aim is to minimize or maximize individual differences
Training vs. Selection vs. Human
Factors
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Training tries to improve KSAs at job
Personnel selection tries to select people with
appropriate skills for the job
Human factors tries to design tasks for known
KSAs of people
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Which option one chooses depends on:
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Availability of labor & money
Current practices of the organization
Time constraints
Availability of expert advice
Equipment being used
Attitudes of workers and management
Trends in human resources
Training Contexts
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Any occupation, sport, activity (e.g., driving)
Training new workers
Refresher training
Train to keep up with technology, laws, procedures
Training & Applied Psychology
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Apply psychological principles and scientific model
to training
Empirical studies to solve training problems
Training evaluation held to rigor of scientific
method (e.g., control group, statistics).
Training solution generalizes to other problems
Importance of Training
$55 billion/year spent on training ($40 bill in previous edition)
 91% of orgs train middle management*
 75% of orgs conduct sales training*
 56% of orgs conduct secretarial training*
 51% of orgs conduct executive development*
 44% of orgs conduct technical training*
Examples demonstrating importance
 FAA replaces simulator training time for actual flight time
 Polaroid spent $700,000 to train 1,000 workers math &
english
 How much will now be spent on counter-terrorism training?
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* percentages of fortune 500 orgs
Associations for Trainers
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American Society for Training & Development (ASTD)
www.astd.org
Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP)
www.siop.org
American Psychological Association (APA) www.apa.org
American Psychological Society (APS) www.aps.org
American Educational Research Association (AERA)
www.aera.net
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
www.shrm.org
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES)
www.hfes.org
What Trainers Do
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Needs analysis & diagnosis
Determine appropriate training approach
Program design and development
Develop material resources
Manage internal resources
Manage external resources
Individual development planning and counseling
Job/Performance-related training
Conduct Classroom training
Conduct group & org development training
Conduct research
Manage working relations with managers and clients
Manage the training & development function
Ethical Considerations for Trainers
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Overselling training program
Compromising confidentiality
Mistreatment of trainees
Voluntary consent
Discrimination
Cost Effectiveness
Accurate Portrayal
Competency in Training
Values
Training Delivery Methods
1.
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Classroom lecture
Videotape
Workbooks
Business books
Audiotape
Computer-Based Training
CD-ROM
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Videoconference
Multimedia
Audioconference
Videodiscs
Electronic Performance
Support Systems
Intranet
Internet
Goals of Training
Why Train?
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Improve product quality
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Increase production efficiency
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Improve safety
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Meet customer demands
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Improve worker health: decrease absenteeism
and insurance costs
Obstacles facing trainers
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Organizations rarely evaluate training
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42% of orgs had no evaluation plan
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Organizations want a quick fix
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27% of orgs never do needs assessment
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Most of those with plan only evaluated whether trainees liked the
program (reaction criteria)
Don’t know whether training is best solution without it
Reason for both: Bottom line $$$$
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Orgs must be convinced of the importance of developing
training the right way
How Needs for Training are Changing
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Workforce will grow more slowly
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Proportion of entry level Whites will decline
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Many new workers (16-24) will not possess necessary
skills
1/3 of all new employees will be from minority pops
600,000 immigrants/year enter U.S., 400,000 taking jobs
Workforce will include more older workers and
women
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2/3 of all new employees will be women, 61% of all
working age women hold jobs
Impact of Technology
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Need for computer skills
Less physical labor, more programming &
monitoring
More service orgs, less production
Ramifications For Training
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Re-training
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Skills training
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Displaced manufacturing workers will need to learn skills
for service-oriented jobs
High demand for skilled workers creates a worker
shortage
Educational systems
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Programs such as technical high school will have to take
some of the burden of teaching entry-level skills
What skills will be required?
U.S. Dept of Labor suggests the following KSAs:
 Ability to assess information
 Ability to understand worksystems (big picture)
 Computer/High Tech skills
 Interpersonal skills
Other Training Issues
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Legal Aspects
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Training one part of larger system
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Training development and delivery must not be
discriminatory
Social factors (group dynamics, roles, norms, etc.)
Environment (economic market, technology, etc.)
Alternatives to training
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Job re-design / Human factors
Personnel Selection
Dogbert Solutions for Training
- Dogbert’s Top Secret Management Handbook (Adams)
Your employees will often whine about the need for training.
Try to ignore them. Training can lead to no good. In the
short term it causes missed work. In the long term it
causes employees to leave for jobs that pay a living wage.
Nobody wins when that happens.
 Your first line of defense is logic. Try to talk your employees
out of taking training classes by using this bulletproof
argument:
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“why do you need all of these technical training classes? I didn’t
need any training to do this job.”