INDUSTRIAL/ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCH

Chapter 8

 Training
- Systematic acquisition of skills, rules, concepts, or attitudes that result in
improved performance
- Focuses of immediate needs and applications
- Job oriented
 Development
- Focuses on long-term needs and applications
- Career- oriented
- Emphasis on the individual
 Tips
1. Know your goal
2. You can’t have them all (training)
3. You don’t need all of them
- Because you already have the resources
- You can’t use them
4. Some programs can serve multiple goals
- Incentive
- Messages that they are important
5. Think growth
- Improving performance
6. Maximize

Determining Training Needs

 Needs Analysis
- The first step in developing an employee training system
- To determine the type of training needed in the organization
- Extent to which the training is a practical means of achieving goals
- Types: organizational task, person
 Organizational Analysis
- Determine organizational factors that either facilitate or inhibit training
effectiveness
- Establish goals and objectives
- Economic analysis
- Person power analysis and planning
- Climate and attitude surveys
- Resource analysis
 Task Analysis
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- To use the job analysis to identify the tasks performed by each employee, the
conditions which the tasks are performed and the competencies
- To determine how the employee learned each task
- Task inventories, interviews, performance appraisals, observations, job
descriptions
 Person Analysis
- Determining which employees need training and in which areas
- Based on the recognition that not every employee needs further training for
every task performed

a. Performance Appraisal Scores

- Low ratings on a particular dimension may indicate additional training for that
dimension
- If most employees score high, then relatively little time will be given for
training in the dimension
- Problems: rating errors, rarity of employees only scoring high or low, may not
provide the type of info. needed to conduct training needs analysis
b. Survey
- Asks employees what knowledge and skills they believe should be included in
future training
- Strengths: Eliminate performance rating error, employees know their
strengths and weaknesses best, training needs can be determined without
prior information
- Weaknesses: employees might not be honest, the organization might not be
able to afford the suggestions
c. Interview
- Done with a selected number of employees
- Strengths: Can yield more in-depth answers, shows employees feelings and
attitudes
- Weakness: Difficult to quantify its results
d. Skills and Knowledge Test
- Tests will be administered to determine which skills or knowledge need to be
trained
- If many scored poorly then training across org. is indicated
- If only a few scored poorly then they are singled out for individual training
- Weakness: few tests are available for this purpose
e. Critical Incidents
- Incidents are sorted out into dimensions separated into examples of either
good or poor performance
- Examples of poor performance will indicate training
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Develop Training Program

 Goals and Objectives should concretely state the following:

- What learners are expected to do
- The conditions which they are expected to do it
- The level which they are expected to do it
 Motivating Employees
- Employees must be motivated to: attend training, perform well in training,
apply the training to their jobs

a. Relate training to an employee’s actual job

- Just in time instead of just in case
b. Make training interesting
c. Increase employee buy-in
- Give them a choice in what type of they want to join in
d. Provide incentives
e. Provide food
f. Reduce stress associated with attending
- Her workload might pile up

Motivating Employees to Perform Well in Training

 Provide Incentives for learning
- Skill-based pay: an employee participates in a training program that is
designed to increase a particular skill then get either promoted or receive a
raise if they do improve that skill
 Make it interesting
 Feedback
- Determining the correctness of a behavior without feedback is hard
- Too much feedback will cause frustration
- Negative feedback: should be accompanied by specific suggestions on how
employees can improve their performance

Motivating Employees to Use Their Training on the Job

 Set work atmosphere
 Give opportunity to apply skills
 Let them set goals
 Let teams learn together
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- They will help, encourage, and coach each other

Choosing the Best Training Method
Classroom Instruction
 Seminar, lecture, workshop
 Most common training method
 Pre-Training
- Training Curriculum
a. 16, 30, 50 hours to prepare depending on the knowledge and the available
support materials
- Venue/Duration
a. Massed versus distributed practice: if we distribute the material then it will
be relatively easier to memorize, if we mass learn the material then it will
be hard to retain
- Resource Persons
a. In-house trainers if the training will be presented frequently, and if it’s too
specific for the org.
b. External trainers when the trainers in the org. lack the expertise
- Learning Materials
- Audience
a. Consider the size, demographic, and ability of the audience
 During Training
- Introducing the trainer and training session
a. Short and should establish the credentials
b. Objectives, schedules, rules
 Using Icebreakers and Energizers
- Goal
a. The most common goal is to get people to know each other
b. To get them talking
c. To get them to think about the topic
- Length of the training session
- Nature of the audience
a. Certain types of ice breakers work better for some groups than others
 Using case studies to apply knowledge
- Applying knowledge and learning problem solving skills
- Living case: the case studies are most effective if they are from real situations
a. Problem is relevant
b. The solution can actually be used
- Employees should be taught the key principles first, so they can apply it in the
future
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 Using simulation exercises to practice new skills

- Simulation: allows trainees to practice newly learned skill
 Practicing interpersonal skills through role playing and behavior modeling
- Roleplay: acting out simulated roles
a. Real play: practice their skills of actual costumers
b. Play the “other person” to understand who they are working with
- Behavior modeling
a They roleplay ideal behavior instead of behavior that they would normally
perform
b Making them watch how the problem is supposed to be done first
 Using Structured Learning Exercise
- Experiential Learning Theory
a. Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the
transformation of experience
b. Concrete Experience -> Reflective Observation-> Abstract
Conceptualization(learning)-> Active Experimentation (trying what you
have learned)
 Experiential learning
1. Focusing: getting the group on track
2. Experiencing: SLE
3. Reflecting: Processing and presenting
4. Thinking: Theory input
5. Modifying: feedback to students
6. Practicing: Skill, practice, knowledge, and attitude application
7. Integrating: Summarizing

Other Methods
 Distance Learning
- Allows employees to work in their own pace
- Programmed Instructions:
a. Self-paced
b. Actively involved
c. Presents information in small units
- Computer-based an E-learning
- Interactive video
a. Employees choose their response to the situation and the computer will
show the result
- Webinars; web seminars, interactive
- Webcasts: training programs over the web, one-way communication
- Blogs and Wikis: employees can immediately share and gather information
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 On-the-Job Training
- An informal training by experienced peers and supervisors that occurs on the
job and during job tasks
 Learning by modeling others
- Social learning theory
- Modeling: employees learn by watching how other employees perform
- Characteristics of the model
a. similar to us
b. successful
c. have status
- Characteristics of the observer
a. must pay attention
b. must be able to retain information
c. must have the ability or skill to reproduce the behavior
 Learning through job rotation
- Employees perform several different jobs within an organization
- For mangers to understand how each jobs works
- In order for employees to become flexible in times of needs
- Cross-training: training in different fields of the org.
- Reduces boredom
 Learning through apprentice training
- Apprentice training: working with an expert for several years to learn a
particular trade or become eligible to join a trade union
- Formal classes + OJT
- Apprentice: valuable information, Expert: Cheap labor
- Focuses on production of work instead of skills, not all employees apply to the
same company
 Coaching
- a more experienced or skilled individual provides advice and guidance to
help:
a. develop skills
b. improve performance
c. enhance quality of his/her career
 Mentoring
- A career development method whereby:
a. Less experienced employees are matched with more experienced
colleagues for guidance either through formal or informal programs
- Mentees: less experienced
- Mentors: more experienced
- To gain: knowledge, skills, experience, information, advice
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- The mentor facilitates the broad development of the mentee

a. Intellectual, personal, social

Coaching Mentoring
results relationship based
roles and skills person and career
facilitates learning Facilitates individual growth

Evaluation of training results

 Practicality& Scientific rigor
 Pretest>Training>Posttest
- Hard to interpret without a control group
 Experimental groups and Control groups
- Exp: Pre>Train>Post,
- Control: Pre>Post
- The control group might be different from the experimental group
 Solomon-four-groups
a. Train>Posttest
b. Pre>Train>Post
c. Pre>Post
d. Post
- Controls pretest effects and outside effects
- Often not practical

Evaluation Criteria Pt.1

1. Content Validity
- Comparing training content with the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to
perform a job
2. Employee Reactions
- Asking the employee what they learned and if they enjoyed it
- Influenced by employee motivation, trainer’s style and interaction, and
perceptions of organizational support
3. Employee Learning
- Test whether the employee actually learned anything
- Pre and posttest
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4. Application of Training
- The extent to which employees can actually use the learned materials
5. Business Impact
- Whether the goals for training were met
6. Return on Investment (ROI)
- After accounting the cost on training, did the company actually save money
- Success: the revenue increases and it compensates for the cost of training
LEVEL 4: Results Outcome  Payoff for the company
 Ex. Increased product,
reduced turnover
LEVEL 3: Affective and Behavior  Attitude and motivations
Outcomes  Improvement of behavior in
the job
LEVEL 2: Cognitive Outcomes  Degree to which trainees are
familiar w/ principles, facts,
techniques, procedures which
were emphasized in the
program
LEVEL 1: Reaction Outcomes  Trainees’ perception of the
program

Evaluation Criteria Pt.2

1. Training Validity
- Trainees’ learning during the training
2. Transfer Validity
- To what extent did the KSAOs lead to improved performance
3. Intra-organization Validity
- Did the performance of the trainees change and improve within the context of
the organization?
4. Inter-organizational Validty
- Can a training program that worked in one org. be used for another org. and
also get successful results?
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Non-training Interventions
 Job Aids
- Additional materials that employees can use to make their performance better
- E.g. cheat sheet to follow, process notes
 Brown bag meetings
- Informal gathering where employees get to share ideas, interests, learn from
each other
- Sharer: will share their expertise
- Not necessarily connected to the job
- Rapport building, communication skills, critical thinking
 Participation in working Committees
- Help build skills w/o undergoing training
- You can do things in line with your interest
 Other learning materials
- E.g. Poster with tips, employee’s fair about stress management