Ladder of competencies for education middle managers in England

Utilising new empirical research this study adapts an existing literature-based competency framework into a hierarchy of competencies needed for education middle managers in England to be effective in their role. The study involved a national survey (n = 164) of further education middle managers and is the first quantitative study investigating the role since 2002. The original contribution of the study is the development of a new ladder of competencies for education middle managers which outlines a suggested ordering of competency development with due consideration to prior training and qualifications. This can enable an improved approach to recruitment, selection and development of education middle managers. The paper presents parameters for consideration when developing competency frameworks for roles more widely which include: prior training, experience, expectations, and challenges of the post-holder as well as the external working environment. It highlights the value of such considerations and demonstrates the importance in paying due regard to them.     

现代企业人力资源发展研究

现代企业的发展,离不开人力、物力、财力。而人力资源在三者之中又具有举足轻重的地位,不仅是三者联系的纽带,更是企业发展的关键因素。当前,现代企业人力资源发展过程中存在着招聘门槛设置不合理,员工培训制度不完善,激励机制不健全,企业文化建设不成熟等问题。加快现代企业人力资源管理的发展,应建立良好的聘用机制,重视员工的培训,完善激励机制,加强企业文化宣传建设,增强员工的主人公意识,减少人才的流失。     

International briefing 34: training and development in Spain

This article locates training and development in Spain within the country's socio‐economic context. It maps the major changes which have been introduced into the training and development system since the briefing by Escardíbul and Llinas‐Audet published in this journal in 2010. It relates those changes to the ongoing economic crisis which began in 2009 and the growing emphasis on employers’ demands in the design of the training system. Finally, it identifies the challenges presented to Spanish policy‐makers by a number of weaknesses in the current system. The Spanish experience is particularly relevant for countries in which social partner involvement and a significant small and medium‐sized enterprise (SME) presence are important issues in the development of their training system. It is also particularly useful for those countries in Latin America whose training systems have been influenced by the Spanish model.     

A note on export-platform Foreign Direct Investment,training and absorptive capacity

The empirical literature on FDI suggests that investment in training is the major source of human resource development activities undertaken by MNEs, particularly those with sophisticated technologies, and host countries' absorptive capacity plays an important role in attracting FDI. We develop a model of export-platform FDI that provides theoretical rationalisation of the role played by a host country's absorptive capacity in determining MNEs' location decisions as well as their level of investment and training–and, through this, the extent to which they contribute to human capital formation in the host country.     

Case Studies in Job Analysis and Training Evaluation

Job analysis identifies work behaviors and associated tasks that are required for successful job performance. Job analysis is widely recognised as a starting point in a needs analysis for training and development activities. The content validity justification for basing training on a job analysis can be used for training evaluation. Effective training should only have an impact on job tasks significantly related to successful job performance. This article presents two examples of the use of job analysis for training evaluation: evaluation of an information technology certification and evaluation of training for a professional association of librarians.     

Unlocking the potential to influence government skills policy: a case study of the UK construction industry

Despite a series of national policy initiatives aimed at addressing skills shortages in a number of sectors, little evidence of longer‐term change is apparent. This paper examines concerns expressed by small businesses that their local views are not sought or considered when national training policies and initiatives are either being developed or being implemented, and that the investment in skills development does not appear to adequately represent their skills needs. The research was carried out on the UK construction industry, which is characterized by a small number of large contractors who employ mainly managerial and professional staff, and a large number of small, micro‐ and self‐employed firms that provide, on a subcontract basis, the majority of the industry's demand for a skilled manual workforce. The identification and delivery of vocational education and training at an industry level rests firmly on addressing the skills needs of the small and micro‐type organizations and not those of the large construction firms, although it is the voice of the larger firms that appears to dominate the skills and training development agenda. The public policy model that articulates the requirements for training and skills development in the UK is based on sector‐specific skills councils. This model is examined in relation to the construction sector by drawing upon the experiences of the South Wales region as a case study. Findings indicate that the current construction skills framework, upon which public policy is formulated and delivered, fails to adequately reflect the structure, skills and training priorities of the industry. The tensions that exist in this system are highlighted and the implications for reform of public policy articulation with regard to sector skills councils are discussed.     

Examining self‐perceived employability among immigrant women participating in vocational training in Taiwan

This study aimed to test the proposed model of self‐perceived employability (SPE) of immigrant women participating in vocational training in Taiwan by utilizing the developmental‐contextual model of career development as a framework. We examined the relationships among a distal contextual variable social welfare resources (SWRs), proximal contextual variables (vocational training experiences comprising the curriculum and instruction of vocational training, interpersonal relationships of vocational training and certificate examination guidance of vocational training), an individual‐level variable employment attitudes (EAs) and SPE using the model. Data were collected via a questionnaire survey of 699 immigrant women attending vocational training in Taiwan and analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings empirically supported the proposed model, which explained 63.5 per cent of the variance in SPE. This study found that SWRs influenced all vocational training experiences, which in turn, directly and indirectly influenced SPE vis‐à‐vis their effects on EAs. In turn, EAs influenced SPE.     

The role of trade union collective voice in the access to training for workers in New Zealand

This paper explores trade union collective voice as a mechanism for worker participation in training decision making. New Zealand is an example of a liberal market economy (LME) with relatively weak regulatory pressure on employers to engage in training. Consequently, drivers such as trade union collective voice could fill an important role in workers securing support for training from their employers. The paper argues that given the reduced power of unions in many LMEs workers potentially face a twofold challenge: the first to secure an entitlement to training and the second to have any further participation in training decision making. Using the example of New Zealand, the paper examines whether collective bargaining secures entitlement to training. Then, employing the categorization of approaches to workforce development as either expansive or restrictive, it investigates the nature of that entitlement. Following this, the paper reports on dialogue with trade unions through which a more nuanced picture emerges of collective voice and the challenges to worker participation in training decision making. Finally, it reflects on the role collective voice could play in worker access to training.     

Trade-Related Training for Trainers in Export Development and Promotion in Africa

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to develop an appropriate training mechanism for the development of the export/international trade sectors in Sudan. One of the activity components identified was the training of trainers in exporting/international marketing in selected sectors. In an effort to develop the most useful export development training program, an intensive needs assessment study was undertaken. The results of the study suggest that groups of respondents who share similar characteristics can be identified and profiled, and based on similar levels knowledge and skills they will be subjected to an intensive type of short export development and promotion training. Upon receiving the necessary training, the trainers will then train trainees in the field of international trade and export development.     

The impact of workplace support and identity on training transfer: a case study of drug and alcohol safety training in Australia

Previous research has indicated that the transfer climate of work organisations is an important factor in determining the degree to which knowledge, skills and abilities gained in training transfer to the workplace. In particular, workplace social support from supervisors and coworkers is consistently cited as an important factor that can facilitate or inhibit training transfer. However, research evidence regarding the impact of workplace social support on training transfer is mixed. In order to address this issue a study was conducted to identify under what conditions workplace social support impacts on training transfer. This study evaluated a workplace drug and alcohol training programme * * The training evaluated in this study is part of the Building Trades Group Drug and Alcohol Programme. This is a national drug and alcohol programme for the Australian Building and Construction Industry. For more information on this programme, visit: http//www.btgda.org.au .
to examine the impact of workplace social support and identification with workplace groups on training transfer. Results indicated that the influence of workplace social support on training transfer was moderated by the degree to which trainees identified with workplace groups that provided this support. This study supports the proposition that in order to fully understand training transfer, and to design effective training programmes, training research and practice needs to focus on both the personal and situational factors that may interact to influence learning and transfer.     

A stakeholder‐based approach to leadership development training: the case of medical education in Canada

This paper reports the use of a stakeholder‐based, bottom‐up approach to determining leadership training needs and designing leadership training programs which contrasts with the top‐down policy that is often applied. The context is a Canadian medical school. Leadership training in medicine is in its infancy. Discussed and outlined in this study are stakeholder opinions on the pillars and priorities upholding leadership development. Seventy‐seven semi‐structured interviews were conducted with stakeholder groups including Trainees, Mid‐Level University Leaders, Senior Medical Clinician Leaders, Senior University Leaders, Medical Scientists and Senior Executives and Directors external to the University. Conventional content analysis was used to group the text into common themes and then group the themes into more general categories. Five general categories emerged: formal programming, organizational support, program evaluation, skill development and participant selection. A successful training program starts with identifying the individuals most likely to benefit from such a program. It emphasizes early training, mentorship and experiential learning. Programs should focus on developing: self‐awareness, communication skills and team‐building capability. Formal training programs would be most successful if they were regularly evaluated and strongly supported by their parent organizations.     

Curriculum reform and teachers' training needs: the case of higher education in Ghana

Professional development is the key to curriculum‐based reform, yet there is little empirical evidence upon which to base decisions of design or implementation of training and development programmes. This study examined the training and development needs of Ghana's polytechnic teachers in an existing curriculum reform scenario as they became involved in curriculum design. Forty‐four teachers and four heads of mechanical engineering departments and representatives of the leadership of four polytechnics granted comprehensive interviews and responded to questionnaires. Findings revealed that updating subject knowledge through industrial attachments was a major training and development need for teachers. Teachers indicated that they were keen to get more involved in curriculum design and argued for their subject knowledge to be improved to give them the confidence to do so. The results of the study suggest higher education teachers have training and development needs in relation to effective curriculum design and implementation. It is proposed that polytechnic–industry links are strengthened and that teachers should draw on teamwork to plan and undertake industrial attachments.     

International briefing 13: Training and development in Spain—the politics of modernisation

The article will address the issue of training and development in Spain. First, the general economic and labour market context will be outlined. Second, the public policy context of training and development and the institutions of regulation will be considered in terms of the way challenges have been responded to by the state and social actors, with an emphasis on developments in lifelong learning and the reality of corporate strategy and practice. Finally, the article will provide an outline of the relevant institutions, networks and sources with regard to the issue of training and development, showing how a new constituency of interests have emerged and coalesced. There is a tendency in the literature and debates related to training and development to speak in terms of binarisms. On the one hand, there are social systems that are deemed to exalt the virtues of training and create high levels of economic investment and political involvement in this area, whilst there are others who fail both to prioritise it and develop extensive systems of social engagement. These types of approaches tend to have difficulty dealing with some of the more complex realities of training, and the myriad of typologies and hybrids, that constitute national training systems such as Spain's.     

An Investigation of the Current Practices of In-House Employee Training and Development within Hotels in Scotland

This article presents the results of an itlvestigation of in-house employee training and development practices within hotels in Scotland having 50 or more bedroonls front an operation/ management perspective. Issites pertaining to employee trainitzg and development practices are identified - reduction in st@ turnover; responsibility for staff traitzing and development, time constraints, variety of training methods and training frequency. III the context of training and development, with particular reference to issues ident, a number of recommendations are postulated.     

Electronic human resource management: organizational responses to role conflicts created by e‐learning

Could enthusiasm for e‐learning be dampened because it is detrimental to the relationships between those undergoing e‐training and their direct managers or colleagues? Interviews conducted in four French banks provide material to explore this question. We see that e‐learning has increasingly been adopted because it goes beyond the role limitations imposed by traditional training formats. Initially, however, the uptake of e‐learning was hampered because it imposed a role on trainees which did not correspond to their socialization needs. The companies in question responded to this problem by proposing ‘blended learning’ (that is, alternate sessions of e‐learning and in class face‐to‐face sessions). Nevertheless, the development of e‐learning remains limited today partly because of the role conflict it creates in the workplace: should an employee engaged in e‐learning in his office workstation be considered ‘at work’ or ‘in training’? This role conflict is detrimental to the relationships between the e‐learners, their colleagues and the direct manager. Solutions offered by companies may address this particular problem, but all of these reduce the efficiency of e‐learning sessions, and thus contribute to limiting its future development.     

Managing multiple forms of strategic training fit through the Balanced Scorecard

Although the literature recognizes training as an essential driver of organizational effectiveness, little is still known about how to explicitly focus and align training to organizational strategic priorities. This note proposes a model that bridges the strategic human resource management (SHRM) literature and the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) literature – which is one of the most widely recognized strategic performance evaluation approaches intended to foster organizational alignment by translating the firm's strategy into a multidimensional set of financial and non‐financial measures. After having briefly discussed the main differences between the return on investment (ROI) model, which represents one of the major attempt to make training strategic within the existing evaluation research, and the BSC model applied to training management, this note highlights multiple forms of strategic training fit and suggests how to manage training through various scenarios of BSC development. Specifically, the note illustrates four forms of strategic fit – the vertical fit, the horizontal inter‐functional fit, the horizontal intra‐functional fit and the human capital readiness – and discusses their pursuit in terms of six scenarios of training management through the BSC. The note expands some exploratory empirical evidence on the feasibility and usefulness of training scorecards (i.e. the application of the BSC to training) in order to develop some theoretical insights and practical guidance on how they can be leveraged to foster the strategic alignment of training.     

The conditions for successful knowledge transfer in development‐aid training programs

The shortage of qualified human capital is a major impediment to development. In the field of international development cooperation, training programs (TPs) have been widely employed to enhance the capacity of workforces in developing countries. This paper investigates the conditions in which these programs can contribute not only to individual human resource development but also to organization‐level reform and innovation in developing countries. The methods were regression analyses of training monitoring records as well as follow‐up e‐mail interviews with former participants of information and communication technology TPs sponsored by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency. The research reveals that bilateral communication between training participants and the home organizations during the training plays a key role in increasing the probability of successful organization‐level transfer of individual‐level learning, irrespective of the original level of organization's absorptive capacity. The researchers examine the differences in transfer factors between the development aid context in their research and the paradigm case of the business organization found in much of the transfer literature.     

Developing meaningfulness at work through emotional intelligence training

To date, there remains a significant gap in the human resource development (HRD) literature in understanding how training and development contributes to meaningful work. In addition, little is known about how individuals proactively make their work more meaningful. This article shows how emotional intelligence (EI) training promotes learning about sources of meaningful work and documents managers’ experiences of independently applying to the workplace what they have learnt about meaningfulness from their EI training. Data is collected from participant observations and interviews with trainers and managers attending three externally provided, ‘popular’ EI training courses. Interpreting the data through Lips‐Wiersma and Morris's model of meaningful work enables a clear articulation of managers’ capacity to shape their work environments to create four, interconnected sources of meaningfulness: inner development, expressing one's full potential, unity with others and serving others. The findings also reveal structural and agential constraints when individuals attempt to create meaningful work. Practically, the study demonstrates the importance of training to enhance work of value and significance and offers recommendations for practitioners.     

An experimental study of alternative preparation aids for international negotiations

We test the relative effectiveness of alternative preparation aids in the context of an international negotiation. We consider three forms of training: reading material, a course on negotiation, and an expert system (NEGOTEX) expressly designed to train negotiators. We conducted a laboratory experiment involving 66 pairs of negotiators—one of each pair being American and the other Chinese. Results suggest that in this context, the course had the greatest effect on performance, followed by NEGOTEX, and then followed by reading material. In addition, we found that training effects were additive: multiple forms of training lead to better results than individual forms of training, suggesting that (1) training forms complement and do not substitute for one another, and (2) multiple forms of training should be considered, especially when stakes are high.     

The Convergence of Mirroring and Empathy: Communications Training in Business-to-Business Personal Selling Persuasion Efforts

Purpose: This study assessed the value of training in mirroring combined with training in empathy in a personal-selling setting when these two supplement training in more conventional areas. To a large extent, this investigation is exploratory. Previous attempts to probe into this topic do not appear in the literature.

Methodology: Students in personal-selling classes acted as sales representatives in an attempt to sell a service (attendance at a seminar) to small retailers. One group was trained in mirroring and another in empathy. Yet another received instruction in both mirroring and empathy. Finally, control-group members received neither mirroring nor empathy training. Chi-square tests, t tests, Tukey k tests, and an analysis of variance were used. The hypotheses were that mirroring and empathy training, and especially mirroring combined with empathy, would perform better than no training in these areas.

Findings: The analysis revealed that those who were trained in mirroring were more successful in obtaining intent to purchase than were control-group members. Likewise, trainees in empathy were more successful than those without training. Both of these experimental groups performed at levels that did not diverge significantly. Members of the group with instruction in both mirroring and empathy contributed more effectively than any other group.

Originality, Value, and Contribution: This is the first published study that systematically examined the effectiveness of both mirroring and empathy training in a personal-selling setting. Previous writings have presented research relating to nonselling functions. Others have discussed the value of mirroring and empathy in narrative that was not supported by data. The findings of this study suggest that both of these topics of coverage have merit when acting as a supplement to more conventional training content. They reveal that sales managers may be more successful in training members of the sales force if mirroring and empathy training is employed. The investigation supplies support for the proposition that this form of instruction can be useful in both academic and practical applications.