Training professionals' usage and understanding of Kirkpatrick's Level 3 and Level 4 evaluations

Training professionals have long acknowledged the necessity of conducting behavior‐based (Level 3) and results‐based (Level 4) evaluations, yet organizations do not frequently conduct such evaluations. This research examined training professionals' perceptions of the utility of Level 3 and Level 4 evaluations and the factors that facilitate or obstruct their attempts to perform them. The research was conducted using Brinkerhoff's Success Case Method and Gilbert's Behavior Engineering Model as its frameworks. The three key factors identified by study participants as having an impact upon their ability to conduct Level 3 and Level 4 evaluations were the availability of resources such as time and personnel, managerial support (organizational) and expertise in evaluative methodology (individual). The research findings indicated a need to further explore how training professionals interpret Level 3 and Level 4 and how they can better develop their evaluative expertise, which in turn may increase effectiveness in gaining organizational support for evaluation efforts.     

Effects of proactive personality and conscientiousness on training motivation

Training transfer is a ubiquitous but frequently unmet goal of training initiatives amounting to billions of dollars lost annually and masses of under‐skilled workers due to the lack of application of training content to their job. Although research supports the impact trainee proactive personality, conscientiousness and motivation have on training transfer processes, their interrelationships remain understudied. To fill this gap, we utilized data from a multinational sample of trainees and examined a conditional, indirect process model, where proactive personality interacts with conscientiousness to influence transfer intentions through their effects on motivation to learn. Our results suggest that trainee proactive personality positively influences transfer intentions partially through its influence on motivation to learn and that higher levels of conscientiousness weakens this relationship. Our findings provide further evidence supporting the importance of proactive personality and conscientiousness as factors that need to be accounted for in the design of talent development solutions.     

Cultural factors and beliefs influencing transfer of training

Most organizations invest in people for training. Training effectiveness is arguably constrained because of inadequate transfer of learning from the training environment to the workplace environment. Training‐job relevance and the extent of transfer have been found limited. Although performance is affected by a number of factors, training is often used as a solution to all problems. Trying to fix non‐training problems with training solutions is futile, yet often attempted in the context of Nepal. Thus, the growing recognition of the problem of inadequate transfer of training has been recognized as a compelling issue. This article presents a brief discussion of the data and corresponding findings pertaining to one of the research questions included in a recent doctoral study. The purpose of the study was to examine the extent of transfer of learning from the training environment to the workplace environment, and identify cultural factors and beliefs held by stakeholders influencing such transfer in the context of civil and corporate sector organizations in Nepal. What are the cultural factors and beliefs that influence the extent of transfer of training? This was one of the questions that prompted the study.     

Professionals' views of comparative advertising and the scholarly research literature: A review and synthesis

Comparative advertisements that contrast identifiable, competing products or services may be among advertising's most important tactical weapons. Despite nearly a century of use in the USA, growing use by advertisers in many other countries, and decades of scholarly research, some researchers continue to argue that the status of empirical knowledge regarding comparative advertising's effectiveness remains equivocal. This study addresses this equivocality with a review of the research literature and comparisons with the findings of a recent survey of US advertising creative executives. The findings reveal substantial agreement among the beliefs of academic researchers and advertising professionals in regard to when and how comparative advertising will likely be effective. In addition to offering confirming evidence that academic researchers and advertising professionals do sometimes arrive at the same destination in regard to their shared understandings of advertising effects, the findings also point the way toward important directions for future research on comparative advertising.     

GIS科学与人才多层次培养研究

万千事物的时空印记是GIS科学建立的基础。如火如荼的GIS人才培养面临多层次培养任务的分工。GIS基础理论和方法方向的人才培养任务应由科研院所与高校的专门GIS专业来承担,基础GIS平台方向的人才培养应该由有能力的GIS软件服务企业来承担,国家可以适当进行管理规范。行业GIS应用型人才培养可以通过各自专业的高等教育课程设置,行业培训等来完成。这样,各有侧重,相互协作,互为补充,中国21世纪的GIS人才队伍计划将会有条不紊地逐步壮大,实力逐步增强。     

Job profile research for the purchasing profession

The study reported in this article is based on theories about job and competence analysis and a project in which job profiles were developed that were aimed at providing a framework of reference for evaluating in‐service training programmes for purchasing professionals (professional buyers of goods and services in various sectors of the economy) provided by a training institution of an association for purchasing management. This project was commissioned as part of the permanent maintenance policy of the training institution, but also based on experience with an earlier comparable project, and concerns about test development using job profiles and related attainment targets. The study is part of a research programme on course development for professional training. Ideas about course content validation were explored and tested. The article addresses the issue of trustworthiness and uncertainty reduction in the job profile research process. It specifically looks at the methods used in job profile development and perennial research problems that are related to that, such as stratification of a professional sector, sector‐specificity of job information, formatting job profiles, and the value added of small‐scale in‐depth analyses of work processes versus large‐scale job surveys. It concludes that small‐scale, context‐related analyses of jobs adds most value, but that this is not sufficient for ensuring faith in the study results. Large‐scale surveys complement the in‐depth analyses in this respect. So using a mix of in‐depth and large‐scale methods is recommended in conducting job profile research.     

Business Cultural Intelligence Quotient: A Five‐Country Study

Cultural intelligence (CI) has often been linked to performance at the individual, team, and firm levels as a key factor in international business success. Using a new measure of CI, the business cultural intelligence quotient (BCIQ), our study provides empirical evidence on several key antecedents of CI using data on business professionals across five diverse countries (Austria, Colombia, Greece, Spain, and the United States). The findings suggest that the most important factors leading to cultural intelligence, in order of importance, are the number of countries that business practitioners have lived in for more than six months, their level of education, and the number of languages spoken. We find that cultural intelligence varies across countries, suggesting that some countries have a higher propensity for cross‐cultural business interactions. By teasing out the common antecedents of BCIQ among professionals, our findings may help with screening and training professionals for international assignments. Future research may examine the environmental (country‐specific) factors associated with a higher propensity for cultural intelligence (such as immigration, cultural diversity, languages spoken, and international trade) to explain the effect of country of origin on cultural intelligence in the professional community. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Italian translation of the questionnaire for professional training evaluation

This work illustrates the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Questionnaire for Professional Training Evaluation, designed and validated by Grohmann and Kauffeld. This 12‐item questionnaire provides for the evaluation of different training outcomes, is time‐efficient, applicable to several professional contexts and shows sound psychometric properties. In order to test the Italian form, we carried out two studies. In Study 1 (N = 125), an exploratory factor analysis led to a two‐factor solution accounting for short‐ and long‐term training outcomes. In Study 2 (N = 122), a five‐model comparison was performed. Although at first a two‐factor solution seemed to emerge, confirmatory factor analysis found the best fit in a six, inter‐correlated, first‐order factors model (satisfaction, utility, knowledge, application to practice, individual organizational results and global organizational results). Relationships with learning transfer, transfer quantity, type of training, training methodologies and individual variables – gender, age and tenure – are explored. Limitations and research and practical implications are discussed.     

The manager’s role in enhancing the transfer of training: a Turkish case study

The process of the transfer of training has a great impact on job productivity, effectiveness and satisfaction. Studies focusing specifically on the role of managers in the process have, however, been limited in number. The general aim of this study is to determine the impact of managers’ reinforcement on participants’ job attitude, productivity, effectiveness and satisfaction in the process of the transfer of knowledge, skill and attitude to be acquired through a training programme into the workplace. The study involves a group of sales representatives participating in the Basic Sales Training Program for Sales Representatives and their supervisors in the Coca‐Cola Bottlers of Turkey. Using experimental and control groups, the study is based on Kirkpatrick’s four–stage evaluation model. The findings obtained are discussed and evaluated with respect to the roles of managers in the transfer of training.     

An investigation into the relationship between training evaluation and the transfer of training

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between training evaluation and the transfer of training in organizations. We hypothesized that training evaluation frequency will be related to higher rates of transfer because evaluation information can identify weaknesses that lead to improvements in training programs and create greater accountability among stakeholders for training outcomes. The data were obtained from 150 training professionals who were members of a training and development association in Canada. The results indicated that training evaluation frequency is positively related to training transfer. However, among Kirkpatrick's four levels of evaluation criteria, only behavior and results criteria were related to higher rates of transfer of training, indicating that the level of evaluation criteria is important for training transfer. These results indicate the importance of organizational‐level initiatives such as training evaluation in addition to individual‐level practices for facilitating the transfer of training.     

Job/work environment factors influencing training transfer within a human service agency: some indicative support for Baldwin and Ford’s transfer climate construct

Despite significant progress in the field of training transfer research over the past two decades very little empirical research in the area has been conducted within human service organisations. As a result, our knowledge of the extent to which those factors posited within the training literature to influence the transfer of training are necessarily those found in these particular work settings very much remains in its infancy. This article presents findings from qualitative research that was undertaken as part of a wider training evaluation strategy to investigate (1) those factors which influenced the transfer of training within a UK social services department; and (2) how these factors compared or differed from those suggested within the literature as influencing training transfer. The findings suggest a range of specific factors as they pertain to both the nature of the jobs and the workplace within such work settings as mediating training transfer. However, a number of these were closely associated with the dimensions of social support and opportunity to use as posited within Baldwin and Ford’s (1988) transfer of training model, suggesting that the model is potentially generalisable to human service agencies.     

Measuring transfer of training: Review and implications for future research

Research on transfer of training (training transfer) has flourished in recent years. Given the absence so far of any comprehensive review of the various transfer measurement instruments used, a systematic review of research to date was performed. Three main findings emerged from the 51 studies reviewed: (1) there is a divergence between the definitions of transfer described in the studies and the concept of transfer reflected in the measurement instruments; (2) there are many different kinds of measurement instruments; and (3) scant information has been published on the parameters of the training whose transfer is being measured. In light of these findings, a research agenda is proposed for evaluating training transfer.     

Competence‐based management development in small and medium‐sized enterprises: a multi‐stakeholder analysis

Small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are considered increasingly important for economic growth (Wilson, 1995) and effective management of them is regarded as essential for their survival and success (Jennings and Beaver, 1995). This study adopted a multi‐stakeholder perspective in order to explore the promotion, via Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs); provision and (potential for) purchase of competence‐based management training and development (MTD) in the SME sector in the United Kingdom. Survey data from (551) and interviews with (12) SMEs; plus interviews (6) with TECs and interviews (29) with providers of MTD are reported. ‘Product’ deficiencies in competence‐based MTD are identified and recommendations for promotion made.     

The effect of training on Italian firms’ productivity: microeconomic and macroeconomic perspectives

In this article, I explore the effect of training on the productivity of a sample of Italian firms and the impact of training on EU economic growth. Specifically, retrieving data from a survey performed by the Italian Institute for the Development of Vocational Training in 2009, I find that employer‐sponsored training displays a positive and significant effect on the main corporate performance indexes. However, in comparison with companion longitudinal evidence, the magnitude of this impact appears quite narrow. Untangling the determinants of training provision at the firm level and exploring the consequences of training on growth rates by means of the EU's Continuous Vocational Training Survey 4 records, I show that this finding is the outcome of microeconomic and macroeconomic size effects that influence, respectively, the identification of the training impact on corporate productivity and the aggregate performance of the whole economy.     

Leader influences on training effectiveness: motivation and outcome expectation processes

Training effectiveness is a function of trainee characteristics, training design and contextual factors. Social exchanges in the work environment have received less attention compared with other training effectiveness predictors. We focus on the extent to which leaders (through their relationships and exchanges with followers) influence skill transfer, maintenance and generalization. We also examine two intervening processes (training motivation and outcome expectancy). Our findings, based on surveys from 495 employees, argue for the importance of leader–member exchange for training transfer, with training motivation and outcome expectancy as intervening mechanisms.     

Outcomes and Benefits of a Managerial Global Mind‐set: An Exploratory Study with Senior Executives in North America and India

Globalization and its associated challenges are compelling managers in multinational corporations to develop appropriate skill sets. An emerging body of research in international management has suggested that meeting this challenge requires the cultivation and development of a managerial global mind‐set. There has been limited empirical work on the outcomes and benefits of a managerial global mind‐set and consequently this article attempts to fill that gap. Based on semistructured interviews with a total of 56 senior executives of multinational corporations in North America (United States and Canada) and India, this study identifies five outcomes of a global mind‐set with benefits for managers and their organizations. The findings have theoretical implications, which are discussed along with their practical applications for multinational corporations, their senior executives, and human resource professionals, with respect to identifying management development programs that assist in the cultivation and nurturing of a global mind‐set. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Voluntary or mandatory training participation as a moderator in the relationship between goal orientations and transfer of training

Trainees can participate in organizational training programs voluntarily or mandatorily. To date, research has reported mixed evidence on the question whether voluntary or mandatory participation is associated with higher motivation and transfer of training. Grounded in the frameworks of participatory design, the notion of autonomy in basic psychological needs theory, and the 2 × 2 model of achievement goals, this meta‐analysis examined the relationship between goal orientations and transfer of training in contexts of voluntary and mandatory training participation with a sample of N = 4729 trainees in k = 29 studies. Goal orientations were conceptualized in four dimensions: mastery‐approach, mastery‐avoidance, performance‐approach, and performance‐avoidance. Results of the primary meta‐analysis indicated that mastery‐approach orientation had the most positive correlation with transfer of training, followed by performance‐approach, mastery‐avoidance and performance‐avoidance goal orientation. Meta‐analytic subgroup analysis examined the effects of two conditions for training participation: voluntary participation and mandatory participation. The findings indicated that training participation significantly moderated the correlation coefficients of mastery‐approach and performance‐avoidance goal orientation, with more positive estimates when training enrollment was voluntary. Contrary to expectations, the correlation coefficient between performance‐approach goal orientation and transfer of training was more positive when entry into training programs was obligatory and mandated. Implications for future research and the practice of training design and delivery are discussed.     

A study of the on‐the‐job training of production line operatives in manufacturing companies

A case‐study using interview and observation investigated on‐the‐job training in manufacturing companies to consider the implications for personnel professionals. The findings were that training was undertaken by peer colleagues who had received very restricted trainer training, and the training was wholly outside the oversight of personnel professionals. Developments were proposed which, while they would apply primarily to the case‐study organisations, might well be appropriate for more general implementation.     

The effects of training design,individual characteristics and work environment on transfer of training

This study aims to gain insight into some of the factors that determine the transfer of training to the work context. The present research examined the relationship between three types of predictors on transfer of training, including training design, individual characteristics and work environment. Data was collected at two points in time from 182 employees in a large grocery organization. The results indicated that transfer design, performance self‐efficacy, training retention and performance feedback were significantly related to transfer of training. Contrary to expectation, supervisory support was not significantly related to transfer of training. These results suggest that in order to enhance transfer of training, organizations should design training that gives trainees the ability to transfer learning, reinforces the trainee's beliefs in their ability to transfer, ensures the training content is retained over time and provides appropriate feedback regarding employee job performance following training activities.     

Self‐regulated learning and training effectiveness

In recent years, training has shifted towards a more learner‐centred perspective. At the same time, rapidly changing workplaces emphasize the importance of self‐regulatory processes in the workplace. In the light of these trends, this research investigates the role of self‐regulated learning in training effectiveness. A theoretical model in which self‐regulated learning plays a central role in training evaluation was developed and validated using the structural equation method with a sample of 137 individuals. The results indicate that self‐regulated learning mediates the relationship between training climate and both transfer motivation and training evaluation. These findings indicate that the concept of self‐regulated learning plays a key role in the relationship between training context variables and organizational outcomes and offer new insights into the way organizations can improve training effectiveness.