Access to training and development in small and medium-sized enterprises: Employee\u27s perspectives

This paper provides an overview of a proposed study that aims to identify the perceived factors that prevent employees from initiating requests and participating in formal external employer-funded training and development opportunities within small and medium enterprises. While training and development has the potential to improve an employee\u27s remuneration and increase their employability, the level of training and development in small and medium enterprises is well below that of larger organisations. Although the small business owners retain the final decision regarding employee access to training and development, the outcome is also dependent upon employees\u27 decisions to intiate requests to participate in the available training and development opportunities. There is scant research into employees\u27 perceptions of the factors influencing the participation in employer-funded training and development opportunities. This paper intends to address this gap in knowledge by conducting 20 semi-structured interviews with employees in five Australian small and medium enterprises. It is anticipated that the collection data will provide information on the factors that prevent employees from requesting and participating in training and development opportunities

An exploratory study of factors influencing the participation in training and development of engineers in small businesses

The provision of workforce training and development (T&D) has the potential to provide benefits to both employers and employees. However, employees in small businesses receive less access to T&D than employees in large businesses. Prior research into reasons for the relatively low levels of employee participation in formal T&D in small businesses has typically involved surveys of owner-manager opinions regarding ‘barriers’ to T&D. This study explored factors influencing employee participation in T&D from the perspective of employees. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 15 employees in small engineering businesses. Consistent with the main aim of exploratory research, the study produced (four) generalisations that are grounded in the interview data. These generalisations help establish the groundwork for future studies

Line Managers\u27 Involvement In HRM Activities: A Malaysian Case Study

Despite evidence on greater line managers involvement in many HRM activities, the overall picture of their HRM role is still blurred especially in terms of their coverage and depth of involvement in HRM activities. For line managers to deliver their HRM role effectively, it must be clearly defined so they can enact the role according to the expectations of their role evaluators, who include the line managers supervisors, employees and HR specialists. The expectations of role evaluators are important because the assessment of line managers performance depends on what the role evaluators perceive as valuable. However, the expectations of the role evaluators change and this is a factor that contributes to variation in the HRM role of line managers. This paper presents the preliminary findings of a study conducted in Malaysian airports. A qualitative study through case study was conducted at three airports. Drawing on role theory concepts, interviews were conducted with senior managers and HR representatives at these airports to explore their perceptions of the HRM activities of line managers. Content analysis was employed to interpret the interviews data for themes related to role theory. Results indicate differences on the perceived HRM activities of line managers between airports as they differed in terms of airport category, size and operation. This finding has important implications in developing the line managers HRM role as the structural differentiation is likely to influence the expectations of role evaluators, which is crucial in achieving consensus between the intended and actual implementation of line manager

Training and development in small professional services firms

Purpose This paper aims to examine whether participation in training and development (T&D) events is associated with employees’ affective commitment and propensity to enact innovative behaviours in small professional services firms. The study also investigates associations between both attitudes towards T&D and policy and practice supportive of T&D and levels of participation in T&D events. Design/methodology/approach Data from 203 employees in small professional services firms employing 50 or fewer staff were analysed using regression analysis and PROCESS macro. Findings Only policy and practice supportive of T&D was associated with participation levels. Participation in T&D events was positively related to affective commitment. Furthermore, employees who participated in more T&D events were more likely to enact innovative behaviours, while affective commitment mediated the positive relationship between number of T&D events attended and innovative behaviours. Contrary to expectations, neither participation in just training nor participation in just development was associated with either attitudes or behaviours. Practical implications The findings have important implications for small firms which tend to rely on wholly work-based experiences for the development of employees’ knowledge and skills. Such an approach to learning for work may inadvertently shape a workforce that lacks commitment to the organisation and that has a diminished capacity for innovative behaviours. Originality/value There is limited research on how T&D affects attitudes and behaviours in small firms. Large and small firms are fundamentally different, thus findings from studies in large firms may not extend to small firms

Opportunities to participate in formal and informal vocational learning activities and work-related outcomes in small professional services businesses

Small businesses are characterised by resources constraints; therefore, their managers need to know the exact nature of additional benefits, beyond knowledge and skill acquisition, that might accrue from employee participation in different types of learning activities. However, research that simultaneously examines the attitudinal and behavioural outcomes of opportunities to participate in formal and informal learning activities is sparse, especially in small businesses. The present study addresses this area of neglect by exploring associative relationships between opportunities for employees to participate in (1) formal learning activities and (2) informal learning activities and three important work-related outcomes: affective commitment, innovative behaviours, and work engagement. Data from 203 respondents in small professional services businesses were analysed and the results provide preliminary evidence that opportunities to participate in each type of learning activity are associated with differing outcomes. Opportunities to participate in formal learning activities were positively associated with heightened levels of affective commitment, work engagement, and innovative behaviours, while opportunities to participate in informal learning activities were positively related to work engagement. We provide suggestions for future research and outline practical implications of our analysis. © 2019, © 2019 The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd

Innovative behavior among service workers and the importance of leadership: Evidence from an emerging economy

This study focuses on how service firms can nurture innovative behavior of employees through the important role of leadership. Despite the growth in innovation research, scholars have been slow to move from an R&D (i.e., technical capital) focus to that focusing on employee innovative behavior. However, organizations’ innovation initiatives heavily depend on employee human capital and behavior at work as these are key inputs in the value creation process. We focus on a specific type of leadership, transformational leadership, and explore a nascent employee concept, job embeddedness, to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms and conditions by which leaders may encourage follower innovative behavior. We collected data from employees working in the hotel service sector in Ghana, and analyzed the data using structural equation modelling and Hayes’ PROCESS Macro. Our results revealed that leaders can promote innovative behavior among service workers only when the workers are embedded in the organization. Further, our results showed positive relationships between transformational leadership and organizational embeddedness, and organizational embeddedness and innovative behavior. However, we found no evidence to suggest that employees’ embeddedness in their community might alter the relationship between organizational embeddedness and innovative behavior. We conclude that to support innovation among employees, the behaviors of leaders are important especially in terms of encouraging employees to proactively embed themselves in their organizations, thereby contributing to the development of the hospitality industry and other service sectors in emerging economies

Performance management practices, meaningful work and loyalty of public employees: a conditional mediation model

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Purpose Building on the social exchange theory (SET), this study examines the direct and indirect relationships between performance management (PM) practices, meaningful work and loyalty while conditioning the indirect effect on differing levels of organisational tenure. Design/methodology/approach This study is based upon survey data from employees in a Ghanaian parastatal organisation and uses bootstrapping estimation method with bias-corrected confidence interval via Hayes PROCESS macro techniques for the analyses. Findings The results show that PM practices (comprising of performance planning, performance monitoring and appraisal and performance decision) positively influence meaningful work and employee loyalty. Meaningful work also increases employee loyalty and further significantly mediates the relationship between employee loyalty and each of the three PM practices. However, this mediation is only significant statistically among short-tenured employees compared to long-tenured employees. Practical implications The evidence provides crucial insight for managers to leverage PM in minimising meaningfulness crises and averting destructive attitudes of employees, specifically, disloyalty in organisations. Originality/value Our study provides original evidence to extend PM literature and its reciprocal psychological payoffs through the viewpoints of the SET. This is a crucial insight for minimising meaningfulness crises and averting destructive attitudes of employees, specifically, disloyalty in organisations

Generational differences and Fly-In-Fly-Out (FIFO) employee turnover

Fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) mining has experienced significant growth in the past decade and is now a typical form of employment in the sector in Australia. Evidence suggests that there are relatively high turnover levels amongst these employees. Whilst there are many contributing causes to this, there may be variances between different generational cohorts at work as arguably their workplace expectation differs. This paper investigates whether turnover intentions vary between different generations of employees. Using a questionnaire, employees were asked about their turnover intentions and this was compared against the groups of Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y. Findings show that Generation Y employees had a higher intention to quit than the Baby Boomers but were no different to Generation X employees

Testing a conditional mediation model of the reciprocal payoffs of performance management

Drawing from the social exchange theory, we proposed and tested a conditional mediation model of the reciprocal payoffs of performance management. This study is based upon survey data from employees in a Ghanaian parastatal organisation, and uses regression with bootstrapping via Hayes’s PROCESS techniques for the analyses. The results show that performance management practices positively influence meaningful work and employee loyalty. Meaningful work also increases employee loyalty, and further significantly mediates the relationship between employee loyalty and each of the three performance management practices. However, this mediation is only significant statistically among short-tenured employees compared to long-tenured employees. Consequently, our study provides original evidence to extend PM literature and its reciprocal psychological payoffs through the viewpoints of the social exchange theory. This is a crucial insight for minimising meaningfulness crises and averting destructive attitudes of employees, specifically, disloyalty in organizations