A Framework for Managing Training Programs to Enhance Organizational Operation Performance

As training is a powerful means and plays an important role in improving organizational performance and competitiveness, training management deserves more emphasis. Managing training means to plan, implement, and monitor/evaluate training program to support (organization’s strategy, goals and objectives) and enhance organizational performance and competitiveness. Therefore, the objective of this study is to propose a framework for managing training to enhance organizational operation performance. Extensive discussions with subject experts who are professors of Human Resource Development and Adult Education as well as members of the American Society for Training and Development-Eastern Idaho Chapter, and personal experiences were used for developing the framework in this study

THE IMPACT OF TRAINING AND ITS INTEGRATION IN THE FIRM\u27S BUSINESS STRATEGIES ON THE FIRM\u27S COMPETITIVENESS

The problem of the present study was to determine training professionals\u27 perceptions of their awareness of and involvement in the integration of training in the firm\u27s business strategies and the impact of training on the firm\u27s competitiveness. The analysis of data obtained from the online survey of 111 participants who were training professionals employed in small, medium, and large firms across three different industries - service, retailing, and manufacturing - revealed that more than 50% of the participants indicated that they either had some understanding of or understood in depth the integration of training in their firms\u27 business strategies. And more than 50% of the participants reported moderate, high, or very high involvement in the integration of training in their firms\u27 business strategies. Moreover, the majority of the participants rated the impact of training on measures of their firms\u27 competitiveness moderate, high, or very high. In addition, the participants were most frequently based on their communication with colleagues and management team regarding their perceptual judgment of the impact of training on all measures of their firms\u27 competitiveness. There was a statistically significant relationship between the participants\u27 firm sizes and the extent to which training contributed to three of the measures of their firms\u27 innovation. Finally, the results indicated a statistically significant positive relationship, r(98) = .576, p \u3c .01, between training professionals\u27 perceived involvement in the integration of training in their firms\u27 business strategies and the impact of training on their firms\u27 competitiveness

Can firms with the best training program withstand the storm of economic policy uncertainty?

This study examines if firms whose training programs ranked as the best ones in the United States can withstand the changes in economic policy uncertainty. The regression analysis of monthly changes in economic policy uncertainty index, monthly returns on the CRSP value-weighted index, and monthly returns on an equal-weighted portfolio of public firms in the United States ranked consecutively from 2006 to 2011 in the top 50 of the Training Top 125 shows that the increased changes in economic policy uncertainty negatively affect the portfolio returns; however, this effect is not statistically significant at the 1% level. The result from regressing monthly returns on CRSP value-weighted index on the monthly changes of economic policy index yields a statistically significant negative coefficient at the 1% level, and this coefficient is more negative than the coefficient obtained from regressing the monthly portfolio returns on the monthly changes in economic policy uncertainty. This study provides empirical evidence of the ability of firms in the US with the best training program to withstand the storm of economic policy uncertainty better than the whole market. In other words, the findings suggest that firms with the best training program are more prepared than the whole market in responding to the changes in economic policy uncertainty