Benefits of Training and Development for Individuals and Teams, Organizations, and Society Herman Aguinis1 and Kurt Kraiger2
Article Review By Adua John Daniel Famonure
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In order to get the competitive edge in a highly competitive business world, organizations strive to equip themselves with the necessary skills and knowledge that give them the advantage. It is estimated that organizations in the United States of America spend an excess of $120 billion per annum on training and staff development. Training in this respect, refers to a systematic approach to learning and improving team, individual and group outputs in an organization. Therefore development refers to activities that lead to the acquisition of knowledge influencing growth. And organization that does not train its staff can be said to be non progressive and experiences a stalled growth. This article highlighted three unique/major characteristics that differentiate it from other physiological based articles on the subject. Firstly, the training field, area or coverage of training has significantly grown when compared to years back. The author described the change in growth as exponential, and states “we cannot rely on the psychological literature to be the only or even main source of knowledge that has been generated.” In order to understand the effect and importance of training for individuals, teams and groups and the society as a whole, the author conducted an in-depth research and survey in which more than six hundred books, articles and journals where reviewed in fields and subjects ranging from psychology, human resource development and management, knowledge management, instructional design and human factors. The multi-disciplinary approach is essential given the increased specialization in today’s organizations. Secondly, although psychological research on training in the traditional sense is an independent field with a dedicated amount of study going into it at the individual level of analysis and more recently ant the team level of analysis. Included in this review are also the organizational and societal levels of analysis pertaining to psychological training. This article looks at psychological training beyond the traditional sense as noted by Kaufman & Guerra (2001), “we have entered a new era in which both achieving useful
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results and proving that they add value to the organization and our shared society are required” (p. 319) The third unique characteristic, thanks to cheaper faster more efficient ways of information / data acquisition and transfer using the internet, human resource development and training are now being taken on a global level. Thus human resource development and training cannot be limited to a particular region or country. There is documented evidence showing the positive impact of training on both individuals and team output in an organization. Training activities are beneficiary towards developing individual and team outcomes regarding attitude, motivation, and skill and management empowerment. Apart from job performance, training has other benefits. Although one must take not that these additional benefits of training are not totally disconnected from impact on job performance. As a matter of fact, in many cases they are indirectly related to job performance while in others they may be related to individual and team well being. For example, there is a renewed interest in leadership training (Collins & Holton 2004, Day 2000). Dvir et al. (2002) implemented a longitudinal randomized field experiment, using cadets in the Israel Defense Forces, in which experimental group leaders received transformational leadership training. Transformational leaders exhibit charismatic behaviors, are able to motivate and provide intellectual stimulation among followers, and treat followers with individual consideration. Results showed that transformational leadership training enhanced followers’ motivation (i.e., self-actualization needs and willingness to exert extra effort), morality (i.e., internationalization of their organization’s moral values). “Fewer than 5% of all training programs are assessed in terms of their financial benefits to the organization (Swanson 2001).” This does not stand true for organizations known for periodic training programs. The majority of organizations recognized by ASTD for
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innovative training programs, measure training impact at some level of organizational effectiveness (Paradise 2007, Rivera & Paradise 2006). Organizations measure the effectiveness of a training program by performance output, these output can be, increase profit and revenue generation. While there are ample resources and literature on individual and team level training impact, there is still limited and inconclusive data on organizational level training impact. Not only have there been relatively few empirical studies showing organizational-level impact, but those studies that have been done typically use selfreport data and unclear causal link back to training activities (Tharenou et al. 2007). Training and human development is not limited to any specific organization as it has an overall and long term impact on the society and economy as a whole. Economists coined the terms “human capital” and “capital formation in people” in referring mainly to schooling and on-the-job training (Wang et al. 2002). Overall, this body of literature leads to the conclusion that training efforts produce improvements in the quality of the labor force, which in turn is one of the most important contributors to national economic growth (e.g., Becker 1962, 1964). In conclusion, it is important for a needs assessment to be conducted before a training program is instituted. After the needs are indentified, the training has to be designed and tailored to fit the scenario and an effective and efficient training delivery method employed. After that a training evaluation should be conducted to ascertain the effectiveness and impact of the training program on the individual, team, organizational and societal levels. The Kirkpatrick four-levels approach to training evaluation continues to be the most widely used training evaluation model among practitioners (e.g., Sugrue & Rivera 2005, Twitchell et al. 2000), although the approach continues to be criticized by researchers (e.g., Holton 2005, Kraiger 2002, Spitzer 2005).
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Also identified were future directions of training on the individual, team, organizational and society as a whole and how it directly and indirectly influences the economy.
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LITERATURE CITED Herman Aguinis1 and Kurt Kraiger2 1The Business School, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado 80217-3364; Email: Herman.Aguinis@ucdenver.edu 2Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 805231876; Email: Kurt.Kraiger@colostate.edu Annu. Rev. Aguinis H. 2009. Performance Management. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. 2nd ed. Aguinis H. 2004. Regression Analysis for Categorical Moderators. New York: Guilford Aguinis H, Beaty JC, Boik RJ, Pierce CA. 2005. Effect size and power in assessing moderating effects of categorical variables using multiple regression: a 30-year review. J. Appl. Psychol. 90:94–107 Aguinis H, Branstetter SA. 2007. Teaching the concept of the sampling distribution of the mean. J. Manag. Educ. 31:467–83 Aguinis H, Mazurkiewicz MD, Heggestad, ED. 2009. Using Web-based frame-ofreference training to decrease biases in personality-based job analysis: an experimental field study. Pers. Psychol. In press Aguinis H, Pierce CA. 2008. Enhancing the relevance of organizational behavior by embracing performance management research. J. Organ. Behav. 29:139–45 Aguinis H, Sturman MC, Pierce CA. 2008. Comparison of three meta-analytic procedures for estimating moderating effects of categorical variables. Organ. Res. Methods 11:9–34 Alliger GM, Tannenbaum SI, Bennett W Jr, Traver H, Shotland A. 1997. A meta-analysis of the relations among training criteria. Pers. Psychol. 50:341–58 I:D 109021072 Adua John Daniel Famonure
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Arag ´ on-S´anchez A, Barba-Arag ´on I, Sanz-Valle R. 2003. Effects of training on business results. Int. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 14:956–80
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