A Study of the Effectiveness of the Training Institution in Management Development

Abstract

Changing business environment demands organizations to develop managers to face future challenges. In this context the topic, management development has received a prominent place in human resource management and as such training institutions have to play a significant role as most o f the organizations depend heavily on external training for management development. This study examines the effectiveness o f the training institution in management development. It attempts to study the effectiveness o f external training by examining a sample o f training institutions that conduct diploma in management program and relate the results o f the study to the effectiveness o f the training institution. National Institute o f Business Management, National Institute o f Plantation Management, Sri Lanka Institute o f Development Administration and University o f Colombo are selected for this study. Having reviewed literature extensively on training and development and evaluation o f training, a conceptual model is developed taking training institution, client organization and trainee into consideration. In this model course design and training needs analysis are defined as the two independent variables and the effectiveness o f training as the dependent variable. Three hypotheses are developed to study the relationship between the dependent variable and independent variables. To study the relationship a questionnaire has been developed and administered among 216 successful participants o f the diploma program. The questionnaire consists o f 24 statements that are divided into three main categories o f course design; training needs analysis and effectiveness o f training. The likert scale ranging from strongly disagree (one point) to strongly agree (five points) is used to rate responses. Formulated hypotheses are analyzed and tested for statistical significance and correlation and coefficient. The results indicate that the course design has a moderate positive linear relationship with the effectiveness o f training while training needs analysis has a weak positive linear relationship. A sample o f 10 respondents to the questionnaire are subjected to unstructured interviews to obtain further clarifications and structured interviews are conducted among a sample o f 15 HR academics and professionals to obtain expert opinion on important issues with a view to validate some o f the findings o f the questionnaire. Findings suggest that effectiveness o f training in training institutions is moderate and the role o f the training institution in management development is not very effective. Findings have important implications for both training institution and client organization. The implication for the training institution is that they need to focus on developing demandbased training programs tailor-made to meet the requirement o f the client organizations. A major drawback revealed in the study is non-consideration o f the adult learning concepts in delivering training. From the perspective o f the client organization, it has been revealed that there is a necessity to assess training needs objectively and to provide continuous feedback to the training institution with a view to improve both design and delivery o f training programs.