THE RELATIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT METHODS AND TRAINING BUDGETS ON ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE

Abstract

In an effort to enhance the leadership quality of their organization decision-makers in this dynamic and competitive environment, businesses are placing increasing emphasis on enhancing their managers' performance. Training and educational institutions have since sprung up to cope with the greater demand for managerial training programs. These programs are expected to be effective and impact positively on the organizations' performance. The overall effectiveness of a managerial training program depends to great extent on the use of appropriate and effective instructional methods in reaching its objectives. The use of inappropriate or ineffective methods may have minimal beneficial effects in conveying the training content, resulting in little learning for the training participants. This study focused on examining whether the use of alternative training methods have differential effectiveness in imparting and developing the three managerial skills conceptual, technical and human, identified by Katz (1974). An investigation on training budget's impact on organizational performance as measured by company revenue and profitability will also be made. The measurement of training methods' effectiveness is based on the subjective assessment of the 86 personnel and training managers that participated in this study. A cross-sectional study is also carried out to determine the correlation between training budget and company revenue and profitability. The results of the study indicate that, as hypothesized, the use of different training and developmental methods have differential effectiveness in imparting and developing conceptual, technical and human skills. Additionally, training budget was found to have positive impact on company's bottom line. Various implications of the findings were drawn and are discussed along with suggestions for future research.