Chapter Five: Training and Development Page 1
CHAPTER FIVE
TRAINING AND MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT
Training is a learning process that involves the acquisition of skills, concepts, rules, or
attitudes to increase the performance of employees. Example: a machinist how to operate his
new machine, a new salesperson how to sell a firm’s products, etc.
Management development, however, is an attempt to improve current or future management
performance by imparting knowledge, changing attitudes, or increasing skills. Training is
usually related to operational and technical areas and is aimed at providing employees with
the skills they need to do their current job. However, management development is involved in
developing managerial capabilities and has a long-term nature. Its aim is to develop current or
future employees for some future jobs with the organization or to solve some organizational
problem. Techniques used in both cases are usually the same and thus distinguishing between
them is somewhat arbitrary.
The distinction between training and development can be summarized as follows:
Learning Dimension
Training
Development
Who
Non managerial personnel
Managerial personal
What
Technical and mechanical operations
Theoretical, conceptual ideas
Why
Specific job related purpose
General knowledge
When
Short-term
Long-term
Whether called training or management development, it has become the focus of most
organizations now a days. In the past, training’s main objective was to impart the technical
skills needed to do a job. Currently, however, additional objectives have become part of a
training program. These include imparting broader skills to employees such as problem-
solving skills, communication skills, team-building skills, etc. Moreover, organizations are
taking training as a means to enhance employee’s commitment by providing continuous
opportunity for improvement.
1. Training Process
a. Training need identification: Determining the need for training is the first step in the training
process. It can be done through identifying the strength and weakness of the organization, the
departments or the individuals. Some of the areas that may indicate need for training include
accidents, excessive scrap, high labor turn-over, quality and quantity of outputs, special
problems of a department, etc.
For effective training need identification, analysis should be one in four areas
i. Organizational analysis: assessing the internal and external factors affecting the organization.
ii. Job (Task) analysis: identification of the tasks required to do a job and the related human
resource requirement to do the tasks. This is usually appropriate to identify training needs of
employees who are new to their jobs.
iii. Performance Analysis: evaluation of the individuals on the job and their skills and abilities. It
involves identifying a deficiency and then correcting it with new equipment, a new employee,
a training program, or some other adjustment.
iv. Customer survey: analysis of customer satisfaction with the service they’re being provided by
