Relationship between Methods of Training, Trainer and Management

Support towards Effective Training

Wan Maziah Wan Ab. Razak, Syahrul Nadwani Abdul Rahman, Zalinawati Abdullah, Ahmad Ismail

Mohd Anuar, Najah Lukman

Universiti Teknologi MARA (Terengganu), Sura Hujung, 23000 Dungun, Terengganu,

Keywords: Effective Training, Training Methods, Trainer’s Characteristics and Management Support.

Abstract: The research was conducted to study the factors that contribute to the effective training among academic

staff of a higher learning institution. This research had focused only on the general types of training

provided by department of Training unit to all the lecturers such as important training like basic teaching

and learning workshop, research training, writing workshop, ICT Training, e-Learning and etc. By

constructing a hypothetical research model to investigate the relationship of three moderating variables on

the training participants (independent variables) towards the effective training (dependent variable), a

survey questionnaire had been distributed to employees in that university who had attended training

programs. Sampling that had been used in which approximately 200 lecturers in the campus will become the

subject of the study. The respondents will be all of the permanent staff. The researchers used correlation test

in order to measure the degree of relationship between two variables, testing the significance of the variable

by using the Reliability Test, Correlation and Regression Analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis. From

all these statistical analysis, the researchers had clearly able to indicate that the main contribution factor is

management support that contribute strongly towards the effective training followed by training method and

trainer’s caharacteristics. There were siginificant relationships between all the identifiable independent

variables with the main variable of the study.

1 INTRODUCTION

The research was conducted to study the factors that

contribute to the effective training among academic

staff in one of a higher learning institution. This

research focused only on the general types of

training provided by departments Training units to

all the academicians such as important training like

basic teaching and learning workshop, research

training, writing workshop, ICT Training, e-

Learning and etc.

From this research, the relationship among all

factors that contribute towards the training provided

for the academic staff had been found out. Besides,

it is also to investigate the effectiveness of training.

Sampling that been used in which 168 lecturers in

the campus had become the subject of the study. The

respondents were all the permanent academicians in

the campus.

Hopefully, after implementing this study it will

help the organization to improve their training. Thus,

to enhance the quality of training. The findings of

this study can be in considered as continuous

improvement on training in the organization. The

top management would have another insight and

knowledge of the impact of implementation of

training practices on their employees. Moreover, the

results of the study would be of significant value to

organization that could use them as a useful

reference to provide efficient training for the staff.

Training is one of the most pervasive methods

for enhancing the productivity of individuals and

communicating organizational goals to new

personnel. It is a learning process that involves the

acquisition of knowledge, sharpening of skills,

concepts, rules, or changing of attitudes and

behaviors to enhance the performance of employees.

Refer to Mondy & Neo (2006), training designed to

provide learners with knowledge and skills needed

for their present jobs to achieve organizational goals.

But from our observation, the trainings were still not

effective maybe because of certain factors that might

be contribute to. These can be seen from the training

396

Ab. Razak, W., Abdul Rahman, S., Abdullah, Z., Mohd. Anuar, A. and Lukman, N.

Relationship between Methods of Training, Trainer and Management Support towards Effective Training.

DOI: 10.5220/0009206203960403

In Proceedings of the 2nd Economics and Business International Conference (EBIC 2019) - Economics and Business in Industrial Revolution 4.0, pages 396-403

ISBN: 978-989-758-498-5

or programmes organized, not all of the participants

could adapt or having changed after the training.

Most companies are committed to total quality

invest heavily in training and education. Training

plans should be based upon job skill requirements

and strategic initiatives of the company (Evans and

Lindsay, 2002). We could see that the management

has allocated a big amount of budget just for the

lecturer’s training but it’s better if they could come

out with something that maybe to analyze whether

the training is worth or not or maybe has given a big

impact or not to the lecturers.

Salas, Burke, Bowers and Wilson (2001; cited in

Lee, 2007) thus asserted that training evaluation

helps to determine whether the training has been

effectively on the job. This was emphasized by

Grensing-Pophal (2004; cited in Lee, 2007) that it is

important to assess training effectiveness and that

training effectiveness should be tied in with actual

work performance. So, for our research, we could

see which factors that will contribute importantly

towards the effectiveness of training in the

university.

2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Refer to Mondy & Neo (2006), training designed to

provide learners with knowledge and skills needed

for their present jobs to achieve organizational goals.

But from our observation, the trainings for lecturers

are still not effective maybe because of certain

factors that might be contribute to. These can be

seen from the training or programmes organized, not

all of the participants could adapt or having changed

after the training.

Most companies are committed to total quality

invest heavily in training and education. Training

plans should be based upon job skill requirements

and strategic initiatives of the company (Evans and

Lindsay, 2002). We could see that the management

has allocated a big amount of budget just for the

lecturer’s training but it’s better if they could come

out with something that maybe to analyze whether

the training is worth or not or maybe has given a big

impact or not to the lecturers. Salas, Burke, Bowers

and Wilson (2001; cited in Lee, 2007) thus asserted

that training evaluation helps to determine whether

the training has been effectively on the job. This was

emphasized by Grensing-Pophal (2004; cited in Lee,

2007) that it is important to assess training

effectiveness and that training effectiveness should

be tied in with actual work performance. So, for our

research, we could see which factors that will

contribute importantly towards the effectiveness of

training in the university.

3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this study is to examine as follows:

1) The investigate the relationship between

three factors (training methods, trainer and

management support) towards the effective

training.

2) To identify the most influence variable

towards effective training.

4 LITERATURE REVIEW

Effective Training

Human Resource Management is concerned with the

planning, acquisition, training & developing human

beings for getting the desired objectives & goals set

by the organization. The employees have to be

transformed according to the organizations' & global

needs. This is done through an organized activity

called Training. Training and development is

defined by Dessler (2008) as a process that utilizes

various methods to provide new and existing

employees with the skills they need to perform the

job.

Mulder (2001), in his research describe a model

of evaluation of customer satisfaction about training

programs. The model is developed and implemented

for an association of training companies. The model

is aimed at determining the quality of training

programs as perceived by project managers from the

organizations that purchased in company training

programs from the training companies. The results

show that this model is confirmed for two categories

of projects. The first category is the projects that

were aimed at achieving learning results and the

second category is changed job performance

respectively.

In order to recognize the effectiveness of the

training, organization should also give their attention

on how to develop an effective training evaluation.

Several characteristics of effective training

evaluation were described by Burrow and

Berardinelli (2003) in their research Systematic

performance improvement – refining the space

between learning and results such as it must be

objective and directed at important outcomes, it

should identify the important elements of the

training program (refer to the training method), the

Relationship between Methods of Training, Trainer and Management Support towards Effective Training

397

evaluation should match the organizational

philosophy, and last but not least the evaluation

procedures should be reasonable and focus on both

the outcomes and the process.

Contributing Factors Towards the Effective

Training

Related to the contribution factors towards training

effectiveness, three factors to be considered are

management support, training methods and trainer.

These factors are frequently mentioned in the

literature.

1. Training Methods

According to Noe (2010), management support

refer to the degree to which trainees’ managers

(i) emphasize the importance of attending

training programs and (ii) stress the application

of training content to the job. Management as

well as managers can communicate expectations

to trainees by providing the encouragement and

resources needed to apply training on the job.

2. Trainer’s Characteristics

Lawson (1998), stated that the trainer act as

facilitator in a training program where they

played two roles. First role is, they were standing

in front of a group and presenting information.

The second role is they were facilitating

discussion and interaction among trainees. Each

requires a different set of skills. She also stated

that facilitation skills are particularly critical for

processing activities which will pertain to the

effectiveness of the training.

Wise and Ezell (2003) provided four major

criteria whether training program is effective or

not. Effective training should be learner focused,

demonstrate productive behavior and effective

life skills, inspires and motivates, and also

celebrate personal and group achievements.

3. Management Support

Nevertheless, training program’s developer must

take into account the method of training program

that best suit to the adult learning theory.

Malcolm Knowles’s Andragogy (Knowles,

Holton, and Swanson, 2000) is most frequently

associated with adult learning theory. Andragogy

is based on the following assumptions (a) adult

learners bring life experiences to the learning

process that should be acknowledge, (b) adults

need to know why they need to learn something,

and how it is relevant to their lives, (c)

experiential, hands-on learning is effective with

adult learners, (d) adult approach learning as

problem-solving, (e) adults learn best with the

topic is of immediate value to them in their lives.

To top that up, Wise and Ezell (2003)

provided four major criteria whether training

program is effective or not. Effective training

should be learner focused, demonstrate

productive behavior and effective life skills,

inspires and motivates, and also celebrate

personal and group achievements.

5 METHODOLOGY AND

RESEARCH DESIGN

5.1 Research Concept

The type of this research is quantitative research

method and it is used to support the earlier findings

and serve as measure to find the best factors among

all independent variables towards the effectiveness

of training. Quantitative analysis also will be

explained as a major method adopted which is by

using survey method. Through this quantitative

method, the primary data is obtained by distributing

questionnaires to the respondents. The researchers

had chosen this method because it is the easiest

method to be used and could get accurate data from

respondens.

5.2 Research Design

Research design is a framework for conducting the

research project, which describes the procedures

necessary for obtaining the information to form or

solve problems (Malhotra et al., 2008). The

researchers used descriptive study in order to

investigate the effective training among

academicians. According to Uma Sekaran (2006),

descriptive study is undertaken in order to ascertain

and be able to describe the characteristics of

variables of interest in a situation such as to describe

the characteristics of academicians from every

faculties as for example the age, education level,

grade of position, as well as types of training

preferred and etc. Besides, descriptive study is also

undertaken to understand the characteristics of

organizations that follow certain common practices.

For example, the training department of UiTM

Terengganu has put certain measurement for the

staff to achieve the number of training attended per

year.

EBIC 2019 - Economics and Business International Conference 2019

398

5.3 Unit of Analysis

The academicians involved in this study which only

consists of permanent staff. It will only cover the

area of training that they experienced provided by

top management either by the unit of training or any

program inside or outside of the university.

5.4 Data Collection Method

Primary Data

Self-administered questionnaires had been chosen by

the researchers because the information can be

collected immediately, able to motivate respondents

and also have chances to 100% responses from the

respondents. The researchers also distributed

questionnaires to the respondents but still needed

assistance in getting the right number of

respondents.

5.5 Sample Design

A sample of 168 respondents were successfully

obtained from all permanent lecturers within three

months. Sample design involves the procedures of

choosing the right individuals, objects or events that

can provide accurate answer to solve the research

problem (Sekaran, 2003). In order to obtain

representative data for study, there are five steps

need to be followed consisting of defining target

population, determining the sampling frame,

designating sampling techniques, determining

sample size and execution of the sampling process

(Malhotra et al., 2008).

5.5.1 Population

The population of this study is all the permanent

academicians at one higher learning institution in

Terengganu. At the time, the campus has about 340

permanent academicians.

5.5.2 Sampling Frame and Technique

The sampling frame is a tool that represents the

element of target population. It is the list of direction

for identifying the targeted population. From this

study, the researchers have taken the sampling frame

from the list of academicians obtained from the

Academic Department. The probability and stratified

sampling was used in order to collect data for this

study, which is from ten faculties in the university,

there were ten questionnaires were distributed for

each of the faculties.

5.5.3 Sampling Size

Sampling size is the quality of the element that

included in this study. Sekaran (2010), suggested

using Krecjie and Morgan (1970) table for

determining the sample size for a population size.

Thus, for this research, the sample size was about

200 academicians as respondents. However, the

questionnaires collected were only 168 samples

from all of the ten faculties.

5.5.4 Framework

The framework of this study can be described as to

investigate the relationship among all variables with

the dependent variable.

5.6 Research Framework

Independent Dependent

Variables (IV) Variable (DV)

Figure 1: Research framework

The independent variables are the factors that may

contribute to the dependent variable,which is

effectiveness of training. The independent variables

consist of training methods, trainer’s characteristics

and also management support.

5.7 Scale Development

5.7.1 Operationalization

Likert Scale has been used because it represented

whether respondents agreed or not on the three

factors contribute to the effectiveness of training

among lecturers. The scale comprises of 1- Strongly

Disagree, 2- Disagree, 3- Fair, 4- Agree, 5- Strongly

Agree and also to see whether any of independent

variables are not applicable to the lecturers ; NA-

Not Applicable.

Training Methods

Management

Traine

’s

Characteristics

Management

Support

Effective

Training

Relationship between Methods of Training, Trainer and Management Support towards Effective Training

399

5.7.2 Questionnaires

The questionnaire contained two sections: the first

section was designed to gather information about

samples’ personal, demographic, and their responds

towards the number of training attended and

specification of training preferred, and etc. The

profile of the sample’s characteristics is shown in

Table 2.

In the second section of the questionnaire, the

respondents were asked to indicate on a five-point

Likert Scale towards four parts ;consists of ; one part

of effectiveness of training and another three parts

on independent variables questions such as training

methods, trainer’s characteristics and management

support.

The results had been analyzed through Statistical

Package for the Social Science (SPSS) 13.0. The

types of data analysed used were Reliability Testing,

Frequencies, Correlation and Regression Analysis

and Multiple Regression Analysis.

6 FINDINGS AND DATA

ANALYSIS

6.1 Reliability Test

Table 1: Reliability Statistics

Analysis of this study is shown in Table 1 above.

Most of the sections, training method was felt in

good of association which cronbach’s alpha value is

0.880. Then, trainer’s characteristics and

management support were felt in moderate of

association which alpha value among 0.6 to < 0.7.

The dependent variable for this study which is

effectiveness of training is in moderate of

association with result of cronbach’s alpha 0.626.

6.2 Frequencies Analysis

Table 2: Frequencies Table

Profile Frequency

Percent

(%)

Education

Bachelor Degree 22 13.1

Masters Degree 143 85.1

PHD 3 1.8

Race

Malay 166 98.8

Chinese 2 1.2

Indian 0 0

Others 0 0

Number of Training Attended

1-5 17 10.1

6-10 71 42.3

11-15 53 31.5

More than 16 25 15.1

Working Experience

1-5years 136 81.0

6-10years 17 10.1

11-15years 12 7.1

16years and above 2 1.2

Among the demographic profile or respondents

discussed are education level, race, number of

training attended and the year of working

experienced.

From the above table, it can be seen that most of

the respondents have Masters Degree certificate

which out of 168 respondents, there are 143

respondents hold that certificated with 85.1%. Its

follow by 22 respondents with Bachelor Degree

level and 13.1% respondents hold Bachelor Degree

level. Lastly, 3 respondents have PHD level and

1.8% respondents hold PHD level.

There are four categories of race stated in the

researcher where it is Malay, Chinese, Indian and

others. Refer to the result; we can see that Malay is

the highest respond to the researcher’s study, with

166 respondents at the 98.8% score. 2 respondents

from Chinese with 1.2%, and there is no respondents

from Indian and others.

The respondents who attended 6-10 time get the

highest score where 42.3% out of 71 respondents.

The respondents who attended 11-15 time are at the

second level with 53 respondents that are 31.5% and

followed by 15.1% from 25 respondents who

attended more than 16 time and 17 of respondents

who attended 1-5 time is at the fourth level with

score 10.1%.

The majority respondents from working

experience at 1-5 years given the highest score that

are 81.0% out of 136 respondents. It followed 17

EBIC 2019 - Economics and Business International Conference 2019

400

respondents from working experience at 6-10 years

with the score is 10.1%. There are 12 respondents

from working experience at 11-15 years given 7.1%

and the last is 2 respondents from working

experience at 16 years and above given 1.2%.

6.3 Pearson Correlation

As indicated in the Table 3, it shows that there were

siginificant relationships between all the identifiable

independent variables with the main variable of the

study. All the three independents were significant at

0.01 significant level (p>0.01). However, the

strength of the relationship differs for certain

variables. Significant positive relationships exist

between training method and effective training and

the strength of correlation is moderate. The result of

correlation between these variable is 0.314 and the

significant 0.000 level (r=0.31 4,p<0.000). Better

relationship appears to exist between trainer’s

characteristics and effective training among

academicians, and the strength is moderate. The

result of correlation between variables was 0.428

and significant at 0.000 level (r=0.428,p<0.000).

Lastly is management support and effectiveness of

training, it shown much stronger relationship among

these two variables which is the correlation was

0.583 and the siginificant 0.000 level

(r=0.583,p<0.000).

Table 3: Correlation Analysis

6.4 Multiple Regression Analysis

The result of the regression analysis was shown as

table 4. A summary of Multiple Regression for all

the effectiveness of training factors (training

method, trainer’s characteristics and management

support) towards dependent variable (effectiveness

of training) is displayed in table 4.

The multiple correlation coefficient (R), using all

the predictors simultaneously is 0.633 and Adjusted

R-Square is 39.0 meaning that 39.0 percent of the

variance in the effective training among

academicians can be predicted from the training

method, trainer’s characteristics and management

support. Note that the adjusted R-Square is lower

than the R-Square (40.1%). This is related with the

number of variables in this research. Furthermore, F

shows 36.412 and is statistically significant

(Sig.V=0.000).

Table 4: Summary of the Investigated Variables

Further analysis through regression, produced

standardized measures (Beta Weights) of the

strength of each dimension’s association with

effective training among academicians. Among the

three independent variables, management support (β

= .500, p<.000) was the main contributor factor

towards the effective training among academicians.

The training method variable (β= .102, p<0.214) and

the trainer’s characteristics variable (β=.182,

p<.036), it seemed that these variables less

contribute compared to management support in

predicting the factor that may contribute strongly to

the effective training among academicians.

Table 5: Multiple Linear Regression

7 CONCLUSION &

RECOMMENDATIONS

The study has revealed that top management support

plays important role and it stands as the most

important factor among other two factors in order to

Relationship between Methods of Training, Trainer and Management Support towards Effective Training

401

ensure the training provided for academicians will

be effective and successful. This factor is mostly

significant towards the effective training as the

results shown very impressively in multiple linear

regression and pearson correlation.

Trainer’s characteristics can be a moderate factor

that might contribute to the effective training, maybe

it is not chosen as important factor by the

respondents compared to the support by top

management and the method of training used.

Whereby, training method also can be considered as

having potential to become important factor towards

the effective training for the academicians in

university as the result was moderate in multiple

linear regression analysis. Otherwise, there is a lot of

other factors that may contribute in order to get

effectiveness of training, such as the environmental

factors, training facilities and perhaps motivation

among academicians could be added as one of the

factors that will give better impact on the

effectiveness of training in the university. These are

some recommendations that maybe can be used for

future direction.

For management support:

Involve management in course design

Apparently, developers often ask management for

information during the needs assessment phase, but

then less so during actual design. To ensure the

effectiveness of the training in the future, developers

should invite the management personnel to provide

some ideas and their views so that their input can be

included as part of training improvement towards

creating real-world scenarios and simulations, case

studies, as well as the what-ifs situations. This will

support their understanding of what the course will

and won’t cover, and develop their vested interest in

seeing the training succeed (Bozarth, 2010). By

doing so, management will be able to increase their

understanding of what benefits can be gained by

their employees those attending the the training

program. besides, management also will know

whether the training program be able to solve

employee's problems or not.

For trainers:

Trainer's behavior

Trainer's behavior throughout the session influences

trainees participation. trainer's behavior in terms of

their nonverbal and verbal communication whether

straightforward or subtle that communicated without

trainer's awareness may have powerful impact

towards trainees involvement and participation

during training session. sometimes, trainers don't

have to speak loudly to gain trainees' attention. what

trainers need to do just to improve their nonverbal

communication. such powerful nonverbal

communication techniques to encourage trainees'

participation as suggested by Lawson (1998) are:

 Eye contact. be attentive to making eye contact

with all participants.

 Head nodding. nod your head to show

understanding and to encourage participants to

continue.

 Posture. avoid defensive postures such as folded

arms.

 Body movement. avoid distracting movements

such as too much walking or pacing.

 Smile. concentrate on smiling with both mouth and

eyes to encourage and relax the group.

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