A S S I G N M E N T

O n

Training & Development

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILEMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF

Master of Business Administration

By

Mohammad Kamran Saeed

Under the Supervision of

Mr. Sanju Samuel

DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

MODERN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & RESEARCH CENTRE
ALWAR
2009
1) What does training process, determine & explain training process.

Ans. There are six steps in the training process. All those involved in training
need to be aware of the key stages in the training process, often referred to
as the training cycle:

Steps in the Training Process

1. Organizational objectives
2. Assessment of Training needs
3. Establishment of Training goals
4. Devising training programme
5. Implementation of training programme
6. Evaluation of results
I. Organizational Objectives and Strategies:

The first step in the training process in an organization is the assessment

of its objectives and strategies. What business are we in? At what level of
quality do we wish to provide this product or service? Where do we want
to be in the future? It is only after answering these related questions that
the organization must assess the strengths and weaknesses of its human
resources.

II. Needs Assessment:

Needs assessment diagnosis present problems and future challenges to be

met through training and development? Organizations spend vast sums of
money (usually as a percentage on turnover) on training and
development. Before committing such huge resources, organizations that
implement training programs without conducting needs assessment may
be making errors.
Needs assessment occurs at two levels- group and individual. An
individual obviously needs training when his or her performance falls
short of standards, that is, when there is performance deficiency.
Inadequacy in performance may be due to lack of skill or knowledge or
any other problem. The problem of performance deficiency caused by
absence of skills or knowledge can be remedied by training. Faulty
selection, poor job design, improving quality of supervision, or discharge
will solve the problem.
Assessment of training needs must also focus on anticipated skills of an
employee. Technology changes fast and new technology demands new
skills. It is necessary that the employee be trained to acquire new skills.
This will help him/her to progress in his or her career path. Training and
development is essential to prepare the employee to handle more
challenging tasks.

III. Training and Development objectives

Once training needs are assessed, training and development goals must be
established. Without clearly set goals, it is not possible to design a
training and development programme and, after it has been implemented
there will be no way of measuring its effectiveness. Goals must be
tangible, verifiable, and measurable. This is easy where skills’ training is
involved. For example, the successful trainee will be expected to type 55
words per minute with two or three errors per page. Nevertheless, clear
behavioral standards of expected results are necessary so that the
programme can be effectively designed and results can be evaluated.

IV. Designing Training and Development Programme

Every training and development programme must address certain vital
issues

1. Who participates in the programme?

2. Who are the trainers?
3. What methods and techniques are to be used for training?
4. What should be the level of training?
5. What learning principles are needed?

6. Where is the program conducted?

V. Methods and Techniques of training
A multitude of methods of training is used to train employees. Training
methods are categorized into two groups (i) on the job training and (ii)
off-the job methods.
On the job training: refers to methods that are applied in the workplace,
while the employees are actually working.
On-job training
Cannell (1997:28) defines on-the-job training as:
“Training that is planned and structured that takes place mainly at the
normal workstation of the trainee- although some instruction may be
provided in a special training area on site - and where a manager,
supervisor, trainer or peer colleague spends significant time with a trainee
to teach a set of skills that have been specified in advance.”
 Off-the –job training: are used away from workplaces.
• Vestibule
• Lecture
• Special study
• Films
• Television
• Conference or discussion
• Case study
• Role playing
• Simulation
• Programmed instruction
• Laboratory training

2) What need assessment? What are the causes & outcome of needs
assessment?

Ans. Needs assessment diagnosis present problems and future challenges

to be met through training and development? Organizations spend vast
sums of money (usually as a percentage on turnover) on training and
development. Before committing such huge resources, organizations that
implement training programs without conducting needs assessment may
be making errors.
Needs assessment occurs at two levels- group and individual. An
individual obviously needs training when his or her performance falls
short of standards, that is, when there is performance deficiency.
Inadequacy in performance may be due to lack of skill or knowledge or
any other problem. The problem of performance deficiency caused by
absence of skills or knowledge can be remedied by training. Faulty
selection, poor job design, improving quality of supervision, or discharge
will solve the problem.
 Assessment of training needs must also focus on anticipated skills of an
employee. Technology changes fast and new technology demands new
skills. It is necessary that the employee be trained to acquire new skills.
This will help him/her to progress in his or her career path. Training and
development is essential to prepare the employee to handle more
challenging tasks.

3) What is TNA ? explain

Ans. Training efforts must aim at meeting the requirements of the

organizations (long – term) and the individual employees (short-term).
This involves finding answers to questions such as: Whether training is
needed? If yes, where it is needed? Which training is needed? Once we
identify training gaps within the organisation, it becomes easy to design an
appropriate training programme. Training needs can be identified through
the following types of analysis (Thayer & McGhee Model):

1) Organisational analysis: It involves a study of the entire organization

in terms of its objectives, its resources, the utilization of these resources,
in order to achieve stated objectives and its interaction pattern with
environment. The important elements that are closely examined in this
connection are:

􀂉 Analysis of objectives:

This is a study of short term and long-term objectives and the strategies
followed at various levels to meet these objectives.

􀂉 Resource utilisation analysis:

How the various organisational resources (human, physical and

financial) are put to use is the main focus of this study. The contributions
of various departments- are also examined by establishing efficiency
indices for each unit. This is done to find out comparative labour costs,
whether a unit is under manned or over manned.

􀂉 Environmental scanning: Here the economic, political, socio-cultural

and technological environment of the organisation is examined.
􀂉 Organisational climate analysis: The climate of an organisation
speaks about the attitudes of members towards work, company policies,
supervisors, etc. Absenteeism, turnover ratios generally reflect the
prevailing employee attitudes.
2) Task or role analysis: This is a detailed examination of a job, its
components, its various operations and conditions under which it has to
be performed. The focus here is on the roles played by an individual and
the training needed to perform such roles. The whole exercise is meant to
find out how the various tasks h be performed and what kind of skills,
knowledge, attitudes are needed to the job needs. Questionnaires,
interviews, reports, tests, observation and methods are generally used to
collect job related information from time-to-time. After collecting the
information, an appropriate training program may be designed, paying
attention to (i) performance standards required of employees, (ii) the tasks
they have to discharge, (iii) the methods they will employ on the job and
(iv) how they have learned such methods, etc.
3) Manpower analysis: Here the focus is on the individual-in a given
job. There are three issues to be resolved through manpower analysis.
First we try to find, whether performance is satisfactory and training is
required. Second, whether the employee is capable of being trained and
the specific areas in which training is needed. Finally, we need to state
whether poor performances (who can improve with requisite training
inputs) on the job need to be replaced by those who can do the job. Other
 options to training such as modifications in the job or processes should
also be looked into. Personal observation, performance reviews,
supervisory reports, diagnostic tests help in collecting the required
information and select particular training options that try to improve the
performance individual workers.
How the various organisational resources (human, physical and financial)
are put to use is the main focus of this study. The contributions of various
departments- are also examined by establishing efficiency indices for
each unit. This is done to find out comparative labour costs, whether a
unit is under manned or over manned.

4) What do you understand by training design? How do we develop

training objective & what are the outcome of design?
Ans. The design of the training program can be undertaken only when a
clear training objective has been produced. The training objective clears
what goal has to be achieved by the end of training program i.e. what the
trainees are expected to be able to do at the end of their training.
Training objectives assist trainers to design the training program.
The trainer – Before starting a training program, a trainer analyzes his
technical, interpersonal, judgmental skills in order to deliver quality
content to trainers.
The trainees – A good training design requires close scrutiny of the
trainees and their profiles. Age, experience, needs and expectations of
the trainees are some of the important factors that affect training design.

Training climate – A good training climate comprises of ambience, tone,

feelings, positive perception for training program, etc. Therefore, when the
climate is favorable nothing goes wrong but when the climate is unfavorable,
almost everything goes wrong.
Trainees’ learning style – the learning style, age, experience, educational
background of trainees must be kept in mind in order to get the right pitch to the
design of the program.
Training strategies – Once the training objective has been identified, the
trainer translates it into specific training areas and modules. The trainer prepares
the priority list of about what must be included, what could be included.
Training topics – After formulating a strategy, trainer decides upon the
content to be delivered. Trainers break the content into headings, topics, ad
modules. These topics and modules are then classified into information,
knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
Sequence the contents – Contents are then sequenced in a following manner:

 From simple to complex

 Topics are arranged in terms of their relative importance
 From known to unknown
 From specific to general
 Dependent relationship

Training tactics – Once the objectives and the strategy of the training program
becomes clear, trainer comes in the position to select most appropriate tactics or
methods or techniques. The method selection depends on the following factors:

 Trainees’ background
 Time allocated
 Style preference of trainer
 Level of competence of trainer
 Availability of facilities and resources, etc
Support facilities – It can be segregated into printed and audio visual. The
various requirements in a training program are white boards, flip charts,
markers, etc.
Constraints – The various constraints that lay in the trainers mind are:
 Time
 Accommodation, facilities and their availability
 Furnishings and equipments
 Budget
 Design of the training, etc.

Training objectives are one of the most important parts of training program.
While some people think of training objective as a waste of valuable time.
The counterargument here is that resources are always limited and the training
objectives actually lead the design of training. It provides the clear guidelines
and develops the training program in less time because objectives focus
specifically on needs. It helps in adhering to a plan.
Training objective tell the trainee that what is expected out of him at the end
of the training program. Training objectives are of great significance from a
number of stakeholder perspectives.
1.Trainer
2.Trainee
3.Designer
4. Evaluator
Trainer – The training objective is also beneficial to trainer because it
helps the trainer to measure the progress of trainees and make the
required adjustments. Also, trainer comes in a position to establish a
relationship between objectives and particular segments of training.
Trainee – The training objective is beneficial to the trainee because it
helps in reducing the anxiety of the trainee up to some extent. Not
knowing anything or going to a place which is unknown creates anxiety
that can negatively affect learning. Therefore, it is important to keep the
participants aware of the happenings, rather than keeping it surprise.
Secondly, it helps in increase in concentration, which is the crucial factor
to make the training successful. The objectives create an image of the
training program in trainee’s mind that actually helps in gaining
attention.
Thirdly, if the goal is set to be challenging and motivating, then the
likelihood of achieving those goals is much higher than the situation in
which no goal is set. Therefore, training objectives helps in increasing
the probability that the participants will be successful in training.

5) What are the training methods ? explain

Ans. There are various methods of training, which can be divided in to

cognitive and behavioural methods. Trainers need to understand the
pros and cons of each method, also its impact on trainees keeping their
background and skills in mind before giving training.

Cognitive methods are more of giving theoretical training to the trainees.

The various methods under Cognitive approach provide the rules for how
to do something, written or verbal information, demonstrate relationships
among concepts, etc. These methods are associated with changes in
knowledge and attitude by stimulating learning.

The various methods that come under Cognitive approach are:

  LECTURES
 DEMONSTRATIONS
 DISCUSSIONS
 COMPUTER BASED TRAINING (CBT)

o INTELLEGENT TUTORIAL SYSTEM(ITS)

o PROGRAMMED INSTRUCTION (PI)
o VIRTUAL REALITY

Behavioural methods are more of giving practical training to the trainees. The
various methods under Behavioural approach allow the trainee to behaviour in a
real fashion. These methods are best used for skill development.

The various methods that come under Behavioural approach are:

 GAMES AND SIMULATIONS

o BEHAVIOR-MODELING
o BUSINESS GAMES
o CASE STUDIES
o EQUIPMENT STIMULATORS
o IN-BASKET TECHNIQUE
o ROLE PLAYS

Both the methods can be used effectively to change attitudes, but through
different means.

Another Method is MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT METHOD –

MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT –

The more future oriented method and more concerned with education of the
employees. To become a better performer by education implies that
management development activities attempt to in still sound reasoning
processes.

Management development method is further divided into two parts:

ON THE JOB TRAINING –

The development of a manager's abilities can take place on the job. The four
techniques for on the job development are:

 COACHING
 MENTORING
 JOB ROTATION
 JOB INSTRUCTION TECHNIQUE (JIT)

OFF THE JOB TRAINING –

There are many management development techniques that an employee can take
in off the job. The few popular methods are:

 SENSITIVITY TRAINING
 TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS
 STRAIGHT LECTURES/ LECTURES
 SIMULATION EXERCISES