Development and Leadership Development

Question 1

What are three reasons for training beyond giving the trainees additional knowledge and skill?

Answer 1

1. External marketing. It’s good publicity and could possibly bring in more business
2. Meeting legal requirements. Legal regulations require employees to meet a certain standard and so training is needed
3. Establishing expertise for client purposes – Training allows clients to see the company as competent and bring in business.

Question 2

Describe two generic instructional methods from the taxonomy presented in the lecture.

Answer 2

Modeling: Information presentation but where the desired behaviors are directly demonstrated
Simulation: Training in which an effort is made to represent the work situation with maximal fidelity.

Question 3

Training can be presented in many different ways. However, there are two features of the content of the training program that should be maximized. What are the two critical features that should be incorporated into the training content? Either describe them or given an example of each.

Answer 3

• Content fidelity – The closeness of match between what is presented in the training and the actual environment and materials.
• Content production – Training should encourage learners to produce new knowledge. Opportunities to “producce” the knowledge or skill.

Question 4

Describe 4 conditions that improve the effectiveness of feedback.

Answer 4

a. Feedback should be informative
b. Feedback should be specific
c. Positive feedback is generally more effective
d. Feedback should direct the person’s attention to the task, not to self-evaluations.

Question 5

What is transfer of training and what are some reasons for a failure of transfer of training?

Answer 5

Transfer of training is the transfer of capabilities acquired during training to achieve higher performance on a specific factor in the actual job. It is important because there is little use in training if the learning is not transferred into new knowledge and skills in the workplace.

Reasons for a failure of transfer of training from the perspective of the trainee include problems with the training when trainees say they never learned it, they learned it but forgot it, they don’t know how to use it. They also include problems with the organization if trainees think they’re not rewarded by the training. And problems with person if they don’t think they can do it, they don’t think its worth doing.

Question 6

Training goals can be very useful. Describe two ways in which training goals can help a trainee.

Answer 6

Goals can provide direction for efforts, helping the trainee know exactly what to do. Goals can clarify the conditions for obtaining rewards or outcomes, for example, clarifying how to obtain a bonus. Goals can also help in trying different strategies by using different approaches that can be more productive.

Question 7

Describe one reason an aptitude treatment interaction (ATI) can be important for training.

Answer 7

ATIs are important for training because the training may not work well –be optimal —for everyone because people may differ in their abilities, so different types of training will be better for some and worse for others. This is important as it relates to training structure and ability, and its possible that a ‘cheap’ training is good for some trainees, saving money.