Week 9, Training, Readings

Question 1

100 Years of Training and Development Research: What We Know and
Where We Should Go.

Bell et al (2017)

Answer 1

• 100 Years of Training and Development Research: What We Know and Where We Should Go
  
  • Introduction
    
    • The transformation of training and development in organizations
    • The evolution of training and development research
    • The goal and process of the current review
  • A Timeline of Training and Development Research in JAP
    
    • The Early Years (1917–1959)
      
      • Describing or evaluating specific training efforts
      • Identifying factors predicting training success
      • Examining methods and instruments for measuring progress
    • The Emergence of Theory (1960s and 1970s)
      
      • Testing interventions rather than theory
      • Applying social learning theory to training design
      • Recognizing the role of the broader system in training effectiveness
    • The Trainee Is Alive (1980s)
      
      • Adopting a more learner-centered orientation
      • Increasing interest in transfer of training
      • Conducting meta-analyses to summarize and clarify findings
    • Training in Context (1990s)
      
      • Focusing on the role of the work environment in learning and transfer
      • Applying cognitive theory to broaden models of training evaluation
    • Beyond the Individual and the Classroom (2000 –Present)
      
      • Developing new theoretical models, constructs, and evaluation tools
      • Examining the benefits of learning for teams and organizations
      • Exploring learning that occurs beyond formal training
  • The Evolution of Key Research Themes Within JAP
    
    • Theme 1: Training Criteria
      
      • An expanding understanding of learning
        
        • Learning tasks and outcomes
        • Broadening the criteria
    • Theme 2: Trainee Characteristics
      
      • A focus on trainee ability and aptitudes for training success
      • Moving beyond ability and aptitude for predicting training success
      • Expansion of the scope of trainee characteristics research
    • Theme 3: Training Design and Delivery
      
      • A focus on instructional methods and media for enhancing learning outcomes
      • Moving beyond instructional methods to consider instructional strategies and principles
      • Expansion of the scope of training design and delivery research
    • Theme 4: Training Context
      
      • A focus on pretraining factors influencing motivation to learn and participation in development activities
      • Moving beyond pretraining factors to consider posttraining factors influencing transfer of training
      • Expansion of the scope of training context research
  • Future Directions for Training and Development Research
    
    • Training Criteria
    • Trainee Characteristics
    • Training Design
    • Training Context
  • Conclusion

Question 2

100 Years of Training and Development Research: What We Know and
Where We Should Go.

Bell et al (2017)

Answer 2

Over the past century, training and development in organizations has undergone a remarkable transformation. As the nature of work has changed, training objectives have broadened beyond improving efficiency on simple manual tasks to providing employees with the skills needed to perform complex and dynamic jobs. Once conducted almost exclusively on-the-job by supervisors (Kraiger & Ford, 2007), technological advances now allow learning to occur on demand and virtually anywhere and at any time. The role of training and development has also expanded to where today it is viewed as not only a way to enhance individual capabilities but also as a valuable lever for improving team effectiveness and for organizations to gain competitive advantage (Noe, Clarke, & Klein, 2014).

This transformation has been accompanied by a growing and constantly evolving body of research across a variety of disciplines, including industrial/organizational psychology, military psychology, human factors, and cognitive psychology, which has advanced our understanding of how to design and deliver training and development in organizations (Salas & Cannon-Bowers, 2001). We examine this research evolution with particular attention on research published in JAP. We also describe particularly important and relevant pieces published in other outlets. Our goal is to highlight what we have learned from training and development research published in JAP in the past 100 years and to provide recommendations about potentially fruitful areas for future research.

The process we used to write this review included several steps. First, we created a database consisting of all articles on training, development, and learning published in JAP. 1 We included articles on mentoring and rater training if they offered insights into the effectiveness of training and development. More comprehensive treatment of these topics can be found in the articles on mentoring and performance appraisal found in this special issue. A list of the JAP articles included in our database, organized by decade, is provided in the online supplemental materials. Next, we used citation analysis and our own judgment to identify key themes and articles. Lastly, our review of the key articles served as the basis for the citations and article summaries included in each section of the paper.
We begin by presenting a timeline of training and development research in JAP and identifying key advances and innovations. We then examine four prominent research themes—training criteria, trainee characteristics, training design and delivery, and the training context— each of which provides unique insight into our evolving understanding of training and development. Finally, we discuss important directions for future research.

Private and public organizations spend vast amounts of money on training and development and almost every working adult will spend hours of their lives participating in learning experiences. There is both a business and personal imperative to better understand how humans learn at work and how best to design, implement, and support training and development activities. The state of knowledge regarding training and development has come a long way in the last 100 years, with research yielding many practical insights that can help guide practice (Salas, Tannenbaum, Kraiger, & Smith-Jentsch, 2012). The over 450 related articles published in JAP are a rich legacy, contributing to that growth in knowledge. We hope that by examining that legacy, researchers can continue to produce meaningful studies, further promoting effective learning in the workplace.