Preface

Since we published the second edition of Developing Human Resources in Organizations in 1991, we've seen two major trends in training and development activities in both the private and public sectors in North America. First, more organizations are providing training and development for their employees at all levels. Second, training expenditures are increasing steadily. Today, a typical organization devotes as much as 1.8 percent of their total payroll toward training employees.

There are many societal changes responsible for increasing the popularity of training and development activities. First, with the low unemployment rate pausing a very tight labor market, organizations are competing with one another to attract and retain talented people. One important way of doing this is by providing better training and career development opportunities than one's competitors. Second, as the workforce becomes more diverse demographically, organizations have a great deal of pressure on them to hire, promote, and train women, minorities, individuals over 40, and people with disabilities. Third, as a result of the rapid changes in technology, employees need to be retrained on new equipment, so that they do not become technically obsolescent. Fourth, this new era of globalization and the increase of multinational organizations put pressure on companies to provide training to employees who will have overseas assignments or who work in the United States or Canada but have to interact with individuals from other countries. Finally, through numerous mergers and acquisitions, North American employees are finding that their jobs are changing and, consequently, they have to learn new things.

With all of this in mind, the third edition of Developing and Training Human Resources in Organizations is intended for teachers and students as well as for human resource generalists and specialists in the private and public business sectors. Thus, we tried to make our language and writing style as straightforward as possible. We also tried to provide our readers with real-world examples, while, at the same time, making certain that we are-not falling into the trap of advertising a particular consulting firm's products or services. References are provided throughout the book to substantiate key findings and to provide an exhaustive resource base for those readers who want to study a topic in greater detail.

CONTENT CHANGES IN THE THIRD EDITION

Since the second edition, we continue to work in this field as practitioners, researchers, and teachers. If we had to choose the major development that has impacted human resources in the past 10 years, it would definitely be the impact of computer technology on the delivery of training and development programs. The onset of technology-based training (i.e., Internet, intranet, CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs) has revolutionized this field!

We organized this third edition similar to the second edition. We continue to use our nine-cell scheme (i.e., three goals x three strategies) for categorizing the training and development methods that are currently being used by organizations. Although there are times when this model is frustrating because a particular training or development method could be placed in more than one category, it is still the best method for conceptualizing and differentiating various employee training and management development approaches.

Chapter 1 provides an overview of training and development. We revised and updated the statistics to reflect their current increase in popularity. We feel that it's important for readers to appreciate the fact that training and development can't be implemented successfully without taking into consideration their relationship with other human resource management activities such as staffing, performance appraisal, and organization development. The title of Chapter 2 has upgraded from "Organizational Factors Affecting Training and Development" to "The Organizational Role of the Training Specialist." Included in this chapter are what to consider when organizing a training department, the role of the training specialist in organizations, factors that need to be considered when organizing a training function, the importance of taking a financial approach to training, and the challenges of creating a first-rate training staff through proper selection and training. Two of the important topics covered in this chapter are how to maintain ongoing managerial support and how to ensure that all training and development activities are legal. An important new section in this chapter focuses on the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act on the field of training and development.

Chapter 3 describes various ways of identifying training needs. Specifically, it teaches the training specialist how to find the answer to three key questions: (1) where is training and development needed within our organization? (2) what should the content of each of these training programs be? and (3) which of our employees would benefit from participating in one or more of these programs. Only by performing the various analyses discussed in this chapter, will organizations avoid wasting time and money on delivering training and development programs to employees and organizational units where they are not needed.

In Chapter 4, we shift our attention to ways of maximizing trainees' learning of skills and abilities needed for success not only today, but throughout their careers. We added a lot of new research to this chapter. Much of this new research derives from cognitive psychology where researchers have been examining the fundamentals of short- and long-term memory, perception, thinking, reasoning, and problem solving. We tried to create a good balance between the contributions of "behaviorists" and "cognitivists" to maximizing employee learning. One of the biggest problems faced by training specialists is finding ways to encourage trainees to apply what they learned to their jobs. In light of this, we devote a lot of time in this chapter to discussing what can be done before, during, and after training to facilitate positive transfer from the training environment to the job environment.

Once the training strategies for maximizing learning have been implemented, it is incumbent on training specialists to determine whether the strateg1C's are effective or whether they need to be modified or even discarded prior to any large-scale implementation. Hence, Chapter 5 focuses on evaluation. It discusses various ways of measuring a training program's effectiveness. New to this chapter are the results of meta-analytical research that examines the inter-relationships among these various types of criterion measures. This chapter then provides a discussion of the most applicable measurement designs that are available today to human resource specialists for determining the true effectiveness of training programs. For the reader interested and knowledgeable about statistics, we include a brief discussion of their use in assessing change. The "Final Comments" section discusses four major organizational barriers to training evaluation and how to overcome them.

With an understanding of the organizational factors affecting training and development systems, ways of identifying training needs in an organization, strategies for maximizing each trainee's learning, and methods of measuring training effectiveness so as to "tweak" and thereby ensure its success, we shift our attention to an examination of the various training approaches available today to training specialists. These training approaches can bring substantial and permanent improvements in a trainee's self-awareness, job skills, and motivation.

Chapter 6 describes on-site training methods. We changed and updated this chapter, as well as Chapter 7, more than any other chapter in this third addition. Here is where we discuss the impact of technology-based training. In Chapter 6, we describe such timely topics as the Internet, intranets, electronic performance support systems, ROMs, and the use of virtual reality. Some of the new topics covered in Chapter 7 are video conferencing, as well as equipment and virtual reality simulators. On the other hand, we don't ignore some of the popular off-site methods such as instructor-led classrooms and the use of various audiovisual training techniques.

Theoretical advances in developing and training leaders resulted in the expansion of Chapter 8. We needed to describe in detail how each of these theoretical approaches is being used today for training corporate leaders. Our goal was to provide readers with a clear understanding of each approach to leadership development so that they can judge, through discussions with other students or practitioners, the strengths and limitations of each approach. Chapter 9 focuses on different management and executive development approaches now being implemented by organizations in both the private and public sectors. We organized these approaches into categories depending on their goals of self-awareness, job skills, and motivation. Some of the approaches are totally new and have not been covered before in either the first or second editions of our book, such as outdoor experiential training, action learning, and real-time coaching.

Finally, we changed and updated Chapter 10 completely. This chapter examines various societal concerns that impact the field of training and development. We discuss the impact of certain important societal trends that evolved since the second edition of this book. Examples of these topics include basic skills training; English as a second language; the disabled, dislocated workers and youth; tele-commuting training; wellness training; and team skills training.

The goal of revising this edition was straightforward: To make students and human resource professionals aware of the advances in the field of training and development that can be used to increase the effectiveness of an organization's workforce. It was our intention to bring all of our experiences, as well as the experiences of the colleagues we interviewed for this book, to our readers. It is also our intention to convey our thoughts in an interesting and informative manner through the use of concrete examples.

In closing, we would like to thank Lee Kietchel, who was a doctoral student in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at George Mason University, for all of her help in reviewing the training and development literature. We applaud Lee's thoroughness, patience, and dedication to this project. We also want to thank Dr. David Grove from Procter & Gamble for his valuable insights. Several members of David's training staff gave us so much of their time and provided such wonderful input, we would like to thank them here: Lisa Owens, Heidi Weber, Fran Sheperd, and Larry Green. Last, but not least, we would like to thank Ruth Wexley for her help in giving sagely advice on the rewriting of this edition, as well as her patience, love, and support.

K. N. W. G. P. L.

Using real-world examples to close the gap between theory and practice, the third edition focuses on a systematic process of identifying training needs, building programs based on job information, and evaluating training in terms of objectives. Wexley and Latham discuss goal-setting theory, new legal thinking, and the training of minorities.

This edition features:

• New�Coverage of technology-based training, which illustrates the impact of computer technology on the delivery of training and development programs.
• New�An expanded theoretical approaches chapter discusses each approach and how it is being used for training corporate leaders.
• New�Information is included on the latest societal trends, to help readers understand the issues that impact training.
• Coverage of training needs shows readers how to find the answers to the where, what, and which questions of training.
• Training evaluation is covered completely, giving readers the techniques necessary to measure a program's effectiveness.

1. Introduction.
2. The Organizational Role of the Training Specialist.
3. Identifying Training Needs.
4. Maximizing the Trainee's Learning.
5. Evaluating Training Programs.
6. On-Site Training Methods.
7. Off-Site Training Methods.
8. Developing and Training Leaders: Theoretical Approaches.
9. Management and Executive Development.
10. Societal Concerns.
Author Index.
Subject Index.