Training - Motivation Theory

Training programs can affect work behavior in two ways. The most obvious is by directly improving the skills necessary for the employee to successfully complete his/her job. An increase in ability improves the employee’s potential to perform at a higher level. Of course, whether that potential becomes realized is largely an issue of motivation.

A second benefit from training is that it increases an employee’s self-efficacy. As you will remember, self-efficacy is a person’s expectation that he/she can successfully execute the behaviors required to produce an outcome. For employees, those behaviors are work tasks and the outcome is effective job performance. Employees with high self-efficacy have strong expectations about their abilities to perform successfully in new situations. They are confident and expect to be successful. Training, then, is a means to positively affect self-efficacy because employees may be more willing to undertake job tasks and exert a high level of effort. In expectancy terms, individuals are more likely to perceive their effort as leading to performance.

We also provide a discussion on selected issues regarding international human resource practices. Generally speaking, many of the human resource policies and practices discussed in the chapter have to be modified to reflect societal differences. Employee selection and performance evaluation are examined using the international lens. Diversity issues are important from an HR perspective. We discuss diversity from several vantage points including physical disabilities, work/life conflicts, and the importance of overall diversity training in the workplace.