Training and development effectiveness : practices, roles and impacts on performance in Jordanian banking organisations

Abstract

This research study aims to explore the current practices, policies and roles of training and development (T&D) within Jordanian banking organisations. It is an exploration of all the issues concerning T&D practices in terms of how the T&D process is conducted (how training needs are assessed, how T&D is delivered and how T&D programmes are evaluated); exploring top managers', T&D and HRM personnel's attitudes towards the importance of T&D in improving employees and organisational performance and the strategic position and roles of T&D in their organisations. This study aims to investigate all the problems and challenges that face T&D activities and searches for practical suggestions to improve the effectiveness of these activities. Finally, it aims to contribute to the understanding of HRD in differing cultural contexts. This research is mainly focused on top managers', T&D and HRM attitudes and viewpoints (perception) towards the research objectives. The research has adopted a multi-methods approach. The data were gathered through a combination of semi-structured interviews with 15 top managers and a survey questionnaire addressed to the persons responsible for T&D within the targeted organisations. All Jordanian banking organisations were targeted in this study rather than a representative sample of these organisations; however, a purposive sampling strategy was used in choosing the participants of this study. In total, 15 top managers and 38 T&D and HRM managers took part in the study. The study reveals that, in the majority of the organisations, there is an absence of systematic employee training needs assessment and of effective procedures for evaluation. The banks prefer to send their employees to external training providers rather than train them in the banks. The most commonly used delivery method is off-the-job training, namely lectures, seminars and case studies. T&D is not characterised by strategic human resource development criteria (SHRD) and it plays a reactive rather than a proactive role in these organisations. T&D improves employees' skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, but it does not increase employees' commitment and satisfaction. Also, T&D does not impact on profit, innovation and change, sales, absenteeism, turnover rate, job satisfaction and cost saving in their organisations, but it increases customer satisfaction, quality service and productivity. T&D faces many problems: lack of motivation among employees to attend T&D programmes; inaccurate TNA processes; poor training planning in terms of contents and delivery methods; sending inappropriate persons to the training programmes and lack of on-the-job training. To improve T&D effectiveness the researcher recommends many actions and decisions which need to be undertaken, as shown in sections 6.10,7.6 and 8.2.4. Finally, this study contributes to knowledge on the academic and practical levels as one of the first attempts at empirically investigating the nature and the extent of strategic T&D activities in Jordanian banks, identifying the main concerns and problems which face T&D activities, in addition to recognizing the vital roles of T&D in improving the organisations' performances. Thus, it raises the general understanding of the current T&D practices and management in Jordanian banks. It has brought together a large body of knowledge in management T&D, T&D in Arab countries, strategic T&D and T&D and performance relevant literature and unifies diverse schools of thoughts into one integrative perspective. This research integrates, refines and extends the empirical work conducted in the field of T&D in developing countries, since there is a lack of such studies. It raises some of the implications for managers and consultants, such as considering employees' motivation, enthusiasm and willingness, T&D time, the importance of incentive reward when managing T&D. This study provides useful guidelines in the form of the critical elements and factors that can enhance success in T&D in terms of TNA, training implementation, methods and evaluation process. The study also proposes several directions for future research