Access to training and development in small and medium-sized enterprises: Employee\u27s perspectives

This paper provides an overview of a proposed study that aims to identify the perceived factors that prevent employees from initiating requests and participating in formal external employer-funded training and development opportunities within small and medium enterprises. While training and development has the potential to improve an employee\u27s remuneration and increase their employability, the level of training and development in small and medium enterprises is well below that of larger organisations. Although the small business owners retain the final decision regarding employee access to training and development, the outcome is also dependent upon employees\u27 decisions to intiate requests to participate in the available training and development opportunities. There is scant research into employees\u27 perceptions of the factors influencing the participation in employer-funded training and development opportunities. This paper intends to address this gap in knowledge by conducting 20 semi-structured interviews with employees in five Australian small and medium enterprises. It is anticipated that the collection data will provide information on the factors that prevent employees from requesting and participating in training and development opportunities

An exploratory study of factors influencing the participation in training and development of engineers in small businesses

The provision of workforce training and development (T&D) has the potential to provide benefits to both employers and employees. However, employees in small businesses receive less access to T&D than employees in large businesses. Prior research into reasons for the relatively low levels of employee participation in formal T&D in small businesses has typically involved surveys of owner-manager opinions regarding ‘barriers’ to T&D. This study explored factors influencing employee participation in T&D from the perspective of employees. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 15 employees in small engineering businesses. Consistent with the main aim of exploratory research, the study produced (four) generalisations that are grounded in the interview data. These generalisations help establish the groundwork for future studies

Line Managers\u27 Involvement In HRM Activities: A Malaysian Case Study

Despite evidence on greater line managers involvement in many HRM activities, the overall picture of their HRM role is still blurred especially in terms of their coverage and depth of involvement in HRM activities. For line managers to deliver their HRM role effectively, it must be clearly defined so they can enact the role according to the expectations of their role evaluators, who include the line managers supervisors, employees and HR specialists. The expectations of role evaluators are important because the assessment of line managers performance depends on what the role evaluators perceive as valuable. However, the expectations of the role evaluators change and this is a factor that contributes to variation in the HRM role of line managers. This paper presents the preliminary findings of a study conducted in Malaysian airports. A qualitative study through case study was conducted at three airports. Drawing on role theory concepts, interviews were conducted with senior managers and HR representatives at these airports to explore their perceptions of the HRM activities of line managers. Content analysis was employed to interpret the interviews data for themes related to role theory. Results indicate differences on the perceived HRM activities of line managers between airports as they differed in terms of airport category, size and operation. This finding has important implications in developing the line managers HRM role as the structural differentiation is likely to influence the expectations of role evaluators, which is crucial in achieving consensus between the intended and actual implementation of line manager

Training and development in small professional services firms

Purpose This paper aims to examine whether participation in training and development (T&D) events is associated with employees’ affective commitment and propensity to enact innovative behaviours in small professional services firms. The study also investigates associations between both attitudes towards T&D and policy and practice supportive of T&D and levels of participation in T&D events. Design/methodology/approach Data from 203 employees in small professional services firms employing 50 or fewer staff were analysed using regression analysis and PROCESS macro. Findings Only policy and practice supportive of T&D was associated with participation levels. Participation in T&D events was positively related to affective commitment. Furthermore, employees who participated in more T&D events were more likely to enact innovative behaviours, while affective commitment mediated the positive relationship between number of T&D events attended and innovative behaviours. Contrary to expectations, neither participation in just training nor participation in just development was associated with either attitudes or behaviours. Practical implications The findings have important implications for small firms which tend to rely on wholly work-based experiences for the development of employees’ knowledge and skills. Such an approach to learning for work may inadvertently shape a workforce that lacks commitment to the organisation and that has a diminished capacity for innovative behaviours. Originality/value There is limited research on how T&D affects attitudes and behaviours in small firms. Large and small firms are fundamentally different, thus findings from studies in large firms may not extend to small firms

Opportunities to participate in formal and informal vocational learning activities and work-related outcomes in small professional services businesses

Small businesses are characterised by resources constraints; therefore, their managers need to know the exact nature of additional benefits, beyond knowledge and skill acquisition, that might accrue from employee participation in different types of learning activities. However, research that simultaneously examines the attitudinal and behavioural outcomes of opportunities to participate in formal and informal learning activities is sparse, especially in small businesses. The present study addresses this area of neglect by exploring associative relationships between opportunities for employees to participate in (1) formal learning activities and (2) informal learning activities and three important work-related outcomes: affective commitment, innovative behaviours, and work engagement. Data from 203 respondents in small professional services businesses were analysed and the results provide preliminary evidence that opportunities to participate in each type of learning activity are associated with differing outcomes. Opportunities to participate in formal learning activities were positively associated with heightened levels of affective commitment, work engagement, and innovative behaviours, while opportunities to participate in informal learning activities were positively related to work engagement. We provide suggestions for future research and outline practical implications of our analysis. © 2019, © 2019 The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd

Innovative behavior among service workers and the importance of leadership: Evidence from an emerging economy

This study focuses on how service firms can nurture innovative behavior of employees through the important role of leadership. Despite the growth in innovation research, scholars have been slow to move from an R&D (i.e., technical capital) focus to that focusing on employee innovative behavior. However, organizations’ innovation initiatives heavily depend on employee human capital and behavior at work as these are key inputs in the value creation process. We focus on a specific type of leadership, transformational leadership, and explore a nascent employee concept, job embeddedness, to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms and conditions by which leaders may encourage follower innovative behavior. We collected data from employees working in the hotel service sector in Ghana, and analyzed the data using structural equation modelling and Hayes’ PROCESS Macro. Our results revealed that leaders can promote innovative behavior among service workers only when the workers are embedded in the organization. Further, our results showed positive relationships between transformational leadership and organizational embeddedness, and organizational embeddedness and innovative behavior. However, we found no evidence to suggest that employees’ embeddedness in their community might alter the relationship between organizational embeddedness and innovative behavior. We conclude that to support innovation among employees, the behaviors of leaders are important especially in terms of encouraging employees to proactively embed themselves in their organizations, thereby contributing to the development of the hospitality industry and other service sectors in emerging economies

Generational differences and Fly-In-Fly-Out (FIFO) employee turnover

Fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) mining has experienced significant growth in the past decade and is now a typical form of employment in the sector in Australia. Evidence suggests that there are relatively high turnover levels amongst these employees. Whilst there are many contributing causes to this, there may be variances between different generational cohorts at work as arguably their workplace expectation differs. This paper investigates whether turnover intentions vary between different generations of employees. Using a questionnaire, employees were asked about their turnover intentions and this was compared against the groups of Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y. Findings show that Generation Y employees had a higher intention to quit than the Baby Boomers but were no different to Generation X employees

Could on-the-job embeddedness help bind FIFO workers to their jobs?

Fly-In Fly-Out (FIFO) employees in the mining industry in Western Australia have had high levels of turnover, resulting in high costs in recruitment, training and lost production. This research is seeking to understand the reasons for high turnover in this somewhat unusual group of employees. Whilst the research has utilised the more traditional approach to understanding labour turnover, that is that dissatisfaction with job or company and the availability of viable alternatives lead to intention to quit, preliminary results indicate that job embeddedness theory, may provide a better understanding of why FIFO workers choose to stay in their jobs. This outcome raises questions about embeddedness theory itself, namely whether on-the-job embeddedness is a stronger predictor of staying than is off-the-job embeddedness

An examination of HR outsourcing in Australian organisations : motivations, process and performance

The objective of this research was to explore the HR outsourcing process and examine the interaction and effects of the factors of business strategy, motivation, HR function outsourced, and the outcome. The interaction of these factors was modelled upon a theoretical framework based upon current literature. This framework was investigated using both a qualitative and quantitative approach. The goal of this research was to characterise these factors and identify the relationships between these factors. The qualitative approach consisted of six case studies where one-to-one interviews were conducted with HR managers of medium to large Australian organisations. The responses to the interview questions from each interviewee was analysed to determine outsourcing characteristics and unique issues not previously identified within current literature. These issues included: when an organisation does not have the resources to conduct thorough research into the identification and selection of a service provider then they will use the recommendations of peer organisations. When an organisation contracts a service provider a relationship is established that will bond the two parties. The length of the service contract is dependent upon the complexity of !he outsourced HR function. The quality of service from a service provider must match that of the organisation. Finally, the contract between the service provider and the organisation must contain provisions for a changing economic environment. The quantitative approach consisted of a survey distributed to 1995 medium to large Australian organisations identified from the Dunn and Bradstreet database. A total of 163 valid responses were received from which 124 outsourced one or more HR functions. This corresponded to a response rate of6.22%. The survey data was analysed using factor analysis to reduce the business strategy variable to two categories: Innovative-Quality Enhancement and Cost Leadership. Similarly, Factor analysis was used to reduce the variables of Motivation to four categories: HR Management, Learning, Reduced Cost and Political reason. The variable of Process was reduced to four categories: Reserved, Regular, Rapid and Relaxed. The outcome variables were reduced to two categories: Organisation and Operational. Cluster analysis was used to classify the cases based upon these reduced factors from which the relationships between these factors were analysed. The analysis found that no relationship existed between business strategy and motivation also no relationship was found between business strategy and outsourced HR function. A partial relationship was found between business strategy and process and another partial relationship was found between outsourced HR function and process similarly a relationship was found between process and outcome. Several relationships were found between motivation end outsourced HR function. The results from this exploratory research have significant implications for human resource management theory and practice. The developed theoretical framework provides a useful model of the HR outsourcing factors within Australia. This framework together with the unique factors identified through the qualitative analysis provides a significant platform from which additional research may be conducted