| The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of training program characteristics on training effectiveness among organizations receiving training services from external training providers. It is to evaluate training effectiveness as a function of the nature of the relationship among client organizations and external training providers, the training needs assessment, and the nature of the training program. In addition, it is to investigate the relationship between the evaluations of training effectiveness as perceived by client organizations and as measured by financial performance. The literature review identified four variables to examine training effectiveness: evaluation of training, partnership training between client organizations and educational institutions, training needs assessment, and the nature of the training program. Two survey instruments were developed to measure the variables. One survey asked HRD managers about training program characteristics, and another survey asked senior managers about the perception of training effectiveness and operational margin information. Surveys were sent to companies who received training funds from the Ohio Investment in Training Programs from 2002 to 2004. Forty-five out of 125 companies completed both surveys, and thus, the response rate was 36 percent. The collected data was merged with the some demographic information from the OITP database.; The results showed that most participant organizations are privately owned, manufacturing companies. The major external training providers are private organizations. Few companies engage in partnership training with educational institutions. The results showed that the operational margin of the programs where private training providers were involved increased more than the programs that did not involved private training providers. In addition, if external training providers were involved in more stages of the training process, operational margin increased. The results also showed that senior managers perceived the entirely developed training program was more effective than the generic, standard programs or customized programs. There was no documented relationship between training needs assessment and training program effectiveness. This study, provides several implications on future study in HRD area as well as practitioners in business, workforce development policy, and workforce development practitioners in higher education. |
