Research: Training - An Act of Faith or Faith in the Act?
Training: An Act Of Faith Or Faith In The Act?
An Exploration Of The Chief Executive’s Influence Over Training Outcomes In The Small Third Sector Organisation
Abstract
This study seeks to understand more about the work of the Chief Executive Officer (CEOs) in small Third Sector Organisations from the perspective of the opportunities they have to positively influence training outcomes and training transfer in their organisations.
Research into this issue may assist CEOs by identifying how their own practice can be developed to facilitate improved training outcomes in order to overcome the assertion that “training is an act of faith”?
Executive Summary
The chief executive of any organisation is without doubt one of the most influential members of the staff team. The sphere of influence of a chief executive in a small third sector organisation extends far beyond the senior management team due to their close proximity to staff and their tendency to have a hands-on approach to project work.
There are a number of advantages for chief executives in small organisations arising from their closeness to the staff. This paper explored the chief executive’s opportunities to positively influence the organisation’s culture and practices in order to encourage and support learning and development.
The chief executives studied were extremely positive about learning and had faith in learning as an inherently good thing. Furthermore the chief executives placed a great deal of trust in their staff, believing that they would use their learning to good effect. Both of these beliefs send out strong signals of support and encouragement to the staff. These signals, along with others, are known to positively influence the extent to which new knowledge and skills gained in training are put to good use in the work context.
In addition to their positive attitudes towards learning the chief executives described opportunities in their organisations which enabled the staff to share their knowledge and skills. In this way, through team meetings, development days or project activities, individual and team learning was enabled through staff interactions which came about as a result of the chief executive’s planning and vision.
Despite their positive attitudes the chief executives were not confident that they had set specific objectives for training or taken steps to ensure follow up on the trainee’s progress once training was complete. The lack of clarity of purpose and the failure to pay attention to training outcomes were identified as practices which may impede positive training outcomes.
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