Research Proposal on "Training & Development Roles/Practices in Public & Private Enterprises"

Research Proposal 10 pages (2759 words) Sources: 1+ Style: Chicago

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Training and Development Roles and Practices at Selected Public and Private Enterprises - a Critical Review

The training and development of the human resource is offered by more and more companies in both private and public sector in the form of incentives to the employee, but also as means to increasing the organization's value through the possession of the highest capable and most skilled staff members.

A first step in discussing the role and importance of T&D is that of highlighting its main areas and identifying what it is that makes a T&D program effective for the organization. To shed some light into the matter, several aspects will be discussed, including the identification of a T&D need, the selection of the employees to be trained, the training programs to be implemented, the training methods to be used and the evaluation of the T&D program. A most important specification is that T&D must be implemented as an ongoing process, rather than a sporadic activity and the reasons for this statement should be offered.

A discussion on training and development would not be complete without a short presentation of the historical background behind these programs. As such, a brief timeline of the main events and the emergence of T&D would also be presented to the reader. Then, the paper would move on to presenting and discussing the most important theories related to the training and development of the staff in both state and privately owned organizations.

The final part of the introduction will consist of a brief presentation of the issues faced by emerging countries in training and developing their personnel. Are these countries affected by industrialization or by resource limitations in a way so to affect the T&D programs? Do these countries possess sufficient technologies to support their T&D initiatives? Then, from a more social standpoint, how do managers and employees see these programs and how opened are they to change and new programs?

2. Statement of the Problem

The first step in the second section of the research paper would be that of identifying the primary issues and practices of training and development. These could revolve around the identification of a training need and the means to satisfying this need, namely the types of methods used to developing and implementing training and development programs. The continual feature of the programs will also be discussed. The issues and practices will be analyzed within both the private and the public sector and general conclusions will be formulated as to the differences and similarities between the two sectors.

The primary questions to be answered within the study would refer to the types of T&D practices implemented within the public and private sector, and also the roles these programs play within the two sectors. The research hypothesis would identify if these roles and practices are similar or they differ based on the quality of public or private, and subsequently on the nature of the activity conducted, the audience served and any other features which differentiate the two organizational entities.

In search of a relevant answer, various pieces of information will be studied. This will commence with a short literary review presenting the matter from a specialized standpoint. The writer will identify any similarities and differences in the analyzed material and will present his findings. Once a general opinion has been formed, a rationale for the study will be presented. The rationale will explain the relevance of the literary works in answering the posed questions.

3. Objectives of the Study

Another important element in writing the research paper on the roles and practices of training and development within the public and private companies is that of clearly identifying the goals to be achieved. This stage is extremely important as it will help the writer focus his attention towards achieving the established desiderates and not getting lost in details. The objectives of the research paper are divided into two categories, namely the primary goal, or the most important question to be answered throughout the pages of the study. The second category of goals is formed from more secondary issues, also called subobjectives.

The main objective of the study is to identify the roles and practices related to the training and development of the human resource within organizations belonging to both public and private sectors.

The subobjectives, or the secondary goals, of the research paper could revolve around the following:

Identifying differences between the T&D programs developed and implemented by the public and private sectors

Identifying similarities between the T&D programs developed and implemented by the public and private sectors

Identifying if there is a connection between the nature of the activity conducted by an organization and the type of T&D programs implemented

4. Design of the Study

The actual study will revolve around the comparative studying of ten organizations, five from the public and five from the private sector. The analysis will identify the training categories, methods and other training features. Then, it will look at the T&D budgets allocated by each entity. Do private companies allocate more than public ones because they generally have increased access to financial resources or is this a misstatement? Third, the study will focus on the numbers of employees trained every year within each entity, and also on the management's take on the training and development programs. Are these programs only technical or they are also aimed to integrate the employee within the organizational culture? What kind of culture do the ten organizations present and how do they perceive and present the training and professional formation of their staff members? Is the institutional culture different or similar within the two sectors analyzed? Finally, how much commitment does the management reveal for these programs?

In answering the above questions, as well as any other that might arouse through conducting the actual study, quantitative and qualitative method will be used. The most relevant example of quantitative data is the financial analyses and ratios, including management performance of efficiency. Qualitative information could be obtained through directly discussing with the staff members and identifying how they really felt about the T&D programs. Discussions could also occur with the operational manager as he would be the most likely to identify and qualitatively evaluate the staff's performances prior and after the training programs.

The first step however will be to identify the ten organizations. They will be generically well-known organizations as to ensure that the information available on them is quite sufficient. Also, choosing the organizations will consider different activities conducted, as for the study to contain diversified data and allow the formulation of an unbiased and objective opinion. Once this is achieved, the writer will begin to gather information from various sources. The primary sources will be the secondary data, including articles on the companies and their human resource practices. Direct discussions with the employees in the ten companies will also be conducted, within the possible limits. The staff members might feel reticent to answering the questions of an outsider, but they and the organization could be convinced to participate the survey. In this order of ideas, a questionnaire could be developed and the employees within the organizations would answer them. They would do this as the questionnaires would be anonymous and as they would have the chance to freely speak their minds. Foremost, the management would allow these questionnaires as they would also have access to the results and they would be better able to identify and increase employees' on the job satisfaction and opinion relative to the implemented training and development programs.

5. Measurement Procedures

However employees and managers will also be asked to participate to the study, it is quite unlikely to convince them. They are generally extremely busy individuals and seldom have the time to take surveys they do not find absolutely compulsory. As a result of this rationale, the primary research tool will consist of the analysis of secondary data. Journals and magazines will be analyzed as to identify articles on the training and development of the human resources within the selected ten organizations. The primary advantage of this method is that the information is generally easily accessible by anyone. This does not mean that the volume of information is large, but that the existent one does not impose any restrictions. For instance, unlike organizations, one would not have to a corporate employee in order to get access to the necessary information. Foremost, it is generally unbiased and up-to-date.

The primary disadvantage of analyzing the media is that the number of specialized works on the economics, namely the treatment of the human resource and consequently the roles and practices of T&D, is still quite limited. The daily media does not place much emphasis on such topics. As a result, the amount of research to be conducted is large and the work is tedious. There also exists the risk that the information desired is barely mentioned in the specialized journals and magazines and hours of research could result in little success.… READ MORE

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