International Journal of Training and Development 3:1

ISSN 1360-3736
The inuence of the training
environment on trainee
motivation and perceived
training quality
Christopher Orpen
To examine the relationships between the training environ-
ment and employee responses to training provided by their
organisations, 105 managers employed by different 12 Aus-
tralian organisations completed measures of the personal
aspects of organisational commitment, job involvement, self
esteem, and personal control, as well as of the organisational
aspects of social support from work, social support outside
work, training incentives, training resources, and training
needs. The trainees also indicated how motivated they were
for the training, and how they judged the quality of the train-
ing provided by their organisationsthe two outcomes of the
study. Eight of the 10 relationships between the organis-
ational aspects and outcomes were signicant, but only three
of the eight relationships between the personal aspects and
outcomes. It is argued that the results suggest that it is how
organisations go about managing training, especially how
many resources they provide, what training incentives they
make available, and how much the training is needed that
counts, rather than the personal attributes of the trainees.
Recent estimates have put the amount of money spent on training by organisations
in the United States alone to be as high as $200 billion (McKenna, 1995). Although
such surveys have not been carried out in Britain, assuming that organisations in
Britain spend comparable amounts as their United States counterparts, the gure for
money spent on training in Britain would be as much as $30 billion. Moreover, there
are good grounds for expecting this gure to increase, as organisations increasingly
appreciate the value of training their workforce. There are a number of reasons for
this. Technological changes are making greater demands of employees, at all levels.
Christopher Orpen is Reader in Management at The Business School, Bournemouth University.
Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main St., Malden, MA 02148, USA.
34 International Journal of Training and Development
Rapid and unpredictable changes in their operating environments are requiring
organisations to have adaptable and competent employees, more so than previously.
The increased emphasis on high quality goods and services, in the face of greater
competition in the marketplace, is making it more necessary than ever for organis-
ations to equip their employees with the relevant skills and develop their appropriate
competencies. An ageing workforcetogether with fewer young recruitsmeans
organisations are having to spend more money and time on preventing their
employees from becoming obsolescent, rather than relying on schools and colleges.
Finally, employees themselves are increasingly demanding that their employers pro-
vide them with all the training they need to perform not only their current jobs, but
also any related ones they may hold subsequently within the organisation and out-
side, sometimes even as part of the informal contract of employment (eg. Goldstein,
1993; Johnston and Packer, 1997: London, 1989).
In the light of research which sugggests that (1) training is likely to become more
important, for the reasons just indicated, and (2) the quality and quantity of training
provided within an organisation is positively associated with measures of overall
effectiveness (cf., Goldstein, 1993; Campbell, 1991), it is imperative that managers
understand the factors that help to make training successful as well as those that
have the opposite effect. Recent reviews of the research literature are agreed that
training is unlikely to be effective unless (1) the trainees have a high level of pretrain-
ing motivation, and (2) the trainees perceive the training to be of high quality,
specically in the case of job training, they believe that what they learn on the parti-
cular training programme can be subsequently applied to enable them to perform
their jobs better, and hopefully also feel more positive toward their work (cf., Wexley
and Latham, 1991; Cascio, 1992).
While trainee motivation and perceived training quality appear to be essential
ingredients for training effectiveness, relatively little research has examined the sort
of training environment that encourages trainees to be motivated and hold such per-
ceptions. The present study, which aims to remove this deciency, examines the
relationships between these two essential ingredients of training effectiveness and
several organisational and personal aspects of the training environment. The eight
aspects chosen for examination are those which reviews of the training literature,
notably those of Baldwin and Ford (1996) and London (1989), suggest should be
most predictive of individual differences in trainee motivation and perceptions of
training quality.
The four personal aspects of the training environment, considered from an organis-
ational perspective, that were examined were (1) employee organisational commit-
ment, (2) job involvement, (3) self esteem and (4) personal control. It is argued that
each of these personal aspects need to be considered because of their possible interac-
tion with the training experience, rather than them merely being determinants of
how training is perceived. Taking each in turn: Employee commitment to the organis-
ation refers to the extent to which employees feel emotionally attached to their
employer, and hence are willing to work hard towards its goals (Mowday et al. 1982).
Because they want to do well for the sake of their organisations, committed
employees are likely to be more motivated when it comes to training put on by the
organisation. Because they typically think highly of their organisation (Mowday et
al. 1982) such employees are also more likely to regard its training to be of high
quality than their uncommitted counterparts. Employees who are involved in their
jobs typically invest a lot of themselves in their actual duties and tasks, as a result
of which they are usually concerned to perform them effectively (Tannenbaum et al.
1991). Because training offers a help towards doing this, it is not surprising that
employees who are involved in their jobs should be more highly motivated in regard
to training than those who are not (Hicks and Klimoski, 1987). Since their jobs are
more central to them personally, involved employees are less willing to accept that
training for their job is poor than are employees whose involvement in their jobs is
either weak or absent.
Self esteem as a variable refers to the general positive or negative feelings of
Inuence of training environment on trainee motivation 35 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999.
employees about themselves, whether they hold themselves in high or low regard
(Coopersmith, 1990). Employees with high self esteem typically believe they are cap-
able of benetting from training, and hence are more willing to make the effort neces-
sary to bring this about than their counterparts with low self esteem (Knowles, 1994).
Moreover, since high self esteem is associated with an overall optimistic outlook on
life (Coopersmith, 1990), employees with positive feelings about themselves will tend
to perceive something like training to be of good rather than poor quality, at least
compared to employees with a negative view of themselves. Personal control (Rotter,
1990) refers to the extent to which employees believe that what happens to them is
largely due to things under their inuence (internal control) or to circumstances they
are largely powerless to affect (external control). Internal control employees are thus
more likely to feel they can inuence the outcomes of training in the way they want,
which feelings in turn should make them motivated to do well on the relevant course
(Tziner et al. 1991). Because internal control employees typically believe they have
more inuence over what happens to them on training programmes than do their
external control counterparts, this means they should also regard such programmes
more highly, to be of better quality, than should the latter (Mathieu et al. 1992). It
is much easier for employees who feel they have had little or no inuence, or say,
over a training programme to think poorly of it than employees who feel they have
contributed to making the training programme what it is, even if only slightly
(Baldwin et al. 1991).
The ve organisational aspects of the training environment hypothesised to affect
both trainee motivation and perceptions of training quality, that were examined in
the present study were (1) social supportat work, (2) social supportoutside work,
(3) training incentives, (4) training resources, and (5) training needs. Social support
in the present study refers to the amountand qualityof relevant support received
from peers, managers, family and friends. Provided it is genuine and not overdone,
the more supportive such persons are of the training efforts of employees, the more
likely it is that the particular employees will approach their training positively, which
includes being willing to make the necessary effort and believing the quality of the
training to be high (Mathieu et al. 1992). Because of evidence that social support at
work, and that provided by family and nonwork friends, are often not highly related
(Orpen, 1990), in the present study support from these two sources were separ-
ately assessed.
According to expectancy theory, employees should be more willing to work hard
toward training objectives, if they feel they will be rewarded, will receive appropriate
incentives, for doing well on the programmewhich includes putting into effect
what they have learnt back on the job (Lawler et al. 1990). Being appropriately
rewardedthrough the provision of intrinsic and extrinsic incentivesfor doing
well, should also cause employees to think highly of the training programme respon-
sible for the rewards being available to them in the rst place. If employees regard
training highly, it is easier for them to justify receiving any rewards they do; it also
provides them with an indirect way of thanking the organisation for giving them
these rewards, in the rst place (Noe, 1986; Deci, 1975).
Following Goldstein (1993), the construct of training resources covers the provision
by the organisation of the basic necessities for effective training provision, chiey
those connected with timefor the training to take place during workhours,
moneyto pay for trainers, training equipment and facilities, and cover for trainees,
and opportunityfor the trainees to apply what they have learnt back on their jobs.
Given the dependence of training on such resources (London, 1989), it is argued,
other things being equal, the more time, money and opportunities are provided, the
better the training, and hence the more likely trainees will be motivated for it and
will perceive it to be of high quality. Finally, training needs refers here to three
related aspects; the extent to which trainees feel they are not performing as well as
they can on their jobs; how much they feel that what is letting them down can be
corrected by training; and, the extent to which they feel the proposed training is able
to provide them with what they feel they need to overcome or make up for what is
36 International Journal of Training and Development Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999.
responsible for them not performing as well as they would like (Johnston and Packer,
1997; Wexley and Latham, 1991). According to Campbell 1991), the more need trai-
nees feel there is for a particular programme, the greater their motivation, to do what
is necessary for them to really benet from it. In addition, employees are more likely
to regard a training programme highly, if they feel it can help them to overcome
weaknesses and shortcomings that are preventing them from performing as well as
they would like (Goldstein, 1993).
Method
The subjects of the study were 105 managers employees employed by 12 different
Australian private organisations, both small and large, in the nancial, retailing, and
manufacturing sectors. The number of subjects employed by the same organisation
ranged from 2 to 11. Whilst the content of their jobs differed widely, all the subjects
were responsible for the work of a number of subordinates, and reported directly to
general management. The average age of the subjects was 30.6 years. Their average
tenure with their current employer was 5.5 years. Forty-six per cent of the subjects
were female. Sixty-ve per cent had university degrees. All subjects had attended at
least one training course run by their current employer, and were expecting to attend
further courses of this kind, these being the main qualications for their inclusion.
In this respect, they were specically asked, when answering questions about train-
ing, to think in terms of the actual training they had received from their current
employer, as well as the future training their employer would be likely to provide.
The subjects completed a single questionnaire, comprising the various measures,
whilst at work. They were assured of anonymity and condentiality of their
responses.
Organisational commitment was assessed by a 10 item version of the scale
developed by Allen and Meyer (1996), to measure emotional attachment of
employees to their organisation that results in them wanting to remain with it,
rather than to move to alternative employers (alpha = 0.80). Job involvement was
assessed by the 12 item short form of the widely-used Lodahl and Kejner (1986) scale,
that assesses how involved employees are with their actual jobs in the organisation,
with the duties and tasks that constitute their work roles (alpha = 0.78). The self
esteem of the subjects was measured by 10 items from the Coopersmith (1991) Self
Esteem Scale, that assesses how generally positive or negative subjects feel about
themselves, in a variety of situations where they are likely to be judged by others in
some way or another (alpha = 0.83). Finally, the personal control of the subjects was
assessed by 12 items from the well-known Internal-External scale of Rotter (1987),
that assesses the degree to which subjects feel they have control over what happens
to them in life, rather than it being a matter of chance or luck (alpha = 0.77).
Arguing from Baldwin and Ford (1996) and Noe (1986), social supportat work
was assessed by six items that asked subjects to indicate how much (1) psychological
encouragement, (2) material help, and (3) technical assistance they received in respect
of training at work, from respectively (1) their peers or colleagues, and (2) their
superiors, including their immediate boss, each on a scale from 1 (very little) to 5
(very much). Subjects responses to the six scales were summed, to yield a total score
indicating perceived social support, at work (alpha = 0.79). Social supportoutside
work, was assessed by the same three items about training, this time asked respect-
ively about (1) friends and about (2) family. Again, subjects responses to the six items
were summed, to give a total score indicating perceived social support, outside work
(alpha = 0.77). A measure of training incentives, specically of the extent to which
subjects felt valued outomes were contingent on them doing well on the training
course, was obtained in the following way. First, subjects were presented with the
following six common and generalised potential training outcomes, taken from Wex-
ley and Latham (1991); receiving a pay rise, getting better job assignments, becoming
more skilled to enable one to do ones job more effectively, improving ones promotion
prospects, developing personally, and enhancing ones marketablity for jobs outside.
Inuence of training environment on trainee motivation 37 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999.
Second, each subject rated how much importance they attached to each of these
outcomes (on a scale from 1very little, to 5very much), and to what extent
obtaining each outcome is dependent, or contingent, upon successful completion of
the sort of training courses offered by their organisation (on a scale from 1very
little, to 5very much). Finally, following the suggestion of Baldwin and Ford (1996),
these importance and contingent ratings were multiplied for each of the outcomes,
and the resulting scores (products of the two ratings) summed across all six out-
comes, to produce a total score for each subject, indicating the degree to which valued
incentives were dependent on completion of the organisations training courses
(training incentives score).
To measure training resources, dened as the degree to which subjects felt their
organisation provided the means for training to be potentially effective, each subject
rated how much their employer provided each of the following ve training
resources (from Wexley and Latham, 1991), each on a scale from 1 (very little) to 5
(very much); time, money, equipment, facilities, and opportunity. Subjects responses
to the fteen items (three for each resource) that comprised the scale were summed,
to yield a single score for each subject indicating the extent of perceived training
resources. Coefcient alpha for the training resources scale was .79. Finally, training
need was assessed by a short scale, adapted from Baldwin and Ford (1996), compris-
ing the following three items, (1) how much subjects felt they could do better at
work, (2) how much this was due to weaknesses or shortcomings on their part, and
(3) how much the latter could be improved or overcome through training provided
by their employer. Subjects responses to each item, from 1 (not at all) to 5 (a great
deal), were summed, to give a total score reecting felt training need on the part of
the subject. Coefcient alpha for the training need scale was 0.83.
The dependent variable of trainee motivation was assessed by 10 items drawn
from the scales developed by Noe and Schmitt (1986) and Hicks and Klimoski, (1987).
Samples of the items, to each of which subjects responded on scales from 1 (not at
all true of me) to 5 (very true of me), are I want to learn as much as I can from any
training courses provided by my employer and I am willing to make sacrices to
benet from training courses. Coefcient alpha for the trainee motivation measure
was 0.80. Finally, the dependent variable of trainee perceptions of training quality,
was assessed by 12 items drawn from Baldwin and Ford (1996) covering the aspects
of course instructors, course delivery, and course relevance. Examples of items, to
each of which subjects responded from 1 (disagree strongly) to 5 (agree strongly),
are the instructors on my training courses have really known what they were talking
about, the material on my training courses was taught in the appropriate manner
and I have found what I learnt on my training courses very useful back at my job.
Coefcient alpha for the measure of perceived training quality was 0.73.
Results and discussion
The mean scores (and standard deviations) of the sample on the measures of the
various personal and organisational aspects of the training environment were calcu-
lated, as well as on the outcome measures of trainee motivation and trainee percep-
tions of training quality. To test the hypotheses guiding the study, separate corre-
lations were computed between each of the outcome measures and the eight personal
and organisational aspects of the training environment, each regarded as hypoth-
esised correlates of trainee motivation and perceptions of training quality. The results
of this analysis are presented in Tables 1 and 2.
As evident in Table 2, the majority of the hypothesised correlations between the
organisational aspects of the training environment and both outcomes were statisti-
cally signicant, but only a minority of these correlations were signicant for the
personal aspects of the training environment, contrary to what was hypothesised.
Specically, only one of the ve measures of the personal aspects correlated signi-
cantly with both trainee motivation and perceived training quality, that of organis-
ational commitment. The measure of job involvement correlated signicantly with
38 International Journal of Training and Development Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999.
Table 1: Means and standard deviations of measures of environmental
aspects and training outcomes
Measure Mean Standard deviation
Outcomes
Trainee motivation 40.78 5.99
Perceived training quality 38.40 6.85
Personal aspects
Organisational commitment 29.91 4.98
Job involvement 37.03 5.99
Self esteem 32.96 7.78
Personal control 40.11 6.01
Organisational aspects
Social supportat work 18.01 3.00
Social supportoutside work 21.15 3.96
Training incentives 44.48 8.93
Training resources 46.00 6.56
Training needs 17.22 3.45
Table 2: Relationships between environmental variables and trainee motivation and
perceived training quality
Environmental variables Trainee motivation Perceived training
quality
Personal aspects
Organisational commitment 0.230* 0.200*
Job involvement 0.199 0.115
Self esteem 0.098 0.103
Personal control 0.127 0.105
Organisational aspects
Social supportat work 0.246** 0.168
Social supportoutside work 0.230* 0.144
Training incentives 0.283** 0.211*
Training resources 0.302** 0.229*
Training needs 0.319** 0.243**
* p 0.05
** p 0.01
trainee motivation, but not with perceived training quality. Neither of the correlations
between the measure of self esteem and the two outcomes, nor those between the
measure of personal control and the two outcomes were signicant. In contrast, as
made clear in Table 2, of the ve organisational aspects of the training environment,
three correlated signicantly in the predicted direction with both trainee motivation
and perceived training quality, those of training incentives, training resources, and
training needs. The highest correlations were those between training needs and the
outcomes, both of which were signicant at the .01 level. The only nonsignicant
correlations were those between perceived training quality and the measures of social
supportat work, and of social supportoutside work.
If these results can be replicated, they would suggest from a managerial perspec-
tive that the extent to which employees respond positively toward training courses
Inuence of training environment on trainee motivation 39 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999.
provided by their organisation, is related to the training environment that exists
within the organisation, but that the strength of this relationship varies widely
depending on the particular aspect of the environment under consideration. Speci-
cally, it appears that employees who are committed to the organisation are more
likely to be highly motivated to do well on training courses than those who are not
committed to the same degree, as are those who are involved in their jobs compared
to those who are not involved to the same extent. Employees who are involved in
their jobs are also more likely to perceive the quality of the training courses provided
by their organisation to be higher than their counterparts who are much less involved
in their jobs. However, employees with high self esteem and with internal control
beliefs were not more motivated than those with relatively low self esteem and those
with external control beliefs. Similarily, employees with high self esteem and with
internal control beliefs did not perceive the quality of the training courses to be any
higher than the latter.
There are a number of possible reasons why subjects reactions to training in the
present study should have been unaffected by their degree of self esteem and by
whether they held internal or external beliefs, contrary to what was expected. Per-
haps the generalised measures of self esteem and personal control used in the present
study were not a sufciently accurate measure of how the subjects actually felt about
themselves in the workplace, a possibility suggested by the fact that how people
judge themselves can vary widely across work and nonwork situations (Orpen, 1990).
Alternatively, there may not have been enough variation in self esteem and personal
control among the present subjects, for a relationship between them and employee
reactions to training courses to show up in statistically signicant correlations
(Campbell, 1991).
Finally, the relevant training courses may not have been demanding enough to
induce different reactions from subjects high and low in these personal variables.
Perhaps, for high self esteem subjects to react much more positively to training
courses, the courses need to be sufciently demanding for them to feel they can cope
or manage, but for their colleagues with low self esteem to feel that they either cannot
manage or cope, at least relatively. Since internal control employees typically believe
themselves to be more able to manage or cope with training courses than external
control employees (Rotter, 1987), the fact that the training courses may have been
fairly easy and straight forward can help explain the lack of a relationship between
personal control and subjects reactions to training courses. More research is needed
to test the extent to which each of these reasons can account for the present ndings,
should future investigations also show that individual differences in self esteem and
in personal control cannot predict how employees will react to training courses.
That social supportat work, and outside workwas unrelated to perceived train-
ing quality was contrary to what was expected. In the absence of further data, it is
difcult to know why this should have been the case among the present subjects.
As predicted, the greater the support the present subjects received from these
sources, the greater their motivation to do well on training courses provided by their
organisations. However, this greater motivation on the part of the subjects did not
translate into more favourable perceptions of training quality. Perhaps subjects who
were highly motivated, expected more from their training courses, and as a result
tended to judge them more harshly (ie. to perceive them to be of poorer quality)
than subjects who were not motivated to the same extent (Deci, 1975). Additionally,
the persons at work and outside work who provided support to the subjects may
have been critical of the training courses, if only by implication, to protect the sub-
jects from feeling bad if they failed. Their emphasis, in giving support, may have
been on the subjects doing well for their personal sakes, irrespective of the quality
of the courses, as Goldstein (1993) suggests can often happen.
The fact that the environmental variables of training incentives, training resources,
and training needs were each associated with trainee motivation and perceived train-
ing quality is explicible on the reasonable assumption that the subjects were intent
on maximising returns for their varied efforts. Assuming this to be the case, the
40 International Journal of Training and Development Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999.
subjects should have tried harder on training courses, the more they perceive valued
outcomes to be contingent on them doing well on the courses, and also rate the
courses better since it is the courses that are the sources of valued outcomes, ie. of
training incentives (Lawler et al. 1990). By the same token, because employee subjects
typically regard training courses as potentially more effectiveand hence
rewardingwhen all the necessary resources are provided, it follows that the sub-
jects should respond more positively to courses that are properly resourced, than to
those which are given few or no resources (training resources). Finally, for the same
reasons, subjects who believe particular training courses can provide them with the
returns they are seeking ought to try harder on such courses and rate them better,
than subjects who do not believe the same training courses can satisfy their concerns,
ie. their training needs (Lawler et al. 1990).
The ndings from this study have a number of implications for making training
courses more effective, especially if the ndings can be replicated in further research
on other kinds of samples and employing different measures. For one thing, at the
most general level, they suggest that managers need to pay close attention to the
environment within which the particular training occurs, as some aspects of the
environment are related to training effectiveness. The results suggest that there are
some aspects of the training environment that make it more likely that the training
provided by the organisation will be effective, and others that make it less likely.
Although these aspects ultimately are of a perceptual nature, they are strongly affec-
ted by what managers actually do and say about training, as stressed by London
(1989) and Hicks and Klimoski (1987).
For another thing, the current ndings indicate for their training courses to be
effective, managers should provide the necessary time, money, equipment, facilities,
and opportunities for the training, and take deliberate steps to ensure that the
employees concerned believe the resources provided are enough, or at least adequate,
for the particular purpose. In this respect, it seems that it may be better not to offer
training at all, if it cannot be properly resourced, at least in the eyes of the trainees
themselves (Knowles, 1994). Specically, the results suggest that employees are
unlikely to be motivated for training or to believe training is of high quality if they
feel, rightly or wrongly, that the organisation has not made enough time available,
or believe that too little money has been provided. Also, that employees are not likely
to respond positively unless they believe, whether correctly or not, that the equip-
ment and facilities supplied by the organisation are up to the job and they have
been given enough opportunities to apply what they have learnt.
In addition, the results indicate that employees will respond better to training if
they feel there is something in it for them. The implication of this for managers is
that they must not only provide training outcomes that employees value, but must
make them contingent on employees making the effort necessary for them to really
benet from the training. Instead of merely making training availableas if this is
enough in itselfmanagers must provide appropriate intrinsic and extrinsic training
incentives. Although such advice is common in training texts (eg. Baldwin and Ford,
1996; Goldstein, 1993; Wexley and Latham, 1991), seldom has its validity been so
clearly conrmed as in the present study. Based on these results, intrinsically the
training should be interesting and challenging to the trainees, who must perceive
that what they learn can be applied to make them more effective at work. Extrinsi-
cally, the managers must reward trainees for doing well on the course and for
implementing its lessons, by giving them the things that most employees want, like
pay increases, promotions, and more desirable assignments, as well as the opport-
unity to put their training into effecta potentially potent reward in many cases.
Moreover, the ndings suggest that for training to be effective it must ll a denite
need, that is recognised by the trainees themselves. Whilst this may appear obvious,
it is surprising how frequently this advice is ignored by managers responsible for
the training function in organisations (Campbell, 1991; London, 1989). Of the different
variables investigated in the present study, the best predictor of how employees felt
about training was how much employees felt that the weaknesses or shortcomings
Inuence of training environment on trainee motivation 41 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999.
responsible for them not doing as well as they would like at work, could be overcome
or corrected by particular training. For this reason, rather than just hoping trainees
will develop the appropriate ideas, managers should go out of their way to indicate
to the trainees concerned just how the particular training can satisfy their needs, to
make it as clear as they can what the training can actually do to help the particular
trainees be more effective.
Finally, the ndings regarding the relationships between the personal variables
and employee responses to training suggest, contrary to what others have maintained
(eg. Noe and Schmitt, 1986; Goldstein, 1993), that training delivered by the organis-
ation will be just as effective for employees who differ widely in self esteem, personal
control, and job involvement (as far as perceived training quality is concerned). How-
ever, managers can expect employees who are committed to the organisation to
respond more positively than those who are not. As far as the variables examined in
this study are concerned, the fact that most of these relationships were nonsignicant
suggests, at least among these employees and the sort of training covered in this
study, that there may be no need for managers to restrict their training courses to
certain kinds of employees. Also, as regards these variables, that it is unecessary for
them to deliberately design their courses to make them suitable for employees of
one kind rather than another. Perhaps for relatively straight-forward training courses
that are geared to making employees more effective in jobs which they are already
doingas was the case herethe importance of individual difference variables in
affecting how employees react to training can easily be exaggerated. Whether the
present ndings can be replicated or not, they should at least caution managers
against automatically assuming that different employees will always respond differ-
ently to the same training courses. They also point to the potential fruitfulness of
research designed to show exactly when various kinds of employees will react in the
sameand differentways to the variety of training courses provided by organis-
ations.
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