Psychology Of The Workplace - Training

Front 1

Define training

Back 1

Systematically acquiring skills, rules, concepts, or attitudes with the aim of improving job performance.

Front 2

What are Anderson's (1985) 3 phases of skill acquisition?

Back 2

Declarative knowledge: knowledge of facts and things, e.g. how to brake, how to steer when riding a bike or the sequence of a job in an assembly line

Knowledge compilation: the body of knowledge acquired as a result of learning, i.e. the learner has to integrate the different sequences in the task using cognition and motor skills (hardest part). Example: learning to pedal, balance and brake when learning to ride a bike plus the cognitive aspect “I have to brake now” plus the motor part.

Procedural knowledge: a body of knowledge about how to use information to address issues and solve problems. This phase is reached when the learner can do the task efficiently with little attention.

Front 3

What were the findings of the meta analysis on training, general mental abilities and successful training by Colquitt, LePine and Knowey (2000)?

Back 3

They found a high correlation (.76) between general mental ability and successful training. They also found .39 correlation between motivation to learn and training. When motivation to learn and general mental ability were combined, they accounted for 63% of the variance in learning.

Front 4

What is the 'systems approach' to training?

Back 4

The people who are designing the programs get constant feedback, evaluate it and use this to tinker with the design.
It also recognizes that training occurs in a complex environment; there are various parts of an organization. You can train s/o to do sth but they are not necessarily going to use if not relevant, e.g. you can train someone on safety procedures but if they go into a situation where the supervisor focuses on productivity and not safety, the employees are not going to use safety.

Front 5

List 3 types of on-site training methods

Back 5

On the job
Job Rotation
Apprentice training

Front 6

Give an example of on the job training and give advantages and disadvantages

Back 6

Waitress shadows another more experienced. Disadvantage: brief and poorly structured. How you get trained depends on the person training you. If they are not thrilled about training you you may be not get the training you need. Advantage: better chance for transfer because it’s on the job.

Front 7

Give an example of job rotation method and list advantage and disadvantage

Back 7

Fairly typical of people early in their careers. Can be used for managerial and non-managerial. People are being rotated within a group of jobs to learn. It would not be uncommon for someone who was on a management track for them to get rotated into a variety of different jobs to get a sense of what the different jobs are about. Advantage: flexible, if workers are trained in all these different jobs then if the company is short-staffed in one area they can move people about. Disadvantage: we’re not matching people’s KSAs with the job. If someone is really talented at one job and they are rotated on to another, they may not be working to the best of their KSAs.

Front 8

Give an example of apprentice training

Back 8

Usually in the trades (carpenters etc) where a new worker is going to be the established worker’s assistant. Advantage: it’s in-depth and involved. Disadvantage: the period of time is pre-determined by the trade, e.g. 3 years or 6 months. So if you’re a fast learner you still have to do the 3 years or if you’re a slow learner you still have to learn within the designated time period.

Front 9

List some types of off-site training methods and advantages and disadvantages of each

Back 9

Lectures: only going to be good for imparting knowledge, but not good for skill development. Advantage: Lectures seem to work well with a group of people with the same level of knowledge. Disadvantage: one-way communication with people just sitting, not a lot of interaction.

Audiovisuals: it’s called off-site but you are often watching it on site. Advantage: can be good with keeping people’s attention with graphics, etc. Disadvantage: expensive to develop and difficult to change and update the materials.

Front 10

What are some other types of training methods?

Back 10

Computer-based training: advantage: gives people opportunity to work on the program as long or short as you need to. If you need to spend more time on a certain concept, they can work at their own pace.

Simulation: supposed to replicate the real world to some extent, e.g. if we want to train a pilot, we would use a simulator. Or emergency personnel we might not want to train them in an actual emergency so we simulate it instead. Psychological fidelity is often used in this context to mean how close the simulation is to the real life work situation. Role plays are another type of simulation. Often we want to train human relation skills. Sometimes we want to train sales techniques seem to work well with role playing. The idea is you get into the other person’s shoes and get a sense of the other party’s situation. Different conclusions about role plays but they seem to work pretty well for human relations skills and sales techniques.

Front 11

What 2 categories of skills did Whetton & Cameron identify as critical for good managers?

Back 11

Personal skills - might involve helping manage stress, problem solving creatively,, developing self-awareness.

Interpersonal skills eg communicating in a supportive way, helping managers with power and influence, managing conflict – all things required in day to day jobs.

Front 12

There are 3 phases of training. What are they?

Back 12

Assessment
Training Development
Evaluation

Front 13

What is involved in the assessment phase of training?

Back 13

Conduct a needs assessment (figure out what needs to be trained). This consists of 3 things:
A. Organization analysis - determines whether training is a viable solution to organizational problems and where in the organization training should be directed. Will it fit with short and long term goals of the organization, e.g. an organization might be going global so they might focus on cultural training.

B. Task analysis: identifying which tasks in a job should be targeted for improved performance.

C. Person analysis – focus on figuring out what particular individuals need. People who have been with organization for 10 years in same job do they need to be updated in terms of technology.

Front 14

At the end of the assessment phase, you would develop what?

Back 14

1. instructional objectives (what you want the trainees to learn during training, i.e. the end state). This is similar to what faculty do when they are developing a new course. They figure out ahead of time what they want the students to have learned at the end of a course. 
2. criteria for program evaluation, i.e. how to figure out if the training worked or not. “Performance will be judged to be accurate if the employee performs trials and provides correct change

Front 15

What is involved in the training development phase?

Back 15

Consideration of:

1. Program content

2. Basic learning principles:
e.g. research shows that people do better when learning spaced out / studying a bit each day better than cramming.)
Feedback is important for learning so how are we going to incorporate feedback into the training.

3. Media selection is important to consider (lectures, videos, computers)

4. Length of training would need to be considered.

Front 16

What four things are involved in the evaluation phase of training?

Back 16

Reactions criteria – do the trainees like the program/find it useful/what could be changed?
Learning criteria (training validity) – what is actually learned in training? Did the trainees learn what they were supposed to learn? In a course, an exam would be the learning criteria.
Behavioral criteria – did the learning change the way the trainee behave? It’s one thing to learn, but did it translate to change on the job?
Results criteria – is there an impact of the training on an organization’s bottom line? Do the safety training result in fewer accidents in the workplace?

Front 17

What other things need to be taken into account when training?

Back 17

Use evaluation information to modify needs assessment and training development phases.
Consider that training needs change over time.

Front 18

Discuss memory in terms of training

Back 18

Different abilities might come into play at different stages, e.g. the early part (declarative) might rely a lot on memory whereas later on, coordination is going to come more into play. Some people can learn a task quickly whereas others may take longer. Some people may learn quickly but never really get great at a task.

Front 19

Define self-efficacy and why is it important in training?

Back 19

Self-efficacy is the belief in one's own capabilities to mobilize the motivation, cognitive resources and actions needed to meet given situational demands. Self-efficacy is important in learning training material. This is linked to confidence, e.g. statistics (you put more effort in if you think you are good at it).