CHAPTER 4

Data Collection

4.1 Introduction
With the growing diversification of activities and greater involvement of
people, organizations have started facing newer challenges and innovations.
Not only has volume of business increased, change has also come up in socio-
economic and political environments too. This calls for developing and
designing appropriate training programmes for the employees to adapt
themselves to these continuously changing needs and to meet the demands of
the changed environment. This also calls for enhancing the skills to be
developed by the personnel in the organizations. Just like information
technology industries, manufacturing industry is also becoming more and
more complex and dynamic.

The generally accepted purpose of any training programme is to make the

participant aware of organizational and individual goals, the areas of strength
and weaknesses and to attain a perceptible change between entry and exit. It is
based on the following objectives:
Meeting and interacting with colleagues
Exposure to basic philosophy and major concepts
Improving professional, technical and managerial skills
Means of self-development
Improving capacity for making rational and sound decisions. To
achieve these objectives training is to be taken seriously by those
directly connected-such as, the top managements commitment, middle
managements cooperation and lower managements participation.

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4.2 Key Components of Training
All over the world, we are already recognized to develop a unique Indian
working tradition. This task cannot be performed easily without undertaking
systematic training and Human Resources Development. Hundreds and
thousands of managers at various levels are taking decisions on several day-to-
day problems regularly. To develop a different style and tradition, these
decisions have to be taken accordingly and have to be tuned with the social
and economic aspirations of the society.
The key components of a proper training system should be
meeting the needs of the organizations
skill up gradation of the organization
development of trainees overall personality as a professional
Training as a process of management intervention in these areas has been well
recognized because training functions facilitate the organizations in meeting
the ever changing and challenging competitive environment in which the
organizations have to function. Manpower planning, manpower development
and strategy planning can all be linked to the training activity. A good
manpower planning system will always recruit suitable workforce, train them,
provide placement, initiate job rotation and promotion and career development
opportunities. Training and manpower development ultimately aim at
developing appropriate beliefs and values and transforming the organizational
culture.

4.3 Importance of Evaluating effectiveness of Training Programme

Training and development programmes are considered to be one of the
important aspects of organizational development. There has been a growing
need to find ways to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of such
training programmes both in terms of the organization and the training
institutions. Such evaluations help in justifying whether the investment in
terms of time, money and energy has demonstrated its value to the

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organization which is, which can be termed as refining and to surviving
respectively. In fact, the importance of evaluation for training effectiveness
requires its inclusion as part of the training programme and not something to
be thought of at the end of training. Hence evaluating effectiveness of a
training programme will help in achieving following objective:
To create a self-correcting training system in order to increase
effectiveness of current and subsequent training
To have a well-controlled training programme in which strengths and
weakness are identified and corrected by means of positive feedback
To provide information which facilitates the introduction of new ideas
and changes for increasing training effectiveness
To aid the learning process of the trainee. While evaluating the
training, the trainee indirectly assesses his own learning and it is the
primary principle of the psychology of learning that knowledge of
results facilitates learning.
All the above objectives are linked with one of the major objectives of
evaluation i.e. trying to demonstrate how far trainers are making a genuine
contribution to organizational effectiveness.

4.4 Studying the Effectiveness of Training Programmes

A variety of factors involving creativity, hard work and financial resources are
synchronized together in designing a training programme. Partners like
administrators, trainers, training institutions, learners and beneficiary
organizations have definite interest in the programme and therefore would like
to appraise and evaluate the effectiveness of the training for a variety of
purposes.

4.4.1 Trainers approach to evaluation

Trainer is the main conductor of a training programme and is responsible for
imparting knowledge and skill to a group of learners. Non-application of

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learning may be treated as a discredit to a trainer so they may like to make the
lessons more realistic and workable in the light of the evaluative feedback.
As a user of evaluation results, the trainer has three specific needs:
to know how they are doing
to use the results of their efforts for decisions about the next phases in
the training programme and
to know if the training programme can be generalized with other
subsystems inside and outside the organizations

Every professional worker has the option to seek the best, the most efficient
way of doing his work and not accept the time honoured mode. But most
trainers use their past experience and some kind of intuitive feeling about the
course rather than employing a systematic method of feedback to improve
subsequent programmes.

4.4.2 Approach of the Organization towards Evaluation

Since the top management of the organization is responsible for providing the
time and money for training executives, they tend to evaluate training in terms
of general cost effectiveness. But the main difficulty that still remains for the
trainer and the trainee is that the management does not establish clear
objectives for training but remain vague and unsure. The officially stated
objectives may differ from the real objectives in their minds thus failing to
ascertain the desirability of training objectives. This lack of simple, clear and
comprehensively stated set of objectives leads to problems in an objective
evaluation.

4.4.3 Trainees Approach to Evaluation

The trainees central concern is Did the programme make any difference?
Learners are the crucial input of training. A training programme is expected to
increase their knowledge, skills ad attitude which would lead to behavior

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modifications. Learners through self evaluation try to understand about new
knowledge and skill they have learned, what more they may like to learn, and
to what extent learned knowledge and skill can be applied in their job
situation, what are the organizational and individual constraints in applying
modified behavior and what are the responsibilities of a organization in using
them to increase its effectiveness.

Considering the cross-section of various viewpoints directed towards the

shortcomings of training and development in India, it may be suitable to quote
Vaishs conclusion that unless training and development is geared properly to
ones needs, its phase is reduced, it will remain a fun fair. We should not
measure the effectiveness of training programmes from the number of
participants attending it, but by the actual number of participants benefited
from the programme who could put into practice the concepts learned by them
and could related skills and knowledge development with their career
development and organizational effectiveness.

The reasons that undermine the effectiveness of a training programme range

from poor programme planning, improper design, inappropriate pedagogical
tools, improper selection of training to lack of commitment o the part of the
top-management and the three partners of training namely trainer, trainee and
the organization.

In spite of drawbacks in the existing process, it is seen that the process of

training is not viewed at seriously and most of the times no systematic attempt
has been made to evaluate, to overcome and to find solutions for them so as to
improve them subsequently.

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4.5 Designing the objective linked questionnaire
The study undertaken on finding of the effectiveness of training programme in
Manufacturing and Information Technology Industries is based on the
following objectives.
a) To understand the importance given to training needs identification in
the manufacturing and also in the Information Technology industries.
b) To understand how employees perceive training.
c) To measure the adequacy of the training for improving skills and
competency of employees.
d) To understand the managers role in the career management of
employees through training.
e) To review how effective is the training function in both the types of
industries.

To carry on the study two questionnaires were prepared. First questionnaire

consisting of 51 questions was prepared for employees at the middle level
management. Every question in the questionnaire aims at finding relevant
answers considering the objectives of the study. The questionnaire is intended
to assess the effectiveness of the training function in the organization.

Second questionnaire consisting of 30 questions developed by Jack J. Phillips

is used for the study of responses of training manager.

Any formal training should contribute to growth and development of

employee competencies and motivation. If training has to be effective it has to
be need-based, well-planned, evaluated, monitored and used. Both the line
managers and the HRD staff become partners in ensuring the effectiveness of
training. This questionnaire measures the extent to which training managers
feel the training function is effective in the organization.

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4.6 Administration of the questionnaire as per sampling procedure
4.6.1 Questionnaire for middle level and senior level employees:
The result of this questionnaire can be analyzed to review the effectiveness of
training function. The item-wise data can be used to identify areas needing
improvement.

Each of the questions in the questionnaire is aimed at finding responses with

respect to the objectives of the study. Following chart shows the spread of the
question numbers in the questionnaires which are related to the objectives of
the study.

Table 4.1 Objective linked question spread

Objective Objective Objective Objective Objective
A B C D E
1 7 2 6 1to50
3 14 5 9
4 16 8 10
9 17 17 13
10 18 18 20
11 19 19 21
12 26 23 22
13 27 24 24
15 30 29 25
16 32 30 33
25 33 32 39
26 34 35 40
27 35 38 46
28 36 41 50
31 44 42
33 47 43
34 48
36 49
37
44
45

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The question spread is also depicted with the help of the following graph. This
graph shows the coverage of the questions throughout the questionnaire which
aims at fulfilling the findings towards the objectives.

Fig 4.1 Objective linked question spread

Effectiveness of the training programme is linked with each of the above
objectives. The respondents were asked to give their responses based on a
five-point rating scale as follows:

Score Item Description

4 to those items that are completely true
3 to those items that are mostly true (75% true)
2 to those items that are somewhat true (50% true and 50% false)
1 to those items that are only slightly true/true to a little extent(25% true and 75% false)
0 to those items that you think are totally false to your organisation

If the total score of the questions under each of the objectives is above 75%,
then the training programme would be considered effective as far as that
objective is concerned.

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However overall score of the ratings on the 50 items have to be added for each
respondent to compute training effectiveness score. The total scores could
range from 0 to 200 points per respondent. Score of 150 points and above
indicates that the training function is effective in the organization.

Question No 51 in the questionnaire for the middle level and senior level
employees has been framed for the purpose of eliciting the views of the
respondents in regard to certain theoretical aspects. These responses are
significant by way of additional information only and without any direct
relationship with the objective or hypothesis of the research.

The respondents were asked to tick statements from the following which are
necessary to avoid interference in the learning process:
a. Communication of courses and programs to employees
b. Enrolling employees in courses and programs
c. Preparing and processing any pre-training materials such as readings or
tests.
d. Preparing materials that will be used during instructions
e. Arranging for training facility and room.
f. Testing equipment that will be used in instruction.
g. Providing support during instruction to the trainer.
h. Having backup equipment for sudden failure
i. Facilitating communications between trainer and trainees during and
after training
j. Recording course completion in the trainees' training records or
personnel files

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4.6.2 Questionnaire for responses of training manager
This questionnaire consists of 30 questions aimed at finding out how results-
based are training and development programs in the organization according to
the training managers. Each of these 30 questions has to be answered by
selecting any one of the three responses given below it.

Interpretation of the Training and Development Programs Assessment

Scoring of the assessment instrument is as follows.
1 point for each (a) response
3 points for each (b) response
5 points for each (c) response
The total will be between 30 and 150 points.

The interpretation of scoring is provided below.

Score Range Analysis of Score
120-150 Outstanding Environment for achieving results with
Training and Development. Great management support.
A truly successful example of results-based Training
and Development.

90-119 Above Average in achieving results with Training and

Development. Good management support. A solid and
methodical approach to results-based Training and
Development.

60-89 Needs Improvement to achieve desired results with

Training and Development. Management support is
ineffective. Training and Development programs do not
usually focus on results.

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30- 59 Serious Problems with the success and status of
Training and Development. Management support is
non-existent. Training and Development programs are
not producing results.

4.7 Manufacturing companies covered in data collection

Data has been collected from the following manufacturing companies for
the purpose of research.
1. Bajaj Auto Ltd
2. Carraro India Ltd
3. Cummins India Ltd
4. Forbes Marshall
5. Greaves Cotton
6. JCB India Ltd
7. Kalyani Forge Ltd
8. Kirloskar Brothers Ltd
9. Kirloskar Pneumatic Co.Ltd
10. Mahindra & Mahindra
11. Premium Energy Transmission Ltd
12. Tata Motors
13. Tata Yazaki
The details of the companies have been given in vide 2.9 in the chapter of
Literature Review

4.8 Information Technology companies covered in data collection

1. BMC Software India Pvt Ltd

2. Capgemini India
3. Cognizant Technology Solutions
4. Cybage Software Pvt Ltd

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 5. IBM
6. Information Systems Resource Centre Pvt Ltd (ISRC)
7. Infosys
8. KPIT Cummins
9. MphasiS
10. Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC)
11. Persistent Systems Ltd
12. SAS Institute India (Pvt) Ltd
13. Symantec
14. Tata Consultancy Services
15. Tata Technologies Ltd
16. Wipro Technologies
17. Zensar Technologies

The details of the companies have been given vide 2.10 in the chapter of
Literature Review

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