Training and development effectiveness : practices, roles and impacts on performance in Jordanian banking organisations

This research study aims to explore the current practices, policies and roles of training
and development (T&D) within Jordanian banking organisations. It is an exploration of
all the issues concerning T&D practices in terms of how the T&D process is conducted
(how training needs are assessed, how T&D is delivered and how T&D programmes are
evaluated); exploring top managers', T&D and HRM personnel's attitudes towards the
importance of T&D in improving employees and organisational performance and the
strategic position and roles of T&D in their organisations. This study aims to investigate
all the problems and challenges that face T&D activities and searches for practical
suggestions to improve the effectiveness of these activities. Finally, it aims to contribute
to the understanding of HRD in differing cultural contexts. This research is mainly
focused on top managers', T&D and HRM attitudes and viewpoints (perception) towards
the research objectives.

The research has adopted a multi-methods approach. The data were gathered through a
combination of semi-structured interviews with 15 top managers and a survey
questionnaire addressed to the persons responsible for T&D within the targeted
organisations. All Jordanian banking organisations were targeted in this study rather than
a representative sample of these organisations; however, a purposive sampling strategy
was used in choosing the participants of this study. In total, 15 top managers and 38 T&D
and HRM managers took part in the study. The study reveals that, in the majority of the
organisations, there is an absence of systematic employee training needs assessment and
of effective procedures for evaluation. The banks prefer to send their employees to
external training providers rather than train them in the banks. The most commonly used
delivery method is off-the-job training, namely lectures, seminars and case studies. T&D
is not characterised by strategic human resource development criteria (SHRD) and it
plays a reactive rather than a proactive role in these organisations. T&D improves
employees' skills, knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, but it does not increase
employees' commitment and satisfaction. Also, T&D does not impact on profit,
innovation and change, sales, absenteeism, turnover rate, job satisfaction and cost saving
in their organisations, but it increases customer satisfaction, quality service and
productivity. T&D faces many problems: lack of motivation among employees to attend
T&D programmes; inaccurate TNA processes; poor training planning in terms of
contents and delivery methods; sending inappropriate persons to the training programmes
and lack of on-the-job training. To improve T&D effectiveness the researcher
recommends many actions and decisions which need to be undertaken, as shown in
sections 6.10,7.6 and 8.2.4.

Finally, this study contributes to knowledge on the academic and practical levels as one
of the first attempts at empirically investigating the nature and the extent of strategic
T&D activities in Jordanian banks, identifying the main concerns and problems which
face T&D activities, in addition to recognizing the vital roles of T&D in improving the
organisations' performances. Thus, it raises the general understanding of the current T&D
practices and management in Jordanian banks. It has brought together a large body of
knowledge in management T&D, T&D in Arab countries, strategic T&D and T&D and
performance relevant literature and unifies diverse schools of thoughts into one
integrative perspective. This research integrates, refines and extends the empirical work
conducted in the field of T&D in developing countries, since there is a lack of such
studies. It raises some of the implications for managers and consultants, such as
considering employees' motivation, enthusiasm and willingness, T&D time, the
importance of incentive reward when managing T&D. This study provides useful
guidelines in the form of the critical elements and factors that can enhance success in
T&D in terms of TNA, training implementation, methods and evaluation process. The
study also proposes several directions for future research.