Special Issues in Training and

Employee Development

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 Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

1. Discuss the potential legal issues that

relate to training.
2. Develop a program for effectively
managing diversity.
3. Design a program for preparing
employees for cross-cultural assignments.
4. Discuss the implications of a skill-based
pay plan for training.

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 Objectives (continued)
5. Discuss what a trainer needs to do to
ensure that school-to-work and hardcore
unemployed training programs are
effective.
6. Describe the necessary steps in a
program for helping dysfunctional
managers.

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 Introduction
• Trainers are often forced to deal with a wide
variety of important issues that fall outside of
the traditional discussion of the components
of instructional systems design.
• Tucker Technology has decided to hire
hardcore unemployed workers (who are
trained by community service organizations)
because it can not find and retain talented
individuals in the labor market.

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 Introduction (continued)
 External environmental pressures
influence training practices:
Legal issues related to training practices
Cross-cultural preparation
Diversity training
School-to-work programs
Hardcore-unemployed training programs

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 Introduction (continued)
 The company’s internal environment
results in pressures which influence
training practices:
The need to train managerial talent
Training and development opportunities
for all employees (regardless of their
personal characteristics)
Use of the company’s compensation
system to motivate employees to learn
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Training Issues Resulting from the External
Environment:

Legal Issues

Welfare-to-Work Cross-Cultural
Programs Preparation

School-to-Work Managing Work Force

Transition Diversity

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Training Situations That May Result in Legal
Action:
 Employee injury during a training activity
 Employees or others injured outside the
training session
 Breach of confidentiality or defamation
 Reproducing and using copyrighted material in
training classes without permission
 Excluding women, minorities, and older
Americans from training programs

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Training Situations That May Result in Legal
Action: (continued)
 Not ensuring equal treatment while in
training
 Requiring employees to attend training
programs they find offensive
 Revealing discriminatory information
during a training session
 Not accommodating trainees with
disabilities

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 Cross-Cultural Preparation

 Cross-cultural preparation involves

educating employees and their families
who are to be sent to a foreign country.

 To successfully conduct business in the

global market place, employees must
understand the business practices and the
cultural norms of different countries.
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 Types of Employees in Global Companies
 Parent-country national: Employee whose
country of origin is where the company has its
headquarters
 Host-country national: Employee from the
host country
 Third-country national: Employee who has a
country of origin different from both the
parent country and host country where he or
she works
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 10 - 12

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions

• Power Distance
• Uncertainty Avoidance
• Individualism – Collectivism
• Masculinity – Femininity
• Long-term – Short-term
Time Orientation
To prepare employees
for cross-cultural
assignments, companies
need to provide cross-
cultural training.

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 Content of Training Programs
Language
Training

Key
Key Elements
Elements Cultural Training
Needed
Needed to
to
Prepare
Prepare Career
Employees
Employees to
to Development and
Work
Work Overseas
Overseas Mentoring

Personal and
Family Life
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International Training and Development
International
InternationalTraining
Training
and
andDevelopment
Development

Continuing Readjustment
Pre-Departure
Employee Training and
Orientation and
Development Development
Training
(on-site)

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Training is necessary for the phases of the
international assignment:
 Pre-departure Phase. Employees need to
receive language training and an orientation in
the new country’s culture and customs.
 The family should be included in the orientation.
 Expatriates and their families need information
about housing, schools, recreation, shopping, and
health care facilities in the area where they will
live.
 Experiential training methods are most effective in
assignments that require significant interpersonal
interaction with host nationals.

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Training is necessary for the phases of the
international assignment: (continued)
 On-site Phase. Training involves continued
orientation to the host country and its
customs and cultures through formal
programs or through a mentoring
relationship.
Expatriates and their families may be paired
with a mentor from the host country who helps
them understand the new, unfamiliar work
environment and community.
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Training is necessary for the phases of the
international assignment: (continued)
 Repatriation Phase. Prepares expatriates for
return to the parent company and country
from the foreign assignment.
Expatriates and their families are likely to
experience high levels of stress and anxiety
when they return because of the changes that
have occurred since their departure.

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Implications of Cultural Dimensions for Training Design:

Cultural Dimension Implications

Individualism Culture high in individualism expects participation in exercises and

questioning to be determined by status in the company or culture.

Uncertainty Avoidance Culture high in uncertainty avoidance expects formal instructional

environments. Less tolerance for impromptu style.

Masculinity Culture low in masculinity values relationships with fellow trainees. Female
trainers less likely to be resisted in low-masculinity cultures.

Power Distance Culture high in power distance expects trainer to be expert. Trainers expected
to be authoritarian and controlling of session.

Time Orientation Culture with long-term orientation will have trainees who are likely to accept
development plans and assignments.
The goals of diversity training are:

• To eliminate values, stereotypes, and

managerial practices that inhibit employees’
personal development
• To allow employees to contribute to
organizational goals regardless of their race,
age, physical condition, sexual orientation,
gender, family status, religious orientation, or
cultural background.

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How Managing Cultural Diversity Can Provide

Competitive Advantage
1. Cost argument As organizations become more diverse, the cost of
a poor job in integrating workers will increase.
Those who handle this well will thus create cost
advantages over those who don’t.
2. Resource- Companies develop reputations on favorability as
acquisition prospective employers for women and minorities.
argument Those with the best reputations for managing
diversity will be the most attractive employers for
women and minority groups.
An important edge in a tight labor market.
3. Marketing argument The insight and cultural sensitivity that members
with roots in other countries bring to the
marketing effort should improve these efforts in
important ways.
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How Managing Cultural Diversity Can Provide

Competitive Advantage (continued)
4. Creativity argument Diversity of perspectives and less emphasis on
conformity to norms of the past should improve
the level of creativity.

5. Problem-solving Heterogeneity in decisions and problem-solving

argument groups potentially produces better decisions
through a wider range of perspectives and more
through critical analysis of issues.

6. System flexibility An implication of the multicultural model for

argument managing diversity is that the system will become
less determinant, less standardized, and therefore
more fluid.
The increased fluidity should create greater
flexibility to react to environmental changes (i.e.,
reactions should be faster and cost less).
Cycle of disillusionment resulting from managing
diversity through adherence to legislation:
Organizational Problem Action Relaxation
Status Quo Identification

Disillusionment Frustration

Minorities and Women

Leave the Organization

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To successfully manage a diverse work force,
companies need to ensure that:
 Employees understand how their values and
stereotypes influence their behavior toward
others of different gender, ethnic, racial, or
religious backgrounds.
 Employees gain an appreciation of cultural
differences among themselves.
 Behaviors that isolate or intimidate minority
group members improve.
This can be accomplished through diversity
training programs!

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 Diversity Training Programs
 Diversity training refers to training
designed to change employee attitudes
about diversity and/or developing skills
needed to work with a diverse work force.

 Diversity training programs differ whether

attitude change or behavior change is
emphasized.
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 Diversity Training Programs (continued)
 Attitude Awareness and Change Programs
Focus on increasing employees’ awareness of
differences in cultural and ethnic
backgrounds, physical characteristics, and
personal characteristics that influence
behavior toward others.
The assumption is that by increasing their
awareness of stereotypes and beliefs,
employees will be able to avoid negative
stereotypes.
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 Diversity Training Programs (continued)
 Behavior-Based Programs
 Focus on changing the organizational policies and
individual behaviors that inhibit employees’
personal growth and productivity.
 One approach is to identify incidents that
discourage employees from working up to their
potential.
 Another approach is to teach managers and
employees basic rules of behavior in the
workplace.
 Cultural immersion is also used.

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Characteristics of Successful Diversity
Efforts:
 Top management provides resources,
personally intervenes, and publicly advocates
diversity.
 The program is structured.
 Capitalizing on a diverse work force is
defined as a business objective.
 Capitalizing on a diverse work force is seen
necessary to generate revenue and profits.
 The program is evaluated.
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Characteristics of Successful Diversity
Efforts: (continued)
 Manager involvement is mandatory.
 The program is seen as a culture change, not
a one-shot program.
 Managers and demographic groups are not
blamed for problems.
 Behaviors and skills needed to successfully
interact with others are taught.
 Managers are rewarded on progress toward
meeting diversity goals.
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 School-to-Work Transition
 School-to-work transition programs combine
classroom experiences with work experiences to
prepare high school students for employment.
 School-to-Work Opportunities Act encourages
partnerships between educational institutions,
employers, and labor unions.
 Every school-to-work system required to include
work-based learning, school-based learning, and
activities that match students with employers.

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 Training’s Role in Welfare-to-Work Programs

• There are two methods for training welfare

recipients.
– The first model involves government agencies
referring welfare recipients to a company-
sponsored training program subsidized with
money and tax credits from the government.
– The second method is for state and local
governments to provide life and skills training
directly to welfare recipients.

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 Training’s Role in Welfare-to-Work Programs

Example: Marriott International’s Pathways to

Independence Program
 Six-week program consists of classroom training
and work sessions in Marriott properties.
 Applicants must have a sixth grade reading level,
pass a drug test, and demonstrate a desire to
work.
 Less than 25 percent of applicants are accepted
 Participants often need to develop both job skills
and life management skills to succeed.
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Training Issues Related to Internal Needs of the
Company:
Basic Skills Training Melting the Glass Ceiling

Joint Union-Management
Programs

Succession Planning

Developing Managers
with Dysfunctional
Training and Pay Systems Behaviors

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Deloitte & Touche’s Recommendations for Melting
the Glass Ceiling:
• Make sure that senior management supports and is
involved in the program.
• Make a business case for change.
• Make the change public.
• Using task forces, focus groups, and questionnaires,
gather data on problems causing the glass ceiling.
• Create awareness of how gender attitudes affect the
work environment.
• Create accountability through reviews of promotion
rates and assignment decisions.
• Promote development for all employees.
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 Joint Union-Management Programs
 Provide a wide range of services designed to
help employees learn skills that are directly
related to their job.

 Develop skills that are “portable” – i.e., valuable

to employers in other companies or industries.

 Both employers and unions contribute money

to run the programs and both oversee their
operation.

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Joint Union-Management Programs (continued)

Example: The United Auto Workers – Ford

Education Development and Training Program
 Life / Education Planning Program
 Education and Training Assistance Plan
 Skills Enhancement Program
 College and University Options Program
 Targeted Education, Training, or Counseling
 Retirement Planning Program
 Financial Education Program
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