Case Study 1: What a Waste of Time

Student Name: Mouza Al Ketbi

Student ID:1080046

Q1: Was the training effort that Mary went through a success or a failure? How do you

know?

Based on this article, the effort in training that Mary experienced was not successful. Due to

some circumstances that could be seen to be failed. In the first place, it mentioned that her

supervisor discouraged and demotivated her at her department. Adding to that, he said that

the training effort was a waste of time.

Mainly can be seen because of the hostile and uncooperative attitude that Nick had when

Mary was trying to adopt the lessons, she learned from the training in which can be proved

by how she helped other employees in their tasks. Wherein, Nick discouraged this kind of

behavior and asked her to mind her own work. Therefore, these kind of attitude Nick

discouraged Mary from changing any of her supervisory work traits and just get back to how

she was.

Add to this, Mary also got into the training not knowing what the goal and objective was.

That she got confused during operational between promotions or demotions and sales.

Cause the training was on sales and she have thought it was for promotions or demotions.

The training technique used itself was also ineffective as could be witnessed it involved a lot

of reading and tests which is not useful way of teaching managerial techniques to be

adopted.
Q2: Identify all the factors that contributed to the result (either success or failure).

There are several factors that contributed to the failure of the training that Mary had. The

main factor was being and dealing with a person like Nick, who was uncooperative and

discouraging Mary towards her trying some techniques she learned. This can be seen on

how whenever Mary would try to use any of the training techniques, Nick would ask her to

leave it and just focus on her work. Add to this, Nick was very hostile and sarcastic on the

approach in which he was taking when Mary would try to use the training techniques.

Nick’s sarcasm marks like ‘back from vacation’ in front of other employees, and even though

Mary ensured that her piles of work was reduced before adopting any training techniques,

Nick would still insist to not use any of the training practices and just focus on getting her

work done. This made-up Mary to foresee that the training was useless and that it did not

bear any fruits as whenever she would try to use a different approach, Nick would push her

to be right back to her old foam.

Q3: What actions can be taken before, during, and after a training program, to increase

the chances for a successful training experience?

There are different actions to be taken in order to increase successful training experiences.

Before the training program, the objectives and goals of the training should be laid out very

well and clearly communicated to the attendees. This means that Mary should have been

made aware of from beginning why she was attending the training sessions and what she

would get at the end of it. Then a need for assessment should be done to identify which

employees needing the program. The assessment would have avoided putting Mary who is
in operational at a training which is for sales team. A supportive learning and welcoming

experience should also be set for the training, which means that allowing the employees to

attend the training sessions without getting their works piled up that causes an individual

not to fully focused in the program.

During the training, the employees should be regularly checked to identify whether they

learned or need additional time for them to learn. The technique of the training should be

attractive and not boring which means that it should be less theoretical and more practical

especially when it came to the training at which Mary was attending. Any form of support,

like materials or advices should also be constantly given to the employees to ensure that

they are getting something productive from the training experience.

While after the training, an evaluation assessment should be conducted to identify the

effectiveness of the training. If it wasn’t effective, problems should be identified in order to

solve and allow future training to be more effective. Hence, if the evaluation assessment

that was conducted on Mary’s training would have been able to identify the efficacy of the

training for her. Addition to this, Mary wasn’t getting the relevant support from Nick to

adopt the training strategies. This would have been rectified, to make the training more

effective.