Several methods are available for determining on which skills to focus with established human resources. One method calls for evaluating the production process within the organization. Such factors as excessive numbers of rejected products, unmet deadlines, and high labor costs are clues to deficiencies in production-related expertise. Another method for determining training needs calls for getting direct feedback from employees on what they believe are the organization’s training needs. Organization members are often able to verbalize clearly and accurately exactly what types of training they require to do a better job. A third way of determining training needs involves looking into the future. If the manufacture of new products or the use of newly purchased equipment is foreseen, some type of corresponding training almost certainly will be needed.

For example, South Coast Health System in New Bedford, Massachusetts, recently adopted a paperless system shortly after a round of layoffs. For the remaining IT employees to be able to use the new system, management at South Coast recognized that they would need additional training. As a result, the company made a significant investment in outside training programs.³¹

 Two techniques for transmitting information in training programs are lectures and programmed learning. Although it could be argued that these techniques develop skills in individuals as well as transmit information to them, they are primarily devices for the dissemination of information.

1. Lectures—Perhaps the most widely used technique for transmitting information in training programs is the lecture. The lecture is primarily a one-way communication situation in which an instructor orally presents information to a group of listeners. The instructor typically does most of the talking, and trainees participate primarily through listening and note taking.

   An advantage of the lecture is that it allows the instructor to expose trainees to a maximum amount of information within a given time period. The lecture, however, has some serious disadvantages:³²

   The lecture generally consists of a one-way communication: The instructor presents information to a group of passive listeners. Thus, little or no opportunity exists to clarify meanings, to check on whether trainees really understand the lecture material, or to take into account the wide diversity of abilities, attitudes, and interests that may prevail among the trainees. Also, this format permits little or no opportunity for practice, reinforcement, knowledge of results, or overlearning. Ideally, the competent lecturer makes the material meaningful and intrinsically motivating to his or her listeners. However, whether most lecturers achieve this goal is a moot question. These limitations, in turn, impose further limitations on the lecture’s actual content. A skillful lecturer may be fairly successful in transmitting conceptual knowledge to a group of trainees who are ready to receive it; however, all the evidence available indicates that the nature of the lecture situation makes the lecture of minimal value in promoting attitudinal or behavioral change.

2. Programmed learning—Another commonly used technique for transmitting information in training programs is called programmed learning. Programmed learning is a technique for instructing without the presence or intervention of a human instructor.³³ Small amounts of information that require responses are presented to individual trainees. The trainees determine from comparing their responses to provided answers whether their understanding of the information is accurate. The types of questions posed to trainees vary from situation to situation but usually are multiple-choice, true/false, or fill-in-the-blank.

   With advances in technology, some training professionals are developing new forms of programmed learning. Selected employers, for example, are incorporating the use of virtual-world programs like Second Life into their training programs.³⁴

Like the lecture method, programmed learning has both advantages and disadvantages. Among the advantages are that it can be computerized and thus students can learn at their own pace, know immediately whether they are right or wrong, and participate actively in the learning process. The primary disadvantage of this method is that no one is present to answer a confused learner’s questions.

 Techniques for developing skills in training programs can be divided into two broad categories: on the job and classroom. Techniques for developing skills on the job, referred to as on-the-job training, reflect a blend of job-related knowledge and experience. These techniques include coaching, position rotation, and special project committees. Coaching is direct critiquing of how well an individual is performing a job.³⁶ Position rotation involves moving an individual from job to job to enable the person to gain an understanding of the organization as a whole. Special project committees are vehicles in which a particular task is assigned to an individual to furnish him or her with experience in a particular area.³⁷

Classroom techniques for developing skills also reflect a blend of job-related knowledge and experience. The skills addressed through these techniques can range from technical, such as computer programming skills, to interpersonal, such as leadership skills. Specific classroom techniques aimed at developing skills include various types of management games and role-playing activities. The most common format of management games requires small groups of trainees to make and then evaluate various management decisions. The role-playing format typically involves acting out and then reflecting on some people-oriented problem that must be solved in the organization.

In contrast to the typical one-way communication of the lecturer, the skills instructor in the classroom encourages large amounts of discussion and interaction among trainees, develops an atmosphere in which trainees learn new behavior by carrying out various activities, clarifies related information, and facilitates learning by eliciting trainees’ job-related knowledge and experiences in applying that knowledge. The difference between the instructional role in information dissemination and the instructional role in skill development is striking.³⁸