Serving as a prelude of this study, this chapter provided an outline of the study with following sections: background of the study, research purpose, research questions, significance of the study, delimitations and limitations, and the definitions of terms.
Background of the Study
In this increasingly changing world, education and training at the workforce becomes the key component of company’s success. As education accelerates individuals’ ability to think and challenges them intellectually, training ameliorates the development of specific skills and infusion of knowledge. Well-developed corporate training not only paves the way to prosper successfully in the competitive environment, but also acquire and retain the talent with continuation of corporate culture. Offering opportunities for development with a strategic focus and mirroring organization priorities and anticipating change, the advent of corporate training centers serves the needs of corporate training and corporate universities are also viewed as one of the forms of corporate training centers.
Considering employees as the key factors to business success, more and more companies have put more emphasis on the operation of corporate training center which is viewed as an investment in employee development. In order to acquire competitive advantages, it is necessary for a company to involve more than basic skill development in their training, and it results in the diverse programs corporate training centers equip with.
Furthermore, for some ambitious companies, the lectures given from the corporate training centers are not just to the in-house employees only, but the stakeholders can be their trainees as well.
Such an important role as corporate training play, let alone the critical person who is in charge of corporate training. Within training and development fields, a competent corporate
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training professional who can be seen as HR professionals makes strategies be effectively implemented and conducted well. Owning responsibilities for supervisory of the affairs and high-level decision making regarding corporate training, the corporate training professional is influential to the performance of the corporate training and thereby it is necessary to value the competences of the corporate training professionals.
In terms of competence, it can be traced back to the 1970s. The concept of competence is launched by McClelland (1973) who considered competences can predict job performance.
Since then, scholars depicted competence from different aspects. Competence can be either a combination of knowledge, skills, and attitudes (Klemp, 1980; Knowles, 1980; McLagan, 1980; Parry, 1996) or a conjunction of knowledge, skill, and personalities (Boyatzis,1982;
Spencer & Spencer, 1993). When it comes to HR competencies, McLagan (1989) and Ulrich with his colleague (1999) proposed basic competencies required for HR professionals.
Moreover, American Society for Training and Development (2004; 2012) further pointed out foundational competences needed for HR professionals by uncovering their competency model.
However, as shown in the above literatures, there was a noticeable absence of research projects dealing with competency model for corporate training professionals. Hence, in order to bridge the gap in our knowledge, this study investigated the probable existence of competences of corporate training professionals.
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Research Purposes
Building on the descriptions of competent corporate training professionals, the specific aims in this study are to identify the competencies of corporate training professionals, and to elucidate the ways to develop those competencies which are stated as below:
1. To inspect the roles and tasks of corporate training professionals.
2. To identify the competencies needed for corporate training professionals.
3. To investigate the approaches to develop the competencies required for corporate training professionals.
Research Questions
To address the issues already outlined and begin to fill the gaps in the previous research, the present study was guided by following research questions:
1. What are the roles and tasks of corporate training professionals?
2. What are the competencies needed for corporate training professionals?
3. How can these competencies required for corporate training professionals be developed?
Significance of the Study
With the investigation into the roles, tasks and competencies of corporate training professionals, this study is done with the hope that it may provide a map for competency development for corporate training professionals practically; additionally, it may serve as a basis for the beginners to research on the competencies for HR professionals academically.
With the development of competences for corporate training professionals, the study could further advance the quality of employee development.
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Delimitations and Limitations Delimitations
Due to theoretical perspectives the researcher adopted and research objectives, this study focused on competence defined by Spencer and Spencer (1993) to identify the required competencies for corporate training professionals possess on their job.
This study aimed at corporate training centers conducting successfully with awards related to HR or training and well established companies emphazing on employee development. Corporate training centers operating as either independent business units or functional divisions are all considered to be investigated.
The interviews conducted in Taiwan within several successful companies who have earned the awards related to HR or training and development and corporate training centers including corporate universities. The research participants are directors or senior managers who are in the high-level of position in these corporate training centers with actual responsibility for operations of corporate training centers and directors or senior managers who have a managerial position related to HR and participate in higher decision making related to HR in well established companies. Seeing that working in the training and development fields, corporate training professionals are seen as HR professionals for the research.
Limitations
This study was conducted by qualitative method and intended to explore the in-depth and detailed competencies of corporate training professionals. In accordance with the research objectives, the researcher set criteria in choosing the case companies with the adoption of purposing sampling and the participants of this study will rely on interpersonal relations which have bias.
Different understandings and perceptions during the interview process may cause bias of
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collected data although the validity and reliability will be controlled for the research. And the data collected in the research is also affected by the time, place and situation during the interviews.
Definitions of Terms Competence
According to Spencer and Spencer (1993), competency is an underlying characteristic of an individual that can predict behavior in a variety of job tasks and distinguish superior performer from the average. The characteristics of competencies involve skill, knowledge, self-concept, trait and motive. To serve the need of this study, the term “personal attribute”
was employed to represent as a generalization of self-concept, trait and motive.
Competency Model
Being related to future job requirements, a competency model is a decision tool that describes the key capabilities for performing a specific job and consists of the competencies that are most critical to get the results required by the job (McLagan, 1980). Moreover, the competency model provides a road map to more objectively manage talent for competitive advantage (Derven, 2008).
Competency Development
By developing relevant skills, knowledge and personal attributes required for successful performance on the job, competency development determines the specific competencies that are characteristic of high performance and success in a given job.
Corporate Training Center
Operating as a separate business unit and strategically aligning it to organization goals
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and objectives, a corporate training center not only delivers the organizational culture but also gives employees clear understanding of organization’s goals. Leadership development, professional development, and client-oriented education are mainly equipped with by corporate training centers.
Corporate University
A corporate university serves as a strategic tool designed to support its parent organization to achieve its mission by carrying out activities that cultivate individual and organizational learning, knowledge, and wisdom (Allen, 2002b). To meet an organization’s business strategies, a corporate university can also be a strategic umbrella for developing and educating employees, customers, and suppliers (Meister, 1998).
Corporate Training Professional
In this study, as working in the training and development fields, corporate training professionals are viewed as HR professionals. A corporate training professional represents the person who is in charge of the operation and engaged in the high-level decision making concerning a corporate training center or a department related to training. As for corporate training center, in different corporate training centers, the term “director” may be performed in a variety of ways such as a chief learning officer, training director, programming director, dean (of corporate university), and so on.
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