A Study on the Training Needs Analysis of Financial Planners

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(1)A STUDY ON THE TRAINING NEEDS ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL PLANNERS. by Richard, Sheng-Hao Lin. A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION. Major: International Workforce Education and Development. Advisor: Chih-Chien Lai, Ph. D.. National Taiwan Normal University Taipei, Taiwan June, 2009.

(2) AKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I want to give thanks to the God who has shown me his unconditioned love and timely help when I was in need. I would like to give me sincere thanks to humorous Dr. Lai. I learned a lot from him both in academic and in life. His careful instruction, sound advices in his most busy time and his care, and most importantly, his generous meals in Dante coffee; all these have become treasures in my research life. I want to thank Dr. Vera who led me into the door of the academy field of human resource and qualitative research. I am thankful for Dr. Lin and Dr. Rosa who have always supported me when I need them. I would like to thank Dr. Wen whose warm care and professional advices have helped improve my thesis writing a lot. Joanne, thank you for your great advices at the last night I wrote my thesis. Griffith, Allan, Rence, and other friends of Timothy Fellowship, I am thankful for your friendship. Pearl, Marquelda, Jallow, Vladimira, Austin and other classmates in IWED, NTNU, thank you for letting me be the first class representative and teaching me many lessons in leadership and in life. Thank you, Vicky and Annie. I really enjoy studying with you. My special thanks go to Dior. You have made me research life full of surprises.. In the end, I would like to thank my Mom for her endless love and tolerance to my waywardness and support me with countless prayers and nutritious meals. Mom, I love you!.

(3) ABSTRACT The study aimed to explore the relevant training issues of financial planners, the professionals in charge of the wealth management business in banks. The research includes the training needs analysis and financial planners’ perspectives toward their training and professional development. The study utilized in-depth interviews, a technique of qualitative approach, to explore the contexts of the organizations, the job, personal performance issues, and learning of financial planners. Ten professionals in financial planning field were interviewed. The research findings are the detailed contexts that can be categorized into four parts. First on the organizational issue, there are organizational problems of (1) establishing organizational fame and brand, of developing their professionals, of (2) re-constructing their organizational system to maximize the business efficiency and effectiveness, and of (3) innovating competitive products for differentiation in those banks. Second on the job analysis issue, to perform the job well, financial planners must develop effective strategies to enhance the three most important competencies: (1) strong mental strength to live with pressure, (2) client pool developing, and (3) knowing the market trend. To acquire the three competencies, it is demanded that financial planners should have other complex knowledge and skills e.g. professional knowledge of finance, interpersonal skills, together to perform successfully in their job. Third on the person performance issue, performance difficulties and problems can be summarized as being caused by (1) the bear market, (2) poorly set performance standard and goals, (3) customers’ distrust, and the (4) heavy requirement of financial planners’ knowledge and skills. On the personal analysis, (1) resistance to be transferred into the wealth management field, and (2) work pressure resulted from heavy workload, and (3) personal laziness and impatience toward their job and.

(4) customers are the major person problems. On the learning issues of the financial planners, experiences that help establish client pool by being a senior staff in the same branch and experience that help understand the market trend in a securities company are explored. On the learning channels, financial planner acquire their competencies majorly through (1) internal corporate training, (2) reading, (3) financial planning exhibitions and conferences, (4) Taiwan Academy of Banking and Finance, (TABF) and Securities and Futures Institute, (SFI), (5) learning from skillful, experienced clients secretly, and (6) certification and training to satisfy their training needs.. Keywords: financial planning, financial planners, training needs analysis, and competency..

(5) TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... I Table of Contents ................................................................................................................. III List of Tables .......................................................................................................................... V List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... VI List of Graphs....................................................................................................................... VII CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 1 Background of the Study .................................................................................................. 1 Purposes of the Study.........................................................................................................5 Research Questions ............................................................................................................6 Significance of the Study ...................................................................................................6 Definition of Terms ............................................................................................................7. CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................... 9 Wealth Management ..........................................................................................................9 Training Needs Analysis ..................................................................................................11 Competency .....................................................................................................................19 Financial Planners’ Role, Competency, and Training ......................................................21. CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...................................................... 25 Research Framework .......................................................................................................25 Research Methods ............................................................................................................27 Research Procedure ..........................................................................................................28 Instrumentation of the Study ............................................................................................31 Data Collection and Analysis ...........................................................................................32 Validity and Reliability ....................................................................................................35 Delimitation of the Study .................................................................................................36 Limitation of the Study ....................................................................................................36.

(6) CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. .......................... 39 Introduction of the Case Companies ................................................................................39 Organizational Analysis ...................................................................................................41 Job Analysis .....................................................................................................................49 Person Analysis ................................................................................................................56 Learning ...........................................................................................................................59 Summary of the Chapter ..................................................................................................70. CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ........................... 71 Conclusions ......................................................................................................................71 Managerial Implication ....................................................................................................72 Recommendations for Future Research ...........................................................................74. REFERENCES .................................................................................................................... 75 APPENDIX A. THE COVER LETTER ....................................................................... 79 APPENDIX B. INTERVIEW GUIDELINES ............................................................. 80 APPENDIX C. INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS EXAMPLE ................................. 81.

(7) LIST OF TABLE Table 2.1 Components of the Person Analysis Process ...........................................................17 Table 3.1 The Background of Interviewees .............................................................................30 Table 4.1 Organizational Analysis ...........................................................................................48 Table 4.2 Research Questions 1 ...............................................................................................49 Table 4.3 Research Questions 2 ...............................................................................................49 Table 4.4 Job Analysis .............................................................................................................55 Table 4.5 Research Questions 3 ...............................................................................................56 Table 4.6 Person Analysis ........................................................................................................59 Table 4.7 Research Questions 4 to 7 ........................................................................................60 Table 4.8 Learning ...................................................................................................................67.

(8) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 A Model of Performance Appraisal in the Person Analysis Process ......................18 Figure 3.1 Research Framework ..............................................................................................26 Figure 3.2 Research Procedure ................................................................................................29 Figure 3.3 An Example of Coding Steps .................................................................................33 Figure 3.4 An Example of the Coding and Categorizing Steps ...............................................34.

(9) LIST OF GRAPHS Graph 3.1 An Example of Coding Steps ..................................................................................33 Graph 3.2 An Example of the Coding and Categorizing Steps................................................34.

(10) CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION The purpose of the introductory chapter is to provide an outline of the study: background of the study, the motivation of the study, statement of the problem, purpose of the study, research questions, significance of the study, and the definition of terms.. Background of the Study. Wealth management used to be a monopoly of foreign private banks in Taiwan in its early development. With the uprising wealth management concept being promoted by multitudinous public media, Taiwanese have begun to seek better choices to invest and plan their retirement plan. At the same time, as Liaw (2004) pointed out, Taiwan banking industry have met a series of drastic changes: entering the World Trade Organization, the establishment of the Six Financial Law, the integration of financial business, the admission of marketing across the traditional boundary, and other advances. All these changes led to the transformation of banking business. In addition, during the development people in Taiwan have been more aware of the investment concept, tools , and financial planning. Having numerous choices of financial tools, customers need a more comprehensive financial planning service. In this regard, talents in wealth management have become critical to the success of business. Banks in Taiwan need talents to grow business, and demand for higher performance and better alignment with the financial planners’ goal and the organizational goal. According to the world wealth report 2008 from Merrill Lynch and Cap Gemini Group, the market and potentiality of the wealth management market is going to increase rapidly. From statistics for the wealth report, Global HNWI wealth totaled US$40.7 trillion, a 9.4% gain from 2006, with average HNWI surpassing US$4 million for the first 1 .

(11) time. And, the Ultra-HNWI wealth band experienced the strongest growth, gain 8.8% in population size and 14.5% in accumulated wealth. Also, HNWI financial wealth is projected to reach US$59.1 trillion by 2012, advancing at an annual growth rate of 7.7%. Hence, the world wide trend suggests that wealth management is a tremendously important business opportunity to be exploited. While wealth management is on the rise, there are considerable service problems existing. Rou (2004) proposed a number of unsatisfying service factors of financial planner. Theses are (1) lack of professional competency, (2) confusing introduction and misunderstanding of products, (3) over-commitment to service and product, (4) disclosure of clients’ personal information and over-marketing, (5) focusing on personal performance, not clients’ needs, (6) no follow-up information provided, and (7) high turnover rate. Wang (2008) also pointed out several factors that affect the customer's satisfaction toward wealth management. First, the high turnover rate of financial planners, resulted from performance pressure and the lack of appropriate training and development, not only limits those financial planners' professional development but also lose trust from customers. Next, customers demand reliable service from a bank worthy of trust that they may be willing and feel confident to invest and consult. Furthermore, due to the severe competition, there is no differentiation of the wealth management service that can help organization to maintain its sustainable competitiveness. Under the circumstance, the service fee of wealth management become a major factor of choice that affect customers choose bank service. Now, many banks have met serious problems such as over-competition, high turnover rate, employee burnout, headhunting, and other human resource problems. Currently, the global economy has been going downward, leading to a world wide great loss of those investors in stock, bond, and fund market. Furthermore, the bankruptcy of Lehman financial holding inc., a Wall Street financial giant with 158 years of history has resulted in a great distrust and loss of confidence in the investment and wealth management field. The recession has severely damaged the customers’ trust and will still be a great challenge for all the stakeholders in the financial world to face. Due to the bear market now, most banks stop recruiting and start to lay off poor performers. This very situation has become a special area worth of further research.. 2 .

(12) A huge gap from what financial planners claimed to provide and what they actually did can severely harm customers’ trust. The high turnover rate of financial planners has led to low service quality, frequently heard complaining from customers and endless, costly recruiting that blocks the way to build up a stable working environment. If those existing problems can not be solved effectively, banks will not have enough strength to compete in the business battlefield against other companies. Banks will meet a hard time to rebuild their fame and attract customers. There are different approaches to solve those problems from the perspective of management school. The organization could use reward system to motivate employees or use training and development approach to equip them with sound profession knowledge, skills and capabilities. Studies on those issues are of critical importance for practice use to improve the performance and quality of financial planners. The abovementioned challenges and problems have greatly changed the marketing strategies, market niche, and made the training an important approach to solve business operating problem and to differentiate product and service. Financial planners are professionals in charge of the wealth management. The required expertise is becoming more diverse and differentiated. To be competent, they need complex skills to better perform their job and create value both for their customers and their organizations. Liaw (2004) claimed that knowing how to develop strong selling power of a combination of financial products becomes a critical issue. Financial planners should be able to handle the selling of diverse products, such as insurance, stock, fund, and other products. Yu (2001) believed that salespeople of bank should be trained with insurance competency and should take certificates examination. Chen (1998) suggested that companies should train their salespeople, equipping them with financial knowledge to build a bright image and strengthen the competency of their salespeople.. 3 .

(13) Upon the development of wealth management, the boundary of banks, insurance companies, stocks, and other financial companies is becoming unclear; therefore, financial planners should strength themselves to be familiar with numerous financial products and utilize the professional financial knowledge to be competent financial planners and to convince customers with their expertise. Many customer complaints and inappropriate selling of financial products has shown the fact that many planners do not fit the baseline of their professional standard with many problems unsolved (Chen, 1998, Liaw, 2004; Rou, 2004; Wang, 2008; Yu, 2001). Ridlehuber (2000) pointed out that training is not luxury, but really a necessity for the success of financial planning business. It is needed to equip financial planners with cutting edge financial knowledge and financial planning strategies to help them provide excellent service for traditional and newly expanding market. As a result, financial institute must treat training as an investment, not an expense. The before mentioned factors demand well-trained and developed financial planners to provide quality and comprehensive service. Financial planners have complicated and diversified tasks to perform in their daily work. To develop a superior performer, it’s needed to invest considerable time and resources on this human capital to establish a well-designed training mechanism. Otherwise, banks in Taiwan may not better improve its service, thus deteriorating their business and competitiveness. Therefore, the training development of financial planners is a critical issue for organization.. Motivation of the Study Training needs analysis often serves the practical use of training and development. The focus of it usually is on solving organization performance problems. Searching the database of National Central Library electronic theses and dissertations system and Chinese Electronic Thesis and Dissertation database (CETD) for relevant literature of wealth management and financial planners, the researcher finds that the training needs analysis of financial planners is 4 .

(14) rarely discussed in the present literature in Taiwan. For the practice of development, there is a need for further research on this issue. Therefore, the researcher aimed to explore this field to contribute to the shortage of training and development literature and to explore the possibility to solve the performance problem from a training approach and from financial planners’ perspective.. Statement of the Problem The wealth management business has become an important source for banks to grow business. Yet, there are few papers discussing the training needs of financial planners in Taiwan. Also, there are even fewer papers identifying the training needs of financial planners in banks from the perspectives of practitioners. Identifying training needs is critical for the success of training and a very practical practice that can help organizations, human resource practitioners, and financial planners to identify where they are and where they want to be. One thing should be noticed is that traditional training needs analysis survey often provides numerical statistics to show the gap and priorities of their needs, resulting in general competency items or categories that imply some competencies should be trained. While quantitative training need research has its weakness in identifying the deep awareness of training needs and the causes of performance discrepancies, a complete and holistic view of financial planners’ needs can be obtained by qualitative research. Therefore, it’s necessary and meaningful to conduct a training needs analysis that assesses the needs of financial planners for the improvement of banks’ wealth management through a qualitative approach.. Purposes of the Study. Based on the research background and the existing problem in the financial planning practices, the purpose of the study was to investigate financial planners’ insight into ways that they could better adapt to the organization, their job, and their personal problems and that the service of wealth management service could be improved. The purposes of this inquiry are as follows: 1. To explore the current training practice, organization, and work setting of financial planners. 5 .

(15) 2. To explore the core competencies of financial planner. 3. To explore the competency discrepancies and source of discrepancies of financial planners. 4. To explore the training needs of financial planners. 5. To explore the beneficial prior knowledge, skills, ability, characteristics, and experiences of financial planner. 6. To explore the beneficial training for financial planners. 7. To explore the learning channels and other ways financial planners develop their competency.. Research Questions. Based on the research background and motivation, the main purpose of this study is to explore the training issues in financial planners’ organization, job, personal situation, and learning. Research questions are listed as the following. 1. What and how are the current training practice, organization, and work setting of financial planners? 2. What are the core competencies to perform the job successfully? 3. What are the competency discrepancies and source of discrepancies of financial planners? 4. What are the training needs of financial planners? 5. What prior knowledge, skills, ability, other characteristics, and experience of financial planner are beneficial to do the job successfully? 6. What courses, workshops, or training programs are beneficial for financial planners? 7. What are the learning channels or other ways financial planners develop their competency?. Significance of the Study. Inside the company, the high turnover rate of financial planners has led to low service quality and endless recruiting which cost huge resource and greatly block the way to build up a more stable working environment for real talents. Look into the external environment, the 6 .

(16) bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and the withered market has both damaged the customers trust and confidence in the wealth management service.. The huge gap and. existing problem discussed in background of the study (Chen, 1998, Liaw, 2004; Rou,2004; Wang, 2008; Yu, 2001) can severely harm customers’ trust. If those existing problems can not be solved in a timely manner, the banks will not have enough competencies to fully create value to all the stakeholders in the business and will meet a hard time to rebuild their fame and attract customers. The study aims to identify the training needs of financial planners to help the HR practice better assess the training needs, thus improving the training practices and service.. Definition of Terms. The Banks in Taiwan According to the definition of Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan, R.O.C. (2006, May), the bank is categorized to monetary intermediation. The division includes: the activity of obtaining and redistributing funds. This division includes The Central bank, local banks, and foreign banks. The study defined the range of bank as the Central Bank of the Republic of China, professional banks, business banks, and foreign banks.. Financial Planning Financial planning according to Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB) (2004) is defined as the process of developing strategies to assist clients in managing their financial affairs to meet life goals, involving all relevant aspects of a client’s situation across a large breadth of financial planning activities such as inter-relationships among often conflicting objectives. Based on the definition given by the professional community, the study utilizes 7 .

(17) this financial planning concept to comprehend the work of financial planners.. Financial Planners Based on the definition from Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT)(2003) and the banking environment in Taiwan, financial planners in this study are defined as professionals who develop and implement financial plans for individuals, selling multitude of financial products and providing individual financial consultancy in VIP financial consulting sectors.. Training Needs Analysis With the same view of training needs analysis from Brown (2002); DeSimone and Werner (2006); Anderson (1993), the training needs analysis in this research refers to a process that identifies the needs of organizational human resource development, a process necessary to provide quality training, attempting to improve performance and quality and to promote development in both personal and organizational level. Through the appropriate utilization of this analysis, the organization could maximize the effectiveness of training.. Competency The study utilized Spencer and Spencer’s (1993) definition, defining it as an underlying characteristic of an individual that is causally related to criterion-referenced effective and/ or superior performance in a job or situation. . 8 .

(18) CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW. To serve the study’s need, the following literature review focused on training needs analysis, competency, financial planners’ role and their competency to discuss financial planners’ training needs. This chapter is divided into sections: wealth management, training needs analysis, competency, financial planners’ role and competency.. Definition, Origin, and Development of Wealth Management. According to Directions for Banks Engaging in Wealth Management Business (2008), Financial Supervisory Commission, Executive Yuan, the definition of Wealth Management is a business that provides a variety of financing service by financial planners to keep and create wealth for high net worth individuals according to the needs of client to plan and arrange assets and debts. The client group of wealth management includes both nature persons and legal persons. Financial planners are the person assigned by banks to understand the needs of clients, to plan, and to suggest the products and service accordingly. Financial planners should provide support service and investment opportunity to clients and maintain a close long term relationship. The service provided includes consulting, arranging clients’ assets and debts, and comprehensive financial products and services that consist of (1) all the bank business: such as deposit, loan, investment, financial planning, derivatives, safekeeping, foreign exchange, credit cards, and other financial services. (2) Trust, stock, and bond consulting: such as designated trust capitals for investing foreign funds, bonds, structural financial products and other financial products. (3) Other insurance, stock and bond business: financial service through insurance companies and securities firm of financial holdings groups. 9 .

(19) According to the need of the study, wealth management is defined as an investment advisory business that involves financial planning and specialist financial services. The main objectives are to provide high net worth individuals and families with retail banking services, estate planning, legal resources, taxation advice and investment management to sustain and grow long-term wealth. Wealth management emerged from private bank service. In Switzerland, wealth management service that distributed and moderately invested clients’ capitals was provided by banks. The focus of banks in Switzerland is on investment management. In the late 1970, banks in the U.S. imitated European banks and establish private bank business, focusing on using personal loan to create wealth or to operate business. Clients’ needs for convenient deposit, loan, and investment have been stimuli that accelerated the development of American private bank service. The first bank that operates wealth management service was established by the City Bank in 1987 and was the only bank that provided wealth management in the early development of wealth management in Taiwan. Recently, the wealth management concept and its utilization in Taiwan have been more mature. Both foreign and local banks compete for wealth management market for the following reasons: First, the traditional interest income has contributed less and less for the banks in the environment of liberalization of interest rate. Second, the number of the high net worth individuals and their wealth has been increasing rapidly. As a result, the market of wealth management has become more and more important for banks. Wealth management centers are generally established in almost every bank.. 10 .

(20) Training and Training Needs Analysis (TNA). Introduction of Training Needs Analysis Training often serves as a way to improve the quality and competency of employees. For the improvement from training is beneficial in improving product or service quality and performance, thus creating more earning and value for all stakeholders. Even more, human resource and talents, as being treated now, are a profitable investment that would bring substantial benefit to the organization and strengthen organization advantages in the era of knowledge worker. To design an effective training, trainers often follow the instructional systems design (ISD) approach, a four-phase approach that consists of assessing training needs, designing training programs, implementing training programs, and evaluating training programs. Training needs analysis then serves as the starting point of training and is a process by which an organization’s HRD needs are identified (DeSimone & Werner, 2006).. Purposes and Meaningfulness of TNA According to literature review (Anderson, 1993; Brown,2002; DeSimone and Werner, 2006; Noe et al, 2007), scholars often categorize training needs assessment in to three dimensions: (1) organizational, (2) job analysis, and (3) person analysis. Training needs analysis is the first step to train the trainees. To better identify the training needs, it’s necessary to understand the meaning and purpose of training needs analysis.. Brown (2002) pointed out that training needs assessment is a must for designing an effective program. The purposes from a HR point of view can be listed as following: (1) to identify the specific problem areas in the organization, (2) to obtain management support, (3) to develop data for evaluation, (4) to determine the costs and benefits of training. Through understanding the organizational dimension, the appropriateness of training could be 11 .

(21) evaluated (Noe et al, 2007). Generally as proposed by Brown (2002), training need could probably be immediate and remedial, and also, to update and maintain professional knowledge, or others, prepare for job requirement. Conducting a needs assessment is beneficial in identifying: 1. Organizational goals and its effectiveness in achieving these goals. 2. Gaps or discrepancies between employee skills and the skills required for effective job performance. 3. Problems that may not be solved by training, such as policies, practices, and procedures that need adjustments and corrections. 4. Condition under which the training and development activity will occur. Training needs assessment can be a reactive way to solve the current competency discrepancy or gap with the organization. Werner and DeSimone (2006) suggested that needs assessment is the very first phase in the HRD process. Also, Training needs highlight the difference between actual and required human performance (Anderson, 1993). Needs assessment can be defined as a process by which an organization’s HRD needs are identified. In order to identify the training need and gap in the organization, such as poor performance or the shift of the role, needs assessment facilitates these activities. (1) Establish priorities, (2) Define specific training and objectives, and (3) Establish evaluation. Also, needs assessment identify (1) organization’s goal and the effectiveness in reaching them, (2) discrepancies or gaps between employees’ skills and the required ones, (3) discrepancies or gap between current skills and the skills needed to perform the job successfully in the future, and 4. the conditions under which the HRD activity will occur. Contrasting to the reactive approach, some scholars supported that HRD should be proactive and future oriented. According to Robert Brinkerhoff, the discrepancy or gap concept of training need is not holistic enough. He proposed other two ways to examine 12 .

(22) training needs. The first one is the diagnostic needs, which focused on factors that influenced performance. Its goal is to determine how effective performance is gained. The second one is analytic needs, which aimed to identify new and better ways to execute the job. Without diagnosis there can be no solid prognosis. Training needs analysis is the diagnostic part of the whole training process (Anderson, 1993). Due to the requirement of several legal issues, compliance needs are also added to training needs assessment. According to the law, it is necessary to have mandated training program such as safety training. According to Rosset (1989), there are two ways to assess training needs, macro assessment and micro assessment. Macro assessment deals with inquiries about issues that contribute to organization’s goal, including receiving opinion from leaders and employees, and understanding organizational strategies and planning. This assessment searches for (1) competency, (2) criticality, and (3) frequency; Micro assessment tries to answer questions such as (1) what do you need to know in order to do the specific job? (2) which knowledge or skills are most essential to doing the job? (3) will training help? (4) are there other interventions? The purposes of training needs assessment are (1) finding optimal performance, (2) finding feelings about the subject, skills, new system, or new technology, (3) finding causes of the problem. Advantages for identifying the training needs are as follows (Anderson, 1993): 1.. Ensure that the needs contribute to organizational objectives.. 2.. An audit can be made of the existing training provision.. 3.. It derives the training acceptance, actual and potential blockages to acceptability.. 4.. Sound data is gathered. 5.. Problem identification and priorities can be set as need always outweighs resources. With the same logic, the researcher agreed with the above-mentioned rationale and 13 . .

(23) deemed Training Needs Analysis (TNA) as a process that identifies the needs of organizational human resource development, a process necessary to provide quality training, attempting to improve performance and quality and to promote development in both personal and organizational level. When organizations make decisions to training, a specific and detailed training needs assessment is required for it greatly make training more effective and appropriate. TNA, to sum up, is an analysis that aimed to identify and solve current and future problems. It helps to identify organizational goals and its effectiveness, competency discrepancies, problems that should not be solved by training, how effective performance is gained, and better ways to execute the job. It, too, helps make an audit of the existing training and derive training acceptance. According to literature review, scholars often categorize training needs assessment in to three dimensions: (1) organizational/strategic analysis, (2) job analysis, and (3) personnel/person analysis. Each of them is discussed as follows:. Organizational Analysis Organizational analysis can be defined as a process used to better understand the characteristics of the organization to make decision about where training and HRD interventions are needed and the conditions within which they are conducted (DeSimone and Werner, 2006).. According to Goldstein and Irwin (1993), an organizational analysis identify:. (1) organizational goals, (2) organizational resources, and (3) organizational climate, and (4) environmental constraints. The critical elements are explained as follows: 1. Organizational goals: understanding the organizational goals gives direction to training efforts. In this way, the completion of the training effort leads to the completion of the organizational goals and strategies. 2. Organizational resources: organizational resources include budget, knowledge, facilities, experts and other resources (DeSimone & Werner, 2006). Other information is also 14 .

(24) required: (1) organization, (2) products/services/ operations, (3) labor force, (4) quality/quantity/output, etc, (5) training. 3. Organizational climate: it’s a critical factor that affects the success of the training development. 4. Environmental constraints: constraints such as legal, social, political, and economic issues are included. Goldstein and Irwin (1993) provide a series of questions to do the organizational analysis: 1.. Are there any unspecified organizational goals that should be translated into training objectives or criteria?. 2.. Are the various levels in the organization committed to the training objectives?. 3.. Have the various levels or participating units in the organization been involved with developing the program, starting with the assessment of the desired end results of training?. 4.. Are key individuals in the organization ready to accept the behavior of the trainees, and also to serve as models of the appropriate behavior?. 5.. Will trainees be rewarded on the job for the appropriate learned behavior?. 6.. Is the training being used to overcome organizational problems or conflicts that actually require other types of solutions?. 7.. Is top management willing to commit the necessary resources to maintain the organization and work flow while individuals are being trained? Sources of data for organizational needs analysis are (1) organizational goals and. objectives, (2) human resource inventory, (3) skills inventory, (4)organizational climate indexes, (5) organizational climate indexes, (6) analysis of efficiency indexes, (7) changes in system or subsystem, (8) management requests or management interrogation, (9) exit interviews, (10) work planning and review systems (Moore & Dutton, 1978). To conclude, organizational analysis explores both the organization and the training in the organization. On one hand, it identifies organizational goals, resources, climates, and constraints. On the other hand, it identifies training issues such as goal specification, management support, staff involvement, training acceptance, reinforcement of training transfer, training appropriateness, and organizational support to their training. 15 .

(25) Job Analysis Job analysis is a method that gathers, organizes, evaluates, and reports work-related information (Brannick & Levine, 2002; Fine& Cronshaw, 1999). It is a method for determining the knowledge, skills, tools, conditions, and requirements needed to perform a job (Callahan, 1985; Shepherd, 1985). Job analysis can be defined as a systematic collection of data about a specific job or group of jobs to determine what an employee should be taught to achieve optimal performance (Moore & Dutton, 1978). Job analysis sets the standard of the appropriate, desired standards of performance. How tasks should be performed should be specified. What competencies that employees should possess are analyzed. Resource of job analysis could be (1) job descriptions, (2) job specifications, (3) performance standards, (4) perform the job, (5)observation, (6) reviewing literature concerning the job, (7)asking questions, (8) training committees/ conferences, (9) analysis of operating problems (downtime reports, waste, repairs, late deliveries, quality control), 10)card sort. Job analysis is conducted to determine responsibilities and tasks necessary to perform a job (Gupta, Sleezer, & Russ-Eft, 2007). According to Jacobs and Jones (1995), job analysis contains two basics: a set of well-defined behaviors (task behavior) and the performance outcomes led from behavior. Task behaviors are the thoughts, actions, and decisions that staff must make to do the job. There are eight characteristic sets of behavioral patterns for analyzing tasks: (1) procedure, (2) troubleshooting, (3) decision making, (4) inspecting, (5) adjusting/revising, (6) calculating, (7) planning and (8) comprehending. Performance outcomes are useful standard to evaluate the adequacy of task. It’s quite common for practitioners to use task statements to capture the information of task behaviors and performance outcomes. It can be utilized to communicate the training content and outcomes to trainers and trainees. Task statements represent a distinct set of behaviors and performance outcomes. Jacobs and Jones (1995) suggested that job analysis is the process of explicitly defined behaviors, performance outcomes, prerequisite knowledge, skills, attitudes, and other job relevant information. The abovementioned are products of job analysis that can help (1) specify training objectives, (2) organize task behaviors, and (3) develop performance tests. Job analysis can also be named as operational analysis. It should be job centered. Norms for the job would be established by extrapolating knowledge, skill and attitudinal 16 .

(26) requirements of the experienced employees. It is useful to highlight training gaps (Anderson, 1993). To sum up, job analysis is a method that collects and analyzes job requirements such as skills and tools, and competencies that an employee should be taught to achieve optimal performance. The outcomes of it are a set of well-defined behaviors and performance outcomes let from the behavior. Both of the outcomes help to specify training objectives, organize task behavior, and develop performance tests.. Person Analysis Goldstein and Irwin (1993) suggested that when doing person analysis, the focus should be on how well the staffs should execute their job, namely the evaluation of their performance. Person analysis focus on two questions: Who need training? What kind of training is needed? In this level, self insight and analysis are assessed, using the critical incident technique and other techniques (Anderson, 1993). A person analysis consists of two components; they are summary person analysis and diagnostic person analysis. The former involves determining the overall success of individual performance while the latter involves discovering the reasons for an employee’s performance. Therefore, outstanding performers would be a good source on how to improve performance, whereas ineffective performers can be a source that identifies what help are needed to improve performance (See table 2.1.) Table 2.1. Component of the Person Analysis Process Summary Person Analysis It is a global analysis; an overall evaluation of an individual’s performance; a classification of an individual as a successful versus unsuccessful performer. Diagnostic Person Analysis It is a analysis that determines why results of individual’s behavior occur and how individual’s KSAOs, efforts, and environmental factors combine to yield the summary person analysis. Source: Herbert & Doverspike, 1990. 17 .

(27) Performance Analysis in Person Analysis Performance analysis is commonly complicated and a core issue in organization which provides analyzed data for managers to make strategic decisions. It’s more suitable for those who evaluate employees regularly to do this analysis. More often than not, staff and their supervisors are involved in this analysis. General steps are as follows: (1) evaluate performance completely and correctly, (2) identify the gap of actual behavior and desired performance, (3) identify the cause of performance gap, and (4) choose appropriate intervention to bridge the gap (See figure 2.1). Identify discrepancies. Appraise individual employee’s performance. Determine source of discrepancies. Select intervention. Integrate information from organization, job, and person analyses. Compare individual’s behavior and traits to others’ or to an ideal. Internal factors. External factors. Knowledge, skill or ability. Motivational deficiency. deficiency. Inadequate equipment, adverse conditions . Figure 2.1. A Model of Performance Appraisal in the Person Analysis Process Source: Herbert & Doverspike, 1990.. Person analysis data are often used to define developmental needs for maintaining and increasing the knowledge, skills, and abilities of each employee. It can also prepare employee for future job responsibilities. A skills inventory helps identify the needs for training, assessing individuals KSAOs and examining their education, training, experience, certification, performance reviews, and recommendations. Some would analyze person analysis data to determine the best strategy for developing their human resources. 18 .

(28) Competency. McClelland (1973) purposed that competency should predict job performance, and should be assessed through the use of criterion samples and the identification of operant thoughts and behaviors causally related to successful outcomes. This notion then dominated the following competency researches. Boyatzis (1982) later defined competency as an underlying characteristic of a person which results in superior or effective performance in a job. Spencer and Spencer (1993) wrote, “A competency is an underlying characteristic of an individual that is causally related to criterion-referenced effective and/ or superior performance in a job or situation” (page 17). They also proposed that competencies can be divided into threshold and differentiating competencies: threshold competencies are the essential characteristics such as knowledge or basic skills that everyone in a job needs to meet the minimum criteria. Comparatively, differentiating competencies are factors that distinguish superior from average performers. They then categorized competency into five characteristics and further proposed that “knowledge and skill competencies tend to be visible, and relatively surface: characteristics of people self-concept, trait, and motive competencies are more hidden, “deeper,” and central to personality” (page 20). They five characteristics are as below: 1. Motives: A drive that causes a person wants consistently and takes action to acquire it. 2. Trait: physical characteristics and consistent responses. 3. Self-Concept: Attitude, values, or self-image 4. Knowledge: information a person has in specific content areas 5. Skill: the ability to perform a certain physical or mental task. They deemed that knowledge and skill competencies are relatively easy to develop through training. But core motive and trait competencies are more difficult to assess and develop. Then, it is most cost-effective to select for these characteristics rather than to train. 19 .

(29) Competency-based assessment aims to identify knowledge skills, and attitudes for superior job performance. It helps to determine qualities that distinguish average from superior performance and to provide information about current and future predictors of job performance. A competency is a knowledge, skill, attitude, or behavior that enables a person to perform effectively the activities of a given occupation or to function to the standards expected in employment (International Board of Standards for Training, Performance, and Instruction®, 2005). The concept is introduced by White (1959), McClelland (1973), and Spencer and Spencer (1993). The purposes of it are as follows: 1. Identify the necessary competencies for superior job performance. 2. Create a composite picture or best-practice model. 3. Define incompetency and determine the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors that should be avoided for optimum performance. Competency focuses on the superior performers and seeks to identify the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors the performer needs in order to excel in a job (Gupta, 2007; Russ-Eft, 2007; Sleezer, 2007). This approach has benefits as follows: 1.. It establishes the qualities or characteristics that distinguish average from exemplary performance.. 2.. In-depth information about current and future predictors of job performance.. 3.. It helps to increase job satisfaction by showing what is expected from them.. 4.. It helps to create standardized training and development programs.. 5.. It helps to develop standards and assessments for certification. Several limitations of this approach are that it is a time-consuming assessment that. involves many parties and that It’s costly to implement. There are various approaches for conducting a competency needs assessment. Two main approaches are as below: (1) critical incident and behavioral event interviewing and (2) 20 .

(30) expert development and validation.. Financial Planners’ Role, Competency, and Training. The Role of Financial Planners According to the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT), 2003, financial planner is a professional who does and is in charge of the following transaction: 1.. Develops and implements financial plans for individuals, businesses, and organizations, utilizing knowledge of tax and investment strategies, securities, insurance, pension plans, and real estate.. 2.. Interviews client to determine client's assets, liabilities, cash flow, insurance coverage, tax status, and financial objectives.. 3.. Analyzes client's financial status, develops financial plan based on analysis of data, and discusses financial options with client.. 4.. Prepares and submits documents to implement plan selected by client.. 5.. Maintains contact with client to revise plan based on modified needs of client or changes in investment market.. 6.. May refer client to other establishments to obtain services outlined in financial plan. May sell insurance to client, recommending amount and type of coverage. 7.. May buy and sell stocks and bonds for client.. 8.. May rent, buy, and sell property for client.. 9.. May be registered with professional self-regulatory association. According to the banking environment in Taiwan and the needs of the study, financial. planners in this study are defined as professionals who develop and implement financial plans for individuals, selling multitude of financial products and providing individual financial consultancy in VIP financial consulting sectors. 21 .

(31) Financial Planners’ Competencies Financial Planning Standards Board Ltd (FPSB), a global community of certified financial planners that manages, develops and operates certification, education and related programs for financial planning organizations, has identified a comprehensive financial planner competency profile, describing the ideal abilities, skills, attitudes, judgments and knowledge. Financial planner abilities are categorized into three financial planning functions: collection, analysis, and synthesis. These three functions should be well performed on six financial planning components: (1) financial management, (2) asset management, (3) risk management, (4) tax planning, (5) retirement planning, and (6) estate planning. Ideal skills include (1) professional responsibility, (2) practice, (3) communication, and (4) cognitive. Financial planning body of knowledge is categorized into 11 areas: (1) taxation, (2) insurance, (3) investment, (4) retirement, savings and income program, (5) law, (6) financial analysis, (7) debt, (8) economic and regulatory environment, (9) government benefits plans, (10) behavioral finance, and (11) ethics and standards. Hsieh (2006) in his competencies research concerning banking financial consultant proposed that the top six important competencies in order of importance are (1) law compliance, (2) honesty, (3) image of trustworthiness, (4) attend to clients’ requests with case, (5) clear explanation, and (6) aggressiveness. Chen (2007) conducted a research to investigate the relationship between financial planners’ job performance and personal attributes. She added a few points. 1. Marital status and seniority has positive relationship with job performance. 2. In personal traits, openness and being careful affect job performance. 3. In knowledge, skill dimension, those who are quick to respond to people with profession knowledge-especially the information seeking ability have better performance. 4. In work attitude, organizational commitment has positive relationship to performance. 22 .

(32) Hsieh (2006) in his study on the determinants of financial planners’ planning behavior concluded that 1. Being diligent, conscientiousness and extraversion are major attribute to superior performance. 2. Outstanding performers care not only their own goal, but also organizational goal. 3. Outstanding financial planners are gregarious, confident, good at communication, obedient to the executives and accept the organizational goal. Spencer and Spencer (1993) conducted a competency projected to further identify the generic model for salespeople. They proposed that the most important competency clusters for salespeople are the Achievement and Action Cluster and the Interpersonal Impact and Influence cluster. Initiative is also ranked higher than other competencies. Generic competencies for salespeople include the above mentioned competencies and interpersonal understanding, customer service orientation, self-confidence, relationship building, analytical thinking, conceptual thinking, information seeking.. Relevant Studies on Financial Planners’ Training Hsieh (2006) further proposed a few points. (1) Financial planners from 25-30 with complete training program are more likely to be superior performers and supervisors. (2) Financial planners should consistently educate themselves and acquire professional credit to fit into the rapid changing financial world. (3) Those that have a master degree are more likely to be superior financial planners. Wang (2008) conducted a study on customer satisfaction for wealth management service in bank and concluded that (1) Customer relation are necessary and takes time to cultivate, namely, bank image are important to bank customers. (2) The over competition in wealth management has resulted in less differentiation that customers made purchase decision according to the service fee, not service quality. (3) High turnover rate of financial planners has resulted in less professional training result. Lee (2004) proposed that financial planner can be best supported if the banks could 23 .

(33) provide 1. a highly effective information support system with a research team to support the junior financial planners who lacks several financial expertise to deduce the workload of financial planner and to enable them to focus on improving service quality. 2. Banks should distribute financial planner of different experiences to form a team to develop better work climate and help average financial planners to achieve high performance.. Summary of the Chapter In this chapter, the relevant literature on wealth management, financial planners, training needs analysis is discussed as the base of the study. Through literature review, the researcher has achieved the following works. First, the definition and development of wealth management is investigated and described. Second, the competency models of financial planners from both foreign and local associations and researchers are discussed. Relevant studies on the financial planners are also reviewed and presented this chapter. Third, the training needs analysis theories, models, and frameworks are discussed into three dimensions: organizational analysis, job analysis, and person analysis. Generally speaking, training needs analyzed from three perspectives: organization, task, and person. However, the training needs analysis should follow the content of training. It is reasonable to give different weights to the three analyses. For example, if the training is focused on spreading and enforcing policies and strategies, job analysis should be focused. If it is a general type of training for future talents, organization and person analyses should be focused. Considering that the training needs analysis is focused on “person’s perspective,” the researcher gave more weight on the person analysis to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the context and perceived perception of financial planners. Last, the purpose of this study aims to serve the use of making decision, discover performance gap, and understand the potential development strategies from financial planners. 24 .

(34) CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. The purpose of the study was to explore the training needs of financial planners which include organizational analysis, job analysis, and person analysis. By indentifying those needs, the training and development suggestions would be made for better bridging the gap and discrepancies from organization problems, job problems and person problems. To achieve the study goals, the study constructed the study tools and systematically designed and planed the process of the research. They are discussed as the following sections: research framework, research procedures, research methods, instrumentation of the study, and data analysis.. Research Framework. To achieve the purpose of the study, in-depth interview were utilized. In-depth interview facilitate the needs to explore relevant, current organizational and person issues, gaining complete, open, and detailed data. Therefore through the research method, an understanding of the training need was gained to help the development of training practice. The purpose of the study was to investigate financial planners’ insight into ways that they could better adapt to the organization, their job, and their personal problems and that the service of wealth management service could be improved. According to the reviewed literature in Chapter II, there are several critical elements that should be taken into consideration while analyzing training needs. They can be generally categorized into three groups: organizational analysis, job analysis, and person analysis. In organizational analysis, they are organizational strategies, resources, climate, cost, constraint, structure, external environment, and organizational outputs such as product, service, and operation. When doing 25 .

(35) job analysis, they are job specification, job analysis, competency, performance effective criteria. In person analysis, the focus is on competency, the performance gap, and other performance problems. The conceptual framework of the study is as figure 3.1.. Training Needs Analysis. Organizational. Job Analysis. Person Analysis. Analysis strategy. competency and. resources. performance gap. climate. job specification. job analysis. analysis. Gap. Gap. constraints competency and structures environment. performance problem analysis. performance criteria. output. Training and Development Suggestions of Financial Planners Figure 3.1. Conceptual Framework 26 . competency.

(36) Research Methods. The study aimed to explore the training needs of financial planners and how do they develop their own professional competency to maintain their competitiveness in the organization and in their job. The study sought to both identify the training needs and construct the development path for financial planners; therefore, the researcher utilized literature review and in-depth interview to fully understand the comprehensive context, thus facilitating the further training design.. Qualitative Research The training needs and perception of the needs of financial planners should be carefully examined because of their sophisticated and dedicated nature. Due to the nature of the research topic, qualitative is the preferred research method. To solicit the complete, open, and detailed information of training need, qualitative research method is thus utilized in this study.. In-depth Interview Technique In-depth interview can provide rich result that can better present the whole picture of the training needs from financial planner’s view and identify those details that can not be fully answered by quantitative approach. Ten financial planners were chosen to be interviewed to answer the following questions: 1. What and how are the current training practice, organization, and work setting of financial planners? 2. What are the core competencies to perform the job successfully? 3. What are the competency discrepancies and source of discrepancies of financial 27 .

(37) planners? 4. What are the training needs of financial planners? 5. What prior knowledge, skills, ability, other characteristics, and experience of financial planner are beneficial to do the job successfully? 6. What courses, workshops, or training programs are beneficial for financial planners? 7. What are the learning channels or other ways financial planners develop their competency?. Research Procedure. The research process is as following: 1. Identify the research title, questions, and purposes After reviewing and studying the relevant literature, the researcher analyzed the research background and purposes, and decided the research title, questions, and purposes. Finally, the research title was named as “A Study on the Training Needs Analysis of Financial Planners.” 2. Collect literature and documents Literature from foreign and local databases was collected. Analysis of the collected literature was made as the foundation of the study by which the desired investigation items and dimensions were developed. 3. In-depth interview To collect practical data and training and development strategies, ten financial planners were interviewed. The content of the interview outline were examined by them with their suggestions. 4. Data analysis According to the research questions and goal, the interview results were analyzed to make 28 .

(38) conclusion and suggestion. 5. Finish the report (See the figure 3.2). Research Subject Identification. Literature Review. In-depth Interview. Data Analysis. Finish the Report. Figure 3.2. Research Procedure. Research Participants. Financial planners in banks of Taiwan and other relevant managerial roles in financial planning are the population in the present inquiry. Judgmental sampling was utilized to help select appropriate interviewees. The interviewees should be financial planners or managers who are in charge of wealth management business. 29 .

(39) The goal of the study was to explore the training need, the development channels and other ways of development from the perspective of financial planners. In order to gain a more complete view, the research participants were not limited to several benchmark wealth management banks or in several cities in Taiwan. Also, the year of experience of the research participants is not limited. A diversity of perspectives from different but relevant financial planning position and different years of experience were encouraged to better target and explore the training needs issues of financial planners. The researcher called and visited financial planners and managers in banks and asked whether they were willing to participate. The research subjects were further selected according to their willingness of participation and interview time available. The background of interviewees is presented as table 3.1. Table 3.1. The Background of Interviewees Bank. No.. Years of Seniority. Position. A. A01. 05. Junior manager. Yes. A. A02. 14. Manager. Yes. B. B01. 15. Audit junior manager. Yes. B. B02. 26. Junior manager. Yes. B. B03. 17. Junior manager. Yes. C. C01. 15. Junior manager. Yes. C. C02. 03. Financial planner. No. C. C03. 01. Financial planner. No. D. D01. 25. Assistant manager. Yes. D. D02. 15. Financial planner. No. 30 . Managerial Position.

(40) Instrumentation of the Study. The interview guideline was developed according to the finding in the literature review; three main issues: organizational analysis, person analysis, and job analysis are the base of the interview guide. The guidelines of interview guide developed according the tree dimensions of the training needs analysis and the research questions:. Organizational Dimension 1. Organization strategy: the short term, mid-term, and long term goal of the organization. 2. Organization resource: the resource available for training. 3. Organization climate: the perception toward training. For example, the support from higher management and the learning environment. 4. Training constraint 5. External environment 6. Service output: the quantity and quality of the provided service and product. Person Dimension 1. Competency and performance gap analysis: the competency and performance discrepancy 2. Competency and performance problem analysis: the chief source of ineffective and insufficient performance 3. Career development ability: the required knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics for future development.. Job Dimension 1.. Core competency 31 . .

(41) 2.. Job description. Research Questions 1. What and how are the current training practice, organization, and work setting of financial planners? 2. What are the core competencies to perform the job successfully? 3. What are the competency discrepancies and source of discrepancies of financial planners? 4. What are the training needs of financial planners? 5. What prior knowledge, skills, ability, other characteristics, and experience of financial planner are beneficial to do the job successfully? 6. What courses, workshops, or training programs are beneficial for financial planners? 7. What are the learning channels or other ways financial planners develop their competency?. Data Collection and Analysis. The present inquiry utilized in-depth interview as the major research method. With specific agenda to follow and fundamental questions to answer, semi-structured interviews were conducted. Then, qualitative data from interviewees were collected, and later on described and analyzed. Before the interview, the interviewees were introduced the content of the research, including the purpose and relevant terms. In the process of the interview, the data were recorded by a voice recorded with the permission of the interviewees. After interview, the basic procedures for data analysis were followed: 1. Transcribing data into transcripts. 2. Reading and rereading transcript 32 .

(42) 3. Segmenting and coding the data 4. Comparing, categorizing, and inducing 5. Identifying relationships and answer the research questions An example is shown as figure 3.3 and figure 3.4.. ABY0101 stands for A bank, interviewee B, answer, dialogue 1, and important notions 1. Each dialogue of transcript is numbered for reference use.. From the transcript, relevant and meaningful sentences are underlined and extracted. . Number. Content. Important notion. Code. ABY0101*. 由於台灣前幾年的財富管理不是以客戶資產合理配置為導向，. 1.. 市場環境. 過去財富管理過分重. 而是競相以手續費收入掛帥，甚至置客戶權益於不顧，故在去. 視手續費收入，損及. 年下半年全球金融海嘯後，多數財管客戶有一定的受傷，對於. 客戶權益。. 理財專員或顧問等，信賴度開始降低，甚至暫時遠離投資市. 2.. 金融海嘯使多數客戶. 場，先將現金守穩，而套牢者亦抱著長期投資的心態，希望求. 受傷、降低信賴度而. 日後解套。. 減少投資。. The important notions are written according to the content.. The important notions are coded and categorized.. ABY0101 Important notion 1 Dialogue 1 Response B interviewee Bank A Figure 3.1. An Example of the Coding Steps 33 .

(43) 3.. 3-1. 3-1-1 refuse to sell “bad products”. Person. Performance. 3-1-2 ill-designed system. Analysis. problem and. 3-1-3 goal set is too high. difficulties. 3-1-4 too many financial products 3-1-5 too many different clients. 3-2. 3-2-1 hard to completely avoid. Person problem. illegitimate use of clients’ money 3-2-2 not earning the certification 3-2-3 unable to take care of family 3-2-4 laziness 3-2-5 impatience 3-2-6 unable to live with pressure 3-2-7 unable to obtain clients’ trust 3-2-8 the will to reach the goal might be low. The important notions are coded and categorized into first coding; the first, the second; and the second, the third.. Figure 3.2. An Example of the Coding and Categorizing Steps. 34 .

(44) Validity and Reliability. Validity The following procedures are followed to obtain the validity. The emphasis of validity in qualitative study refers to the being plausible, trustworthy and defensible. To achieve these characteristics, it is important to develop some strategies that strengthen the validity of the study. The researcher lists the strategies to be used here: 1. Reflexivity: To avoid subjective bias from researcher, it is important to reflect carefully on the interview process, procedure, and analysis. 2. Expert consultation: The results of the study, its interpretation, and conclusions are discussed with other researchers, the advisory professor, outside subject matter expert, and interviewees to make better judgment on the research result and arguments. 3. Perspectives from different positions: The interview participants are from different positions in wealth management field including financial planners, junior managers, audit managers, assistant managers, and a manager. By seeing from different position toward the same job, the researcher had clear angles to better target the goal.. The interview guide was developed based on the purpose and goal of the research and on the theoretical framework extracted from the literature review. This guideline was discussed with professors with yearly experience and one of the interviewees at the initial interview process to modify the questions to be asked. The interviewees were interviewed by the researcher face to face and recorded. After transcribing, the interviewees further confirmed the interview result content.. Reliability To achieve the reliability, the researcher utilized the same procedure to collect, 35 .

(45) categorize, and analyze data in an effort to reduce the possible biases that may happen during the progress of the research. With the same research standard and procedure, the correctness and consistence of the data analysis could be achieved, thus avoiding potential biases. In addition, the researchers tried to search for interview data from different position as mentioned in the third part of the validity, the researcher believed that the data could be better supported through different angles and interpretation.. Delimitation of the Study. First, financial planners and other relevant managerial roles in financial planning field in bank are the population in the present inquiry, excluding financial planners from insurance companies and other businesses. Second, the interviewees were selected according the nature of their work which should be relevant to financial planning business. Third, the research period extended from December, 2008 to May, 2009. The researcher used judgment sampling to conduct this qualitative research, using the same screening criteria to select the potential interviewees. Fourth, the study focused on the training of the financial planner, possible discrepancies, and beneficial experiences or learning of financial planners. Other training issues e.g. design or evaluation is not the target of the study.. Limitation of the Study. Based on the delimitation of this inquiry, several limitations might emerge: 1. The financial planners to be interviewed might have limits to understand all the external factors and external environment to answer questions from organizational analysis due to their job position and business they were in charge of. Namely, their perception toward organization issues could probably be limited. 36 .

(46) 2. There was a huge difference in interviewed financial planners’ years of seniority. Even though this difference represented a broad perspective of financial planners toward the training needs analysis issue, the difference in the year of seniority might be a limitation that this study didn’t present the opinion of the expert of mature, yearly experience only. The study also joined opinions from less experienced financial planners. 3. Even though the participants were selected by judgment sampling method, the distribution of interview participants in this study was majorly in Northern Taiwan. Thus, this sample population limits the sample representativeness. 4. The research consequence couldn’t generalize to other countries except Taiwan. 5. The chosen research method (qualitative research) may be a limitation to the study since qualitative research method is often limited to small sample size. The data analysis could be partially biased by the subjectivity of the researcher even though the researcher have tried to keep his objectivity. 6. Due to limited time and resource, the researcher could not explore financial planners in all types of the banks. The researcher only conducted interviews to those planners in both selected and available banks.. 37 .

(47) 38.