Identifying Training Needs For Higher Education Staff: A Case Study in an Academic Institution - Essay Example

As a result of that managers are adopting different strategies so as to make their companies more competent. Competency models, benchmarking etc. are some of the examples of the techniques used by managers to streamline their business decision making process (Albrecht, 2010; Armstrong, 2008). Another major area in the field of business is training and development, which plays an imperative role in making the company more proficient and increasing its overall efficiency (Grobler et al., 2006; Buckley and Caple, 2007; Steffy and Bray, 1991).

Eminent scholars such as Buckley and Caple (2007) articulated that increasing the investments in training and development offer organizations with a range of benefits (Noe et al., 2006; Russ-Eft, Dickison and Levine, 2010). The goal however set by organizations in the context of training and development is to enhance the competitiveness and individual productivity (Lang and Wittig-Berman, 2000; Lang and Steger, 2002). Apart from that, for many organizations training and development (T&D) is simply meant for facilitating employees to learn new technologies and gain skills and competencies related to the work (Cascio, 2000).

Nevertheless, the one thing which became evident from the discussion is that training and development is considered as a critical activity by organizations. For instance, organizations across the globe spend billions of dollars for the purpose of imparting training to the employees. In the US, more than $50 billion are spent by companies for imparting formal training (Dolezalek, 2004). However as a return on investment, the companies desire that the efforts of imparting training lead towards increased productivity and indirect benefits such as greater level of satisfaction, high retention rate and lessened absenteeism (Holton, 2005; Kotey and Folker, 2007). 1.2 Introduction Training and development is a field which focuses on the development of organizational activities by aiming to improve the performance of the individual employees and teams within the organizational settings (Holton and Baldwin, 2003; Velada and Caetano, 2007).

T&D is usually defined as an activity or technique adopted by companies to pass on knowledge and develop skills of the employees. In general, it encompasses three major activities namely education, training and development (Tracey and Tews, 2005). Although, it is an accepted fact that training and development offers several advantages to a company, but the organizational standpoints differ (Devins and Johnson, 2003; Devins, Johnson and Sutherland, 2004; Bishop, 2008). There are two broader organizational viewpoints of training and development.

The first one is that “training and development is a cost that the organization needs to bear” and the other one is that “training and development is an investment the organizations need to make” (Cartwright, 2003, p.2). Therefore from the above statements it is clear that training and development has two sides. This study seeks to scrutinize and identify training needs for higher education staff of an academic institution situated in Saudi Arabia. From the perspective of an academic institution, training and development are generally undertaken by the institution for the purpose of enhancing the ability of the staff members to promote, motivate and influence the followers (Dirani, 2006; Alvarez, Salas and Garofano, 2004; Arthur et al.

, 2003; Billett, 2004; Burke and Hutchins, 2007). In addition, equipping