1.1 Introduction to Training and Development

Welcome to this exploration of training and development, a critical component of the overall system by which organizations manage their human resources in a way that maximizes the likelihood of success both for the organization and for the individual employee. By the time you finish this course, you should understand the need for training in today’s challenging competitive environment, be familiar with legal and ethical considerations in training, and be able to articulate a variety of methods for designing, conducting, and assessing training programs in all types of organizational settings.

We begin this topic with a discussion of work organizations and the overall human resource management (HRM) system used in most settings. Training is described as a critical element of this overall HRM system, but one that must work in concert with the other elements of the system. We then introduce and explain the resource-based view of the firm and use this perspective to help understand why training is so important today. Next, we introduce an overall model of training, called the ADDIE model, that is used as an organizing framework for this text. Finally, we discuss the significant amount of money spent on training, provide examples of the most common types of training, and layout the outline for the rest of the text.