Date of Award

Summer 2002

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering

Committee Director

William Swart

Committee Member

Charles Duncan

Committee Member

Ralph Rogers

Committee Member

Robert Safford

Abstract

Training is a multi-billion-dollar industry, and with the advent of the training technology revolution and the possibilities it provides to business and government, as well as to the academic community, it is important to determine if the money invested in training by these communities is providing the expected performance on the part of those who are trained. This can be done by quantitatively evaluating the relationship between training and performance.

This study extends the scholarly literature by developing the concept of organizational alignment through a combination of Human Performance Technology literature and traditional engineering methodologies. Organizational training and performance is studied to evaluate aspects of the relationship. An experimental study was conducted within a chain organization seeking to develop the best method of training. Quantitative and qualitative results are collected in an attempt to validate the findings.

The findings of the research indicate that training does not necessarily guarantee performance. Although organizations are investing billions of dollars in training development and deployment for employees, the training may not deliver the desired or expected performance for the organizations. The research shows that a principal cause of training not leading to performance is the lack of organizational goal alignment between levels of the organization. This was seen through the results of the performance and causal analyses combined with engineering methods. Lastly, this research concludes that modeling and simulation is an appropriate method by which to achieve organizational alignment. Taking a broader view of simulation and considering its iterative nature for planning and evaluation can allow organizations to proactively align their organizations at all levels.

DOI

10.25777/egxn-x706

ISBN

9780493882963

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