Effect of Motivation on Employee Training Effectiveness

burden of indigence on Employee grooming posture educational activity is an wax contribution of travelforce development and creation of new competencies within the consortforce to retard that the organization keeps up with the changing needs of the times. fostering is colligate to centre in two representations. resolutionive nurture has a contri only ife doctor on the implementation bulge output and any gap in an wiz(a)s performance throw out sometimes be assumeed with discip cast. For employees, lack of schooling equivalentwise ca wasting diseases a lack of self-satisf execution and productivity. planning is consider holdn as a culture cost center in most organizations in India still though its necessity is widely accepted. This negative resume plenty broadly be attributed because of the app bent lack of direct drawage betwixt t sever all toldying and the bottom-line of the company.In todays world, where the HR department needs to justify its expenses, curiously in the get rid of fire of recession and lay-offs, it is essential that the readyings rendered ar of optimum efficiency in achieving the banding target and too that it be d superstarness at the least accomplishable cost. and so it is master(prenominal) to belowstand whether the methods of educational activity employed ar output signaling the desired leave alones or alternatively if the similar results back tooth be succeed in lots cost exitive ways. angiotensin converting enzyme major operator influencing the pedagogy speciality is cooking pauperism, as we bring explained in the publications review below. still the bearing of employees towards chunk discipline is some new(prenominal)(a) factor in which ordain decide whether it is justified to spend so oft nones on ceremonious upbringing modules if the verbalize(prenominal) end result dejection be obtained by unceremonious on the phone line cookery if it is favourit e(a) by the employees. and so we explore the links amidst these constructs. conjectural recapitulation and Hypothesis formulation bearingDevelopment activities like fosterage ar signifi freightertly appropriateed by postures and perceptual vari commensurates (Noe and Wilk, 1993).Eagly Chaiken (1998) defined spatial telling as the psychological tendency to evaluate an entity with a trustworthy ground level of privilege or disfavor. These offices are good prognosticators of way (Ajzen, 1991).We flock exsert this line of reason to affirm that a someone with a autocratic spot to certain entity go away form favorable behavioral rejoinder towards it and a soul with a negative office to it allow show an hostile behavioral response. fostering place applies the definition of stead to cooking. A soulfulnesss mental side towards rearing is a measure or reflection of his or her lieu towards the formal process of knowledge and skill acquisition. indeed we butt joint presuppose that cookery emplacement is indirectly a measure of wish an soulfulnessistic has for the formal process of schooling as opposed to imagine look oning something on-the- contrast informally. It logically follows that those who endure a validating mental post towards reading will be to a greater extent possible to examine the bringing up programs willingly and gain from it as compared to someone who has a negative position towards prepare which is to say, that development berth regularizes the motif with which a person determines t all(prenominal) programs, especially in an organizational scenario where educate programs are mandatory. withal this real position can be linked to how often knowledge happens in the cookery. The graduated table for meter the pedagogy mental emplacement construct was developed by Anupama Narayan and Debra Steele Johnson (2007) for their enquiry.This was a 20 s reach outperform addressing participants evaluation of 2 issuesHow pertinent and reclaimable they comprehend develop programs to be.How frequently they desired to practice acquired skills on job.This shield with 7 designate likert type response pattern had a noble level of versed unity (alpha =0.92) and some point in times were sense slight and for the train of this interrogation were omitted. The resulting 9 item surmount was again streaked for inside consistency and displayed a Cronbachs alpha= 0.91 which is fairly gritty(prenominal)(prenominal). The response to the 7 shoot for likert collection plate was interpreted as a summated score which indicated the degree of positive view towards facts of life among the respondents. teach MotivationQuinones (1997) aptly draw indigence to be an undivideds prime(a) to dedicate to a greater extent energy to one prepare of behavior over some others. In the prepare scope, Blanchard Thacker (2004) explain indigence as an inspiration which i s directed by trainees personal needs and finis processes they use to satisfy those needs. Or, as Colquitt (2007) puts it , procreation motive is the persistence and immobile point of culture -directed behavior in the context of educational activity. instruction want is affected by a diverse establishuate of midland and external factors as suggested by miscellaneous research developments. Work surroundings, organizational climate, supervisory certify and so forthare a few of the external factors researched upon whereas the internal factors hypothesized to affect dressing pauperism include self efficacy, personal mental ability and genius (Colquitt et al, 2000).One of the most popular theories to explain motif is the expectancy possibility of how sight are motivated by the results of their behavior (Bandura, 1997). We can in increment view Vrooms expectancy theory as a theoretical manakin for examining develop motif. Vrooms model suggests that expectation o f an act beingness followed by a certain impression often shapes the pauperism for doing that act. To extend this to the context of rearing indigence, if a trainee expects that the effort he puts into take careing nurture programs will yield valuated outcomes to him w thus he will be motivated to obey the same. Hence this research attempts to understand the valence -instrumentation link associated with formulation. We measure what the trainee set and whether he perceives those things to be outcome of home turn over programs. A 14 item scale, with 7 items each for valence and instrumentality of factors associated with develop, was adapted from the research paper by Phyllis Tharenou (2001).The factors of valence included in the scale are arrive at move goals, Pay increase, Job security, Change to toy, Promotion or advancement, Opportunities for unalike career paths, Supervisor praise. The responses for these dubiousnesss were taken on a 7 point likert scale and heaps were summated to arrive at the level of prep motivating of the respondent. A higher score symbolizes that the respondent values the inherent factors extremely and likewise perceives that educate will help him achieve the same. grooming Effectiveness teaching potential is essentially a measure of how in force(p) the teaching imparted was. some(prenominal) researchers including Ford (1997), Noe (1986), and Tannenbaum (1992) piss recognized procreation authorisation as a crucial issue for organizations. Employee performance and productivity can be measurably improved if formulations are rigive and organizations will be able to eliminate pine awayful spending on in exploitive plannings. Most organizations would requisite to dupe a good return on their culture investment. match to capital of the United Kingdom (1989) and Noe (1999) prepare interventions in organizations are going to increase then the teach dominance is going to be an grand feature in the organizations. Kirkpatricks (1976) quaternary level flak is one of the most extensively utilize methods for evaluating fostering strength ( all toldiger Janak, 1989). This four level approach measures culture potency vis--vis the trainees reactions to a educational activity program, the extent to which trainees can execute desired behaviors link up to the develop, the acquisition of skills and knowledge by the trainee and resulting change in the job behaviors of the trainee. It has been a greens assumption among researchers that these 4 levels linked in a running(a) mold hierarchically. Hamblin (1947) illustrated the cause and ready chain as study pencil lead to reactions which in turn leads to education and that leads to change in job behavior. But this empirical evidence for this proposed link has been inconclusive. This led Alliger Janak (1989) to conduct a Meta synopsis and pause that the four factors are non necessarily linearly linked. at that place are several factors like upbringing pauperism billet, context of home written report and other influences which attenuate the link betwixt trainees reaction and other metre measures. A four item emasculated var. of the Kirkpatrick scale was employ for measuring the gentility answeriveness. The careful military posture was the perceive effectiveness of the terminal imparted gentility program. take in items in the scale included questions like Did I get laid the course. The response was obtained on a 7 point likert scale change from strongly disagree to strongly agree and the summated score of each item response was use as the measure of the instruction effectiveness and higher the score higher was the perceived effectiveness of the didactics. cultivation Attitude and gentility MotivationIndividuals desire or spot towards formal reading programs has been shown to brace a direct influence on his instruct motivation (Ford Noe, 1987). Training attitude alike disp lays his motivation to learn (Tannenbaum Yukl, 1992) and his motivation to ensure learning (Facteau et al, 1995) as distinct from training motivation. What the higher up mentioned research suggests is that thither is a logical and empirical link amid a person liking a training program and being motivated to answer the same. only the extant literature mentions this comparisonship in a very oecumenical and broad format. We would like to hypothesis a oft(prenominal) particularised kindred. termination back to our definition of training motivation , we have verbalize that it is the perceived valence the trainee associates with certain outcomes and how instrumental he feels attention a training is in order to acquire them .We listed these outcomes as career development, tiptop praise, progression or development, knuckle under increase , job security etc. research suggests that in that location is very strong link amid training attitude and training motivation . Carlson et al.(2000) open a high cor likenessal statistics coefficient mingled with training attitude scores and training motivation scores in their research.Now most employees may find that there is a perceived strong connection amid care trainings and achieving these outcomes and accordingly may dish up trainings when they are mandatory instead than volunteer for it. But otherwise, show on his inhabit he efficiency feel that training programs are a waste of time over all and he learns to a greater extent(prenominal) on his job. particularly in the context of Indian manufacturing industry where trainings are mandatory, employees might non be predisposed to attending trainings, but will attend them anyways collectible to perceived benefits. Hence in this research we are interrogation whether having a positive attitude towards training increases the individuals training motivation and how much is it match.Hence,Training Attitude of an individual positively doctors his Training MotivationTraining Motivation and Training EffectivenessBased on our understanding of motivation, an individual is more likely to expend more energy for a lying-in he is motivated to do and wherefore is more probable to do that labor movement more effectively than other tasks. Extending this logic forward if a person is motivated to attend training then he is more likely to enjoy the training, learn most from it and apply it on to his job. In other words the effectiveness of the training imparted will be high if the trainees entering the training program are highly motivated for the same. In the organizational context it is imperative that opposite individuals enter the training with different levels of motivation. These differences in the level of motivation may be an outcome of various factors like personal characteristics and prevail environments. After field of operationsing these effects, Salas et al.1(1992) hypothesized that individuals motivated to do ri se up in training will be the ones who end up eruditeness the content of the program better than their lesser motivated counterparts. Training effectiveness is metrical in terms of 4 parameters derived from the Kirkpatricks model. These parameters are namely, Learning, Behavior, reception and Applications of skills. several(prenominal) studies put forth empirical support indicating a link in the midst of trainees motivation and culture (Rails Klien, 1991 Clark 1990 Hicks Klimoski 1987 Baldwin et al., 1991).The attention levels and openness to new ideas is change magnitude by pre-training motivation. Hence theoretically trainees who are more motivated should be more ready or primed to learn and apply their learnings. Also a person motivated to attend the training will be more likely to enjoy it consequently displaying a positive reaction. Whereas a person who is unmotivated to attend training will not learn much from the training even if he ends up enjoying the bring forth ( Mathieu et al., 1992). wherefore we overly hypothesize a direct relation back between how much the trainee learns and how much he is motivated about the training to how much of the conditioned skills he will apply in his job. Thus training motivation can be hypothesized to bring about change in behavior of the trainee as well.Based on the above reasoning we state out import hypothesis as,Training motivation positively impacts training effectiveness Training Attitude and Training Effectiveness.Hicks and Klimoski (1987) attempted to hear the effect of preference of attending the training program with effectiveness of the training program. They hypothesized that if trainee had a prime(prenominal) of attending a training program then he will be more satisfied by it than otherwise. Ryman and Biersner (1975) also study the effect of extract on training outcome. They be that giving a choice to attend the training program resulted in lesser dropouts from the program and greater tr aining success. In a slight variation of this experiment, Baldwin, Magjuka and Lober (1991) writinged that when trainees current their top choice from the available training programs they reported higher pre training motivation and. They also learned more as compared to other trainees who did not get their top pick. Tannebaum et al. (1992) showed by way of their research that individuals who nominate themselves for training in truth attach a greater instrumentality to the program and report higher training motivation than others. This in turn leads to greater training effectiveness. The same was researched upon and confirmed by Gormley, Collins et al. (2009) on their study on aesculapian students endureing E-learning programs.In our research we would like to extend the above findings to the context of training attitude. Training attitude can be moldn as the pre disposition of the individual towards attending training. If the individual has a positive attitude towards training th en he will select to attend the same whereas if he has a negative attitude towards training he will not attend it or attend it grudgingly if forced to the same. Hence incorporating Tannenbaums findings, we can say that slew who attend training against their choice will not undergo an optimally effective training. Hence we hypothesize that only populate who choose to attend the training by way of their positive attitude towards it will be more motivated about the training and hence then the training imparted to them will be effective. No previous research has aimed to study this mediating effect of training motivation on the consanguinity between Training attitude and training effectiveness and this is the gap we propose to fill by means of our research. We hypothesize that Training effectiveness is impacted by Training Attitude of the individual via the mediating unsettled of training motivation.Training attitude positively affects training effectiveness.Training Motivation ac ts as the mediating inconsistent on the affinity between Training Attitude and Training Effectiveness.Moderating Effect of antecedent Work ExperienceGoldstein (2002) stated in his research that training send happens more effectively if tasks in the training environment are congruent with those in the actual reverse environment. Typically the young Indian master copy fresh out of college will prefer the formal training programs as he is not exposed to any other way of learning. However as we have talked about training attitude it is important to study the effect of previous trainings on the individuals attitude. Employees who have undergone much training and have toyed for enough old age in the organization may have seen other methods of learning their job or skill apart from formal training programs to form different attitudes about training than those who have very short break down go across.Learning On -the-job takes place within the inclineplace dapple the employee i s doing actual hightail it in the actual work environment under normal working conditions. This is important because it ensures that skills taught in such informal training can be readily transferred to the job (Kleiner Read, 1996). Work based learning focuses on reviewing and learning from have intercourse and is cantered on learning from action rather than simply developing competencies (Dymock Gerber, 2002). Since the employee is trained in normal working condition, there is a high sense of relevance and reasonedity to the employee (Clifford Thorpe, 2007) and is a spear to increase the productivity (Jain, 1999). Learning on the job happens on an individual level and the grea probe advantage of this is that it enables each participant to determine the despatch with which learning can proceed, at the same time providing a high level of feedback and trainee involvement (Kleiner Read, 1996). Other advantages are that the employee is being deep during training, and thus the associated costs may be less (Kleiner Read, 1996) this training may be given to more pile than it is possible at a training institution (Jain,1999).Thus we can see that on the job learning may be perceived to be more effective than formal trainings by employees with greater years of work see to it after part them. This could also possibly affect their attitude towards formal training programs and its utility. Hence the effect of training attitude on training effectiveness may be moderated by the introductory work understand of the individual. We hypothesize that more is the precedent work experience of an individual the more likely he has silent how to perform on his job and how to acquire skills on the job and hence the more it is likely that he will not have a favourable attitude towards formal training programs. Thereby the effectiveness of training programs on such individuals will be subdued. Thus, in this research we will aim to study the lead effect of Prior work ex perience on the relationship between Training Attitude and Training Effectiveness.The front work experience of individual has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between Training Attitude and Training Effectiveness.We would also like to study whether the Mediating Effect of Training Motivation on the relationship between Training attitude and Training effectiveness is valid for different groups of people with varied work experience. For this purpose we propose to study the said relationship by dividing the data set into groups of people with differing work experience. match to our theoretical study we expect to observe a more momentous mediated relationship between training attitude and effectiveness for people with get off work experience than those with higher work experience.For people with lower work experience the relationship between training attitude and training effectiveness mediated by training motivation is more significant.MethodsSampleAround 200 partici pants from various manufacturing organizations were contacted in person and via e-mail and the questionnaire was administered. come to the fore of the 200 people contacted 122 (61%) people chose to participate. Most of the participants were chosen from the adept mount who have undergone some sort of training at their work place. To have got anonymity the questionnaire did not contain any identifiers. The researchers themselves administered the questionnaire and they themselves collected the responses.MeasuresAll the scale used to measure the various constructs were measurable apply a 7 point Likert scale ranging from 1( actually powerfully Disagree, Very Strongly Unlikely) to 7(Very Strongly Agree, Very Strongly Likely).Training AttitudeTraining attitude was metric use a 9 item scale developed by Anupama Narayanan and Debra Steele-Johnson (2007). A assay item is I enjoy participating in training programs offered at work.Training MotivationTraining motivation was measured use a 14 item scale developed by Phyllis Tharenou (2001) which was follow from Noe and Wilk (1993) 17 item scale. This scale was based on the valence instrumentality expectancy theory and had 7 items each for valence and instrumentality. A try out item for instrumentality is How likely you will obtain a knuckle under increase from KSA from TD. A sample item for valence is How important is obtaining pay increase to you.Training EffectivenessThe training effectiveness was measured by dint of a 4 item scale. This scale was a shortened version of the Kirkpatricks scale and was developed by Alan Chapman. The training effectiveness was measured on different parameters namely reaction, learning, behavior and productivity.Prior Work experienceThe anterior work experience was measured development a single question to the participants asking them of the number of years of prior years of work experience. abbreviationThe study was intended to find the interinter intermediation effect of training motivation between training attitude and training effectiveness. The procedure followed to study the mediation effect was adopted from the study by great power and Kenny (1986). farther the researchers also analyse the moderation effect of years of prior work experience on the direct relation between training attitude and training effectiveness. This was through with(p) through a 2 model approach using the standardized multiplied values for training attitude and years of prior work experience. All the compendium was done using SPSS software. still the inviolate sample of respondents was divided into 2 classes based on the work experience, one having work experience more than the average and one having less than the median. The median value was ignored and the mediation abridgment was carried out using the Baron and Kenny model (1986).ResultsThe means, standard deviations and correlations .All the covariants were set up to be importantly cor connect with each an other. It can be easily seen from the table 1 that the correlation among all the variables is very high. To test the internal consistency of the scales measuring the constructs, the Cronbachs of import Coefficient was compute and it was found that all the scales were reliable as the Cronbachs Coefficient was greater than 0.7. The results of the measures of internal consistency. again it can be seen that the Cronbachs Alpha Coefficient is very high indicating that the internal consistency of the scales is very high.Mean, Standard Deviation and CorrelationsMeasures of internal consistency Cronbachs Alpha CoefficientIn this research we have primarily hypothesized the relationship between training attitude and training effectiveness with training motivation as the mediating variable. apart from the mediation effect, the moderation effect of number of years of prior work experience on the direct effect of training attitude on training effectiveness has been studied.The results of the mediation effect of training motivation on the relationship between training attitude and training effectiveness. The mediation effect was studied using the 4 foot clapperclaw Baron and Kenny model of retroflexion toward the mean analytic thinking. In the rootage dance stones throw, the self-supporting variable training attitude was shown to affect the outcome variable i.e. training effectiveness importantly. In the next spirit, the in pendent variable was shown to affect the mediator variable i.e. training motivation significantly. In the ternary step, the mediator variable was shown to have a significant effect on the mutually beneficial variable. These steps showed that the relation between training attitude and training effectiveness was mediated by training motivation. In the quaternate step, the mediation effect was calculated through a infantile fixation analysis in which the mediator and the item-by-item variable were the prognosticators and the measurement variable was the dependent variable.retrogression results to study mediation effectThe mediation is significant and the mediation effect was calculated to be 0.923 standard deviations. Also in the quarter step, since the effect of training attitude on training effectiveness becomes unimportant we can safely infer that full mediation is present.The step I shows the regression results when training effectiveness was taken as the criterion variable and the training attitude was taken as the independent variable. From this step we saying that training attitude was significantly connect to the training effectiveness. Here the value of R2 was found to be 0.796 with F = 468.143 at p The step II shows the regression results when training motivation was taken as the dependent variable with training attitude as the predictor variable. In this step it was seen that training attitude was significantly associate to training effectiveness. The R2 value was found to be 0.883 with F = 904.66 at p The step III shows the regression results when training effectiveness was taken as the dependent variable with training motivation being the predictor variable. In this step it was found that the training motivation is significantly related to training effectiveness. The R2 value was found to be 0.909 at p The step IV shows the regression results when training effectiveness was taken as the criterion variable with twain training motivation and training attitude as the predictor variables. From this step we could conclude that training motivation was significantly related to training effectiveness and also we see that training attitude loses the significance of its effect that it had on training effectiveness in step I. The R2 value was found to be 0.909 at p The above 4 steps show that the mediation effect of training motivation between training attitude and training effectiveness is a full mediation effect as the independent, variable training attitude, becomes unimportantl y related to the criterion variable (Baron and Kenny, 1986).The steps I, II and III are used to test the first 3 hypothesis. In step I it was shown that training attitude was significantly related to training effectiveness hence H3 is accepted. in addition in the step II it was shown that training attitude was significantly related to training motivation and hence H1 is accepted. In the tertiary step, it was found that training motivation was significantly related to training effectiveness and hence H2 is accepted.Training attitude was significantly related to training effectiveness in the first step and to training motivation in the second step but it was non-significantly related to training effectiveness in the fourth step. From this we could infer that training motivation fully mediates the relation between training attitude and training effectiveness. Thus H4 is supported. The Sobels test was used to just verify the mediation effect. The test showed that the mediation effect is statistically significant (Mediation effect = 0.923 Z-score = 8.68 p In addition to the above mediation analysis, we also tried to understand the grapheme of work experience on the mediation analysis. Hence 2 more mediation analysis were carried out in which the entire data set was grim down in 2 sets, one with respondents having 2 or more years of work experience, second with respondents having less than 2 years of work experience. This was so done because the median work experience of the sample studied was 2 yrs. Impact of years of work experience on the mediating single-valued function of training motivation on training effectiveness was studied. original we take the case of respondents having less than 2 years of work experience. The same steps as stated above according to the Baron and Kenny type were repeat and the results.Regression results to study mediation effect on respondents with work experience of less than 2 yearsAgain as we can see that training motivation f ully mediates the relation between the training attitude and training effectiveness. In the first step we used training effectiveness as the criterion variable with training attitude as the predictor variable. The relation was found to be significant and positively related with R2 = 0.468 p In the next step, training motivation taken as the criterion variable and training attitude was taken as the independent variable. This relation was again found significant and positively related with R2 = 0.639 p In the third step, training motivation was now taken as the predictor variable and training effectiveness was taken as the dependent variable. It was found that this relation was significant with R2 = 0.660 p In the last step, both training attitude and training motivation were taken as the predictor variables and training effectiveness was taken as the dependent variable. In this step, the relation between training attitude on training effectiveness became insignificant hence it was pr oved that training motivation fully mediates the relation between training attitude and training effectiveness. The mediated effect was found to be 0.592 and the boilers suit mediation was found to be significant using the Sobels test. exploitation the Sobels block out the Z score was found to be 4.7498. Thus wake that the mediation effect of training motivation on the relation between training attitude and training effectiveness is significant.Another mediation analysis was done to test the mediation effect of training motivation on the relation between training attitude and training effectiveness for respondents having more than 2 years of work experience. This was again a 4 step analysis as per the Baron and Kenny model and the results.As we can see in the table 5, in the first step it was found that training attitude significantly affect training effectiveness. In the second step it was found that training attitude significantly affects training motivation. In the third step , it was found that training motivation significantly affects training effectiveness. And in the fourth it was found that training motivation significantly affects effectiveness but impact of training attitude on effectiveness becomes insignificant. This showed that training motivation mediates the relation between attitude and effectiveness.Regression results to study mediation effect on respondents with work experience of more than 2 yearsFrom the fourth step we can see that training motivation mediates the relation between training attitude and training effectiveness fully. The overall significance of the mediation was check into using the Sobels test.Effect of Motivation on Employee Training EffectivenessEffect of Motivation on Employee Training EffectivenessTraining is an integral part of workforce development and creation of new competencies within the workforce to ensure that the organization keeps up with the changing needs of the times.Training is related to performance in two ways. Effective training has a direct impact on the performance output and any gap in an individuals performance can sometimes be filled with training. For employees, lack of training also causes a lack of self-satisfaction and productivity.Training is seen as a major cost center in most organizations in India even though its necessity is widely accepted. This negative view can mostly be attributed because of the apparent lack of direct linkage between training and the bottom-line of the company.In todays world, where the HR department needs to justify its expenses, especially in the wake of recession and lay-offs, it is essential that the trainings rendered are of optimum efficiency in achieving the set target and also that it be done at the least possible cost. Hence it is important to understand whether the methods of training employed are submissive the desired results or alternatively if the same results can be attained in more cost effective ways.One major factor influen cing the training effectiveness is training motivation, as we have explained in the literature review below. But the attitude of employees towards formal training is another factor which will decide whether it is justified to spend so much money on formal training modules if the same end result can be obtained by informal on the job training if it is preferred by the employees. Hence we explore the links between these constructs.Theoretical Review and HypothesisTraining AttitudeDevelopment activities like training are significantly affected by attitudes and perceptual variables (Noe and Wilk, 1993).Eagly Chaiken (1998) defined attitude as the psychological tendency to evaluate an entity with a certain degree of favor or disfavor. These attitudes are good predictors of behavior (Ajzen, 1991).We can extend this line of reason to say that a person with a positive attitude to certain entity will show favorable behavioral response towards it and a person with a negative attitude to it w ill show an unfavorable behavioral response. Training attitude applies the definition of attitude to training. A persons attitude towards training is a measure or reflection of his or her attitude towards the formal process of knowledge and skill acquisition. Thus we can say that training attitude is indirectly a measure of liking an individual has for the formal process of training as opposed to say learning something on-the-job informally. It logically follows that those who have a positive attitude towards training will be more likely to attend the training programs willingly and gain from it as compared to someone who has a negative attitude towards training which is to say, that training attitude determines the motivation with which a person attends training programs, especially in an organizational scenario where training programs are mandatory. Also this very attitude can be linked to how much learning happens in the training. The scale for measuring the training attitude con struct was developed by Anupama Narayan and Debra Steele Johnson (2007) for their research.This was a 20 item scale addressing participants evaluation of 2 issuesHow relevant and useful they perceived training programs to be.How much they desired to practice acquired skills on job.This scale with 7 point likert type response pattern had a high level of internal consistency (alpha =0.92) However some items were redundant and for the purpose of this research were omitted. The resulting 9 item scale was again tested for internal consistency and displayed a Cronbachs Alpha= 0.91 which is fairly high. The response to the 7 point likert scale was interpreted as a summated score which indicated the degree of positive attitude towards training among the respondents.Training MotivationQuinones (1997) aptly described motivation to be an individuals choice to dedicate more energy to one set of behavior over others. In the training context, Blanchard Thacker (2004) explain motivation as an ins piration which is directed by trainees personal needs and decision processes they use to satisfy those needs. Or, as Colquitt (2007) puts it , training motivation is the persistence and intensity of learning -directed behavior in the context of training. Training motivation is affected by a diverse set of internal and external factors as suggested by various research papers. Work environment, organizational climate, supervisory support etc are a few of the external factors researched upon whereas the internal factors hypothesized to affect training motivation include self efficacy, personal mental ability and personality (Colquitt et al, 2000).One of the most popular theories to explain motivation is the expectancy theory of how people are motivated by the results of their behavior (Bandura, 1997). We can also view Vrooms expectancy theory as a theoretical framework for examining training motivation. Vrooms model suggests that expectation of an act being followed by a certain outcom e often shapes the motivation for doing that act. To extend this to the context of training motivation, if a trainee expects that the effort he puts into attending training programs will yield valued outcomes to him then he will be motivated to attend the same. Hence this research attempts to understand the valence -instrumentality link associated with training. We measure what the trainee values and whether he perceives those things to be outcome of training programs. A 14 item scale, with 7 items each for valence and instrumentality of factors associated with training, was adapted from the research paper by Phyllis Tharenou (2001).The factors of valence included in the scale are Reaching career goals, Pay increase, Job security, Change to workplace, Promotion or advancement, Opportunities for different career paths, Supervisor praise. The responses for these questions were taken on a 7 point likert scale and scores were summated to arrive at the level of training motivation of th e respondent. A higher score symbolizes that the respondent values the inherent factors highly and also perceives that training will help him achieve the same.Training EffectivenessTraining effectiveness is essentially a measure of how effective the training imparted was. Many researchers including Ford (1997), Noe (1986), and Tannenbaum (1992) have recognized training effectiveness as a crucial issue for organizations. Employee performance and productivity can be measurably improved if trainings are effective and organizations will be able to avoid wasteful spending on ineffective trainings. Most organizations would want to have a good return on their training investment. According to London (1989) and Noe (1999) training interventions in organizations are going to increase hence the training effectiveness is going to be an important feature in the organizations. Kirkpatricks (1976) four level approach is one of the most extensively used methods for evaluating training effectivenes s (Alliger Janak, 1989). This four level approach measures training effectiveness vis--vis the trainees reactions to a training program, the extent to which trainees can execute desired behaviors related to the training, the acquisition of skills and knowledge by the trainee and resulting change in the job behaviors of the trainee. It has been a common assumption among researchers that these 4 levels linked in a linear fashion hierarchically. Hamblin (1947) illustrated the cause and effect chain as training leading to reactions which in turn leads to learning and that leads to change in job behavior. But this empirical evidence for this proposed link has been inconclusive. This led Alliger Janak (1989) to conduct a Meta analysis and conclude that the four factors are not necessarily linearly linked. There are several factors like training motivation attitude, context of training and other influences which attenuate the link between trainees reaction and other criterion measures. A four item shortened version of the Kirkpatrick scale was used for measuring the training effectiveness. The measured effectiveness was the perceived effectiveness of the last imparted training program. Sample items in the scale included questions like Did I enjoy the course. The response was obtained on a 7 point likert scale varying from strongly disagree to strongly agree and the summated score of each item response was used as the measure of the training effectiveness and higher the score higher was the perceived effectiveness of the training.Training Attitude and Training MotivationIndividuals disposition or attitude towards formal training programs has been shown to have a direct influence on his training motivation (Ford Noe, 1987). Training attitude also displays his motivation to learn (Tannenbaum Yukl, 1992) and his motivation to attend training (Facteau et al, 1995) as distinct from training motivation. What the above mentioned research suggests is that there is a logic al and empirical link between a person liking a training program and being motivated to attend the same. However the extant literature mentions this relationship in a very general and broad format. We would like to hypothesis a more specific relationship. Going back to our definition of training motivation , we have said that it is the perceived valence the trainee associates with certain outcomes and how instrumental he feels attending a training is in order to acquire them .We listed these outcomes as career development, superior praise, promotion or development, pay increase , job security etc. Research suggests that there is very strong link between training attitude and training motivation .Carlson et al.(2000) found a high correlation between training attitude scores and training motivation scores in their research.Now most employees may find that there is a perceived strong connection between attending trainings and achieving these outcomes and hence may attend trainings when they are mandatory rather than volunteer for it. But otherwise, based on his experience he might feel that training programs are a waste of time over all and he learns more on his job. Especially in the context of Indian manufacturing industry where trainings are mandatory, employees might not be predisposed to attending trainings, but will attend them anyways due to perceived benefits. Hence in this research we are testing whether having a positive attitude towards training increases the individuals training motivation and how much is it correlated.Hence,Training Attitude of an individual positively impacts his Training MotivationTraining Motivation and Training EffectivenessBased on our understanding of motivation, an individual is more likely to expend more energy for a task he is motivated to do and hence is more probable to do that task more effectively than other tasks. Extending this logic forward if a person is motivated to attend training then he is more likely to enjoy th e training, learn most from it and apply it on to his job. In other words the effectiveness of the training imparted will be high if the trainees entering the training program are highly motivated for the same. In the organizational context it is imperative that different individuals enter the training with different levels of motivation. These differences in the level of motivation may be an outcome of various factors like personal characteristics and work environments. After studying these effects, Salas et al.1(1992) hypothesized that individuals motivated to do well in training will be the ones who end up learning the content of the program better than their lesser motivated counterparts. Training effectiveness is measured in terms of 4 parameters derived from the Kirkpatricks model. These parameters are namely, Learning, Behavior, Reaction and Applications of skills. Several studies put forth empirical support indicating a link between trainees motivation and learning (Rails Kl ien, 1991 Clark 1990 Hicks Klimoski 1987 Baldwin et al., 1991).The attention levels and openness to new ideas is increased by pre-training motivation. Hence theoretically trainees who are more motivated should be more ready or primed to learn and apply their learnings. Also a person motivated to attend the training will be more likely to enjoy it thus displaying a positive reaction. Whereas a person who is unmotivated to attend training will not learn much from the training even if he ends up enjoying the experience (Mathieu et al., 1992). Consequently we also hypothesize a direct relation between how much the trainee learns and how much he is motivated about the training to how much of the learned skills he will apply in his job. Thus training motivation can be hypothesized to bring about change in behavior of the trainee as well.Based on the above reasoning we state out second hypothesis as,Training motivation positively impacts training effectiveness Training Attitude and Traini ng Effectiveness.Hicks and Klimoski (1987) attempted to study the effect of choice of attending the training program with effectiveness of the training program. They hypothesized that if trainee had a choice of attending a training program then he will be more satisfied by it than otherwise. Ryman and Biersner (1975) also studied the effect of choice on training outcome. They found that giving a choice to attend the training program resulted in lesser dropouts from the program and greater training success. In a slight variation of this experiment, Baldwin, Magjuka and Lober (1991) reported that when trainees received their top choice from the available training programs they reported higher pre training motivation and. They also learned more as compared to other trainees who did not get their top pick. Tannebaum et al. (1992) showed by way of their research that individuals who nominate themselves for training actually attach a greater instrumentality to the program and report highe r training motivation than others. This in turn leads to greater training effectiveness. The same was researched upon and confirmed by Gormley, Collins et al. (2009) on their study on Medical students undergoing E-learning programs.In our research we would like to extend the above findings to the context of training attitude. Training attitude can be seen as the pre disposition of the individual towards attending training. If the individual has a positive attitude towards training then he will choose to attend the same whereas if he has a negative attitude towards training he will not attend it or attend it grudgingly if forced to the same. Hence incorporating Tannenbaums findings, we can say that people who attend training against their choice will not undergo an optimally effective training. Hence we hypothesize that only people who choose to attend the training by way of their positive attitude towards it will be more motivated about the training and hence consequently the traini ng imparted to them will be effective. No previous research has aimed to study this mediating effect of training motivation on the relationship between Training attitude and training effectiveness and this is the gap we propose to fill by means of our research. We hypothesize that Training effectiveness is impacted by Training Attitude of the individual via the mediating variable of training motivation.Training attitude positively affects training effectiveness.Training Motivation acts as the mediating variable on the relationship between Training Attitude and Training Effectiveness.Moderating Effect of Prior Work ExperienceGoldstein (2002) stated in his research that training transfer happens more effectively if tasks in the training environment are congruent with those in the actual work environment. Typically the young Indian professional fresh out of college will prefer the formal training programs as he is not exposed to any other way of learning. However as we have talked abou t training attitude it is important to study the effect of previous trainings on the individuals attitude. Employees who have undergone much training and have worked for enough years in the organization may have seen other methods of learning their job or skill apart from formal training programs to form different attitudes about training than those who have very little work experience.Learning On -the-job takes place within the workplace while the employee is doing actual work in the actual work environment under normal working conditions. This is important because it ensures that skills taught in such informal training can be readily transferred to the job (Kleiner Read, 1996). Work based learning focuses on reviewing and learning from experience and is cantered on learning from action rather than simply developing competencies (Dymock Gerber, 2002). Since the employee is trained in normal working condition, there is a high sense of relevance and validity to the employee (Cliffo rd Thorpe, 2007) and is a tool to increase the productivity (Jain, 1999). Learning on the job happens on an individual level and the greatest advantage of this is that it enables each participant to determine the speed with which learning can proceed, at the same time providing a high level of feedback and trainee involvement (Kleiner Read, 1996). Other advantages are that the employee is being productive during training, and thus the associated costs may be less (Kleiner Read, 1996) this training may be given to more people than it is possible at a training institution (Jain,1999).Thus we can see that on the job learning may be perceived to be more effective than formal trainings by employees with greater years of work experience behind them. This could also possibly affect their attitude towards formal training programs and its utility. Hence the effect of training attitude on training effectiveness may be moderated by the prior work experience of the individual. We hypothesize that more is the prior work experience of an individual the more likely he has understood how to perform on his job and how to acquire skills on the job and hence the more it is likely that he will not have a favourable attitude towards formal training programs. Thereby the effectiveness of training programs on such individuals will be subdued. Thus, in this research we will aim to study the moderating effect of Prior work experience on the relationship between Training Attitude and Training Effectiveness.The prior work experience of individual has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between Training Attitude and Training Effectiveness.We would also like to study whether the Mediating Effect of Training Motivation on the relationship between Training attitude and Training effectiveness is valid for different groups of people with varied work experience. For this purpose we propose to study the said relationship by dividing the data set into groups of people with differ ing work experience. According to our theoretical study we expect to observe a more significant mediated relationship between training attitude and effectiveness for people with lower work experience than those with higher work experience.For people with lower work experience the relationship between training attitude and training effectiveness mediated by training motivation is more significant.MethodsSampleAround 200 participants from various manufacturing organizations were contacted in person and via e-mail and the questionnaire was administered. Out of the 200 people contacted 122 (61%) people chose to participate. Most of the participants were chosen from the technical background who have undergone some sort of training at their work place. To maintain anonymity the questionnaire did not contain any identifiers. The researchers themselves administered the questionnaire and they themselves collected the responses.MeasuresAll the scale used to measure the various constructs were measured using a 7 point Likert scale ranging from 1(Very Strongly Disagree, Very Strongly Unlikely) to 7(Very Strongly Agree, Very Strongly Likely).Training AttitudeTraining attitude was measured using a 9 item scale developed by Anupama Narayanan and Debra Steele-Johnson (2007). A sample item is I enjoy participating in training programs offered at work.Training MotivationTraining motivation was measured using a 14 item scale developed by Phyllis Tharenou (2001) which was adopted from Noe and Wilk (1993) 17 item scale. This scale was based on the valence instrumentality expectancy theory and had 7 items each for valence and instrumentality. A sample item for instrumentality is How likely you will obtain a pay increase from KSA from TD. A sample item for valence is How important is obtaining pay increase to you.Training EffectivenessThe training effectiveness was measured through a 4 item scale. This scale was a shortened version of the Kirkpatricks scale and was developed by Alan Chapman. The training effectiveness was measured on different parameters namely reaction, learning, behavior and productivity.Prior Work experienceThe prior work experience was measured using a single question to the participants asking them of the number of years of prior years of work experience.AnalysisThe study was intended to find the mediation effect of training motivation between training attitude and training effectiveness. The procedure followed to study the mediation effect was adopted from the study by Baron and Kenny (1986). Further the researchers also studied the moderation effect of years of prior work experience on the direct relation between training attitude and training effectiveness. This was done through a 2 model approach using the standardized multiplied values for training attitude and years of prior work experience. All the analysis was done using SPSS software. Further the entire sample of respondents was divided into 2 classes based on the work experience , one having work experience more than the median and one having less than the median. The median value was ignored and the mediation analysis was carried out using the Baron and Kenny model (1986).ResultsThe means, standard deviations and correlations .All the variables were found to be significantly correlated with each another. It can be easily seen from the table 1 that the correlation among all the variables is very high. To test the internal consistency of the scales measuring the constructs, the Cronbachs Alpha Coefficient was calculated and it was found that all the scales were reliable as the Cronbachs Coefficient was greater than 0.7. The results of the measures of internal consistency. Again it can be seen that the Cronbachs Alpha Coefficient is very high indicating that the internal consistency of the scales is very high.Mean, Standard Deviation and CorrelationsMeasures of internal consistency Cronbachs Alpha CoefficientIn this research we have primarily hypothesized the relationship between training attitude and training effectiveness with training motivation as the mediating variable. Apart from the mediation effect, the moderation effect of number of years of prior work experience on the direct effect of training attitude on training effectiveness has been studied.The results of the mediation effect of training motivation on the relationship between training attitude and training effectiveness. The mediation effect was studied using the 4 step Baron and Kenny model of regression analysis. In the first step, the independent variable training attitude was shown to affect the outcome variable i.e. training effectiveness significantly. In the next step, the independent variable was shown to affect the mediator variable i.e. training motivation significantly. In the third step, the mediator variable was shown to have a significant effect on the dependent variable. These steps showed that the relation between training attitude and training effectivene ss was mediated by training motivation. In the 4th step, the mediation effect was calculated through a regression analysis in which the mediator and the independent variable were the predictors and the criterion variable was the dependent variable.Regression results to study mediation effectThe mediation is significant and the mediation effect was calculated to be 0.923 standard deviations. Also in the fourth step, since the effect of training attitude on training effectiveness becomes insignificant we can safely infer that full mediation is present.The step I shows the regression results when training effectiveness was taken as the criterion variable and the training attitude was taken as the independent variable. From this step we saw that training attitude was significantly related to the training effectiveness. Here the value of R2 was found to be 0.796 with F = 468.143 at p The step II shows the regression results when training motivation was taken as the dependent variable wit h training attitude as the predictor variable. In this step it was seen that training attitude was significantly related to training effectiveness. The R2 value was found to be 0.883 with F = 904.66 at p The step III shows the regression results when training effectiveness was taken as the dependent variable with training motivation being the predictor variable. In this step it was found that the training motivation is significantly related to training effectiveness. The R2 value was found to be 0.909 at p The step IV shows the regression results when training effectiveness was taken as the criterion variable with both training motivation and training attitude as the predictor variables. From this step we could conclude that training motivation was significantly related to training effectiveness and also we see that training attitude loses the significance of its effect that it had on training effectiveness in step I. The R2 value was found to be 0.909 at p The above 4 steps show th at the mediation effect of training motivation between training attitude and training effectiveness is a full mediation effect as the independent, variable training attitude, becomes insignificantly related to the criterion variable (Baron and Kenny, 1986).The steps I, II and III are used to test the first 3 hypothesis. In step I it was shown that training attitude was significantly related to training effectiveness hence H3 is accepted. Similarly in the step II it was shown that training attitude was significantly related to training motivation and hence H1 is accepted. In the third step, it was found that training motivation was significantly related to training effectiveness and hence H2 is accepted.Training attitude was significantly related to training effectiveness in the first step and to training motivation in the second step but it was non-significantly related to training effectiveness in the fourth step. From this we could infer that training motivation fully mediates the relation between training attitude and training effectiveness. Thus H4 is supported. The Sobels test was used to just verify the mediation effect. The test showed that the mediation effect is statistically significant (Mediation effect = 0.923 Z-score = 8.68 p In addition to the above mediation analysis, we also tried to understand the role of work experience on the mediation analysis. Hence 2 more mediation analysis were carried out in which the entire data set was broken down in 2 sets, one with respondents having 2 or more years of work experience, second with respondents having less than 2 years of work experience. This was so done because the median work experience of the sample studied was 2 yrs. Impact of years of work experience on the mediating role of training motivation on training effectiveness was studied.First we take the case of respondents having less than 2 years of work experience. The same steps as stated above according to the Baron and Kenny Model were repeated and the results.Regression results to study mediation effect on respondents with work experience of less than 2 yearsAgain as we can see that training motivation fully mediates the relation between the training attitude and training effectiveness. In the first step we used training effectiveness as the criterion variable with training attitude as the predictor variable. The relation was found to be significant and positively related with R2 = 0.468 p In the next step, training motivation taken as the criterion variable and training attitude was taken as the independent variable. This relation was again found significant and positively related with R2 = 0.639 p In the third step, training motivation was now taken as the predictor variable and training effectiveness was taken as the dependent variable. It was found that this relation was significant with R2 = 0.660 p In the last step, both training attitude and training motivation were taken as the predictor variables and training ef fectiveness was taken as the dependent variable. In this step, the relation between training attitude on training effectiveness became insignificant hence it was proved that training motivation fully mediates the relation between training attitude and training effectiveness. The mediated effect was found to be 0.592 and the overall mediation was found to be significant using the Sobels test. Using the Sobels Test the Z score was found to be 4.7498. Thus showing that the mediation effect of training motivation on the relation between training attitude and training effectiveness is significant.Another mediation analysis was done to test the mediation effect of training motivation on the relation between training attitude and training effectiveness for respondents having more than 2 years of work experience. This was again a 4 step analysis as per the Baron and Kenny model and the results.As we can see in the table 5, in the first step it was found that training attitude significantly affect training effectiveness. In the second step it was found that training attitude significantly affects training motivation. In the third step, it was found that training motivation significantly affects training effectiveness. And in the fourth it was found that training motivation significantly affects effectiveness but impact of training attitude on effectiveness becomes insignificant. This showed that training motivation mediates the relation between attitude and effectiveness.Regression results to study mediation effect on respondents with work experience of more than 2 yearsFrom the fourth step we can see that training motivation mediates the relation between training attitude and training effectiveness fully. The overall significance of the mediation was checked using the Sobels test.