RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRANSFER OF TRAINING AND TRAINING EFFECTIVENESS

Abstract

Textile and Apparel industry in Sri Lanka has continued to be one of the highest contributors to Gross Domestic Product in Sri Lanka, though it has continued to face significant challenges domestically and internationally. Enhancing productivity and competitiveness is critical for the companies in this industry in the long term, thus companies in this industry have invested significantly to provide training related to work study to increase productivity and this has increased the significance of the work study departments. Therefore this research examines the relationship between transfer of training and training effectiveness in relation to work study related training undergone by employees in work study departments of 15 Board of Investment approved apparel companies in Sri Lanka. The transfer of training variable comprises of work environment, training design and trainee characteristics. Thus the hypothesis of the study is transfer of training is positively related to training effectiveness. A questionnaire was developed to collect data for the study and the questionnaire was distributed among employees of work study departments in 15 Board of Investment approved apparel companies. The 15 companies with the highest export revenue were selected on the basis of export revenues in 2006, 2007 and 2008.124 employees attached to the work study departments responded to the questionnaire. The sample included 4.8% work-study managers, 32.3% work-study executives, 47.6% work-study officers and 15.3% work-study trainees. Linear regression analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between the variables and the Pearson correlation value was 0.308. This indicates that a positive relationship exist between the two variables though its not significant.