Luận án: Chuyển giao kỹ năng Kaizen bằng Phòng ngừa tái phát của Giám sát viên

The Transfer of Training of Kaizen Improvement Skills Using Relapse Prevention by Supervisors in a Private-Sector Enterprise by John Anthony Gedeon Cluster 12 An Applied Dissertation Presented to the EdD Program in Instructional Technology and Distance Education in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education Nova Southeastern University 2002 Approval Page This applied dissertation was submitted by John Anthony Gedeon under the direction of the persons listed below. It was submitted to the National EdD Program for Instructional Technology and Distance Education and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education at Nova Southeastern University. ii Abstract The Transfer of Training of Kaizen Improvement Skills Using Relapse Prevention by Supervisors in a Private-Sector Enterprise. Gedeon, John Anthony, 2002: Applied Dissertation, Nova Southeastern University, EdD Program in Instructional Technology and Distance Education.

Transfer of Training/Relapse Prevention/Trainees/Self- Management/Organizational Change/Cultural Context/Cultural Influences This applied dissertation was designed to address the transfer of training problem, which costs organizations upwards of 90% of their training budget in paid for but unutilized skills. It had been generally assumed that employees would practice newly learned skills and knowledge once they returned to the workplace. Transfer is a serious problem, not only in the first world, but even more so in lesser-developed countries. The setting for study was in the West Indies (Caribbean) and attempted to improve the transfer rate in terms of the frequency, quality, and maintenance of newly learned skills, via a training intervention.

Thirty supervisors were targeted for training in an observable skill termed Kaizen or continuous improvement. Of this number, only 15 actually enrolled and 12 completed the two-day workshop. Five of the 12 trainees, randomly selected to form the treatment group, went on to participate in a six-hour session on Relapse Prevention (RP), the treatment intervention. RP consisted of goal setting, making a commitment to use the new skills, identifying workplace barriers and strategies to overcome them, and designing a self-management program.

To the researcher’s knowledge, this is the first time RP has been used in a non-American culture. Every time the trainees made an improvement in how their units approach their work, they were supposed to document it so that it could be counted. After seven weeks, not one trainee had documented any improvements. As a consequence, the data collection strategy was changed and semistructured interview questions were drafted and administered to determine the problem.

They were targeted at many of the trainees themselves, a few of their superiors, and a few key managers. The limited results indicated that the trainees were using their skills but not documenting that usage. Due to this constraint, the transfer quality and maintenance outcomes could not be measured, but the sampling did indicate that the treatment group outperformed the control group in frequency of use of the Kaizen skill. There are plausible alternative explanations for this difference that are not due to the treatment intervention.

iii Table of Contents Page Chapter 1: Introduction. 1 Description of Community. 1 Writer’s Work Setting.2 Chapter 2: Study of the Problem.11 Relationship of the Problem to the Literature.19 Chapter 3: Anticipated Outcomes and Evaluation Instruments. 42 Measurement of Outcomes.42 Chapter 4: Solution Strategy.44 Discussion and Evaluation of Solutions.44 Description of Selected Solutions.56 Report of Action Taken.111 Appendixes A Previous Training Transfer Profile.120 B Trainee Transfer Perceptions.125 C Trainees’ Improvement Opinions.129 D Transfer Performance Summary.132 E Kaizen Lesson Plan.136 F Continuous Improvement Event.138 G Relapse Prevention Lesson Plan.140 H Relapse Prevention Worksheet.

142 I Trainee Self-Monitoring Report. 145 J Doctoral Study Agreement.147 K Doctoral Applied Dissertation Study.150 L IRB Letter to Participants. 160 iv N Dissertation Study Checklist for HR. 170 P Kaizen Workshop Quiz Scores.175 Q Workshop Evaluation by Participants (Kaizen).182 S Relapse Prevention Quiz Scores.191 V Workshop Evaluation by Participants (RP).196 Tables 1 Previous Training Transfer Rates.8 2 Assessment of Continuous Improvement Skills.10 3 Organizational Transfer Factors.13 4 Instructional Transfer Factors.14 5 Trainee Transfer Factors.

15 6 Work Environment Transfer Factors.16 7 Stakeholder Transfer Factors.17 8 Intergroup Transfer Rate Comparison.68 9 Transfer Factors Impact From Trainee Interviews.72 10 Core Values, Kaizen and Transfer.96 Figures 1 A Model of the Transfer Process.20 2 Chain of Transfer Assumptions. 24 3 The Transfer Matrix: Nine Possible Role/Time Combinations.45 v 1 Chapter 1: Introduction Description of Community The study was conducted in a former British colony in a Southern Caribbean island with a population of over one million. Now an independent democratic republic, it hosts a cosmopolitan representation of races and religions. The population is approximately 40% East Indian, 40% African, and 20% other and mixed.

The Christian, Hindu, and Islamic faiths all have national holidays that are celebrated by all citizens. Historically, the Africans came to the island in the slave trade starting in the 1500s. The East Indians were brought in as indentured servants in the mid-1800s. This island has one of the highest literacy rates (in excess of 95%) and the strongest economy in the West Indies, with a majority of its revenue derived from petrodollars.

Poverty affects less than 5% of the population. The education system provides places for all primary and secondary students, while providing a network of two-year tertiary institutions and one university. Writer’s Work Setting The researcher contracts work in a business school that comes under the university’s Department of Social Sciences. The business school is functionally independent of the university, which created the unit because the traditional university programs were not responsive to the needs of the business community.

The unit provides corporate training and consulting services to local and regional businesses and governmental ministries, in addition to graduate academic programs. The mission of the researcher’s unit is “to be the premier facilitator for the development of high performing organizations in [name of island] and the Caribbean region empowering people and organizations to optimize their performance capability 2 and international competitiveness.” The unit currently employs 50 staff members and six full-time and 20 part-time consultants and trainers. It offers two MBA programs, four other postgraduate programs, and diplomas and certificates in business, management, and organizational subjects. The unit’s clients are interested in maximizing returns on their training dollars and, hence, look for maximum transfer of knowledge and skills from the classroom to the workplace.

Because the employer has insufficient staff to conduct research for the applied dissertation, a client volunteered to host the study. The client is a privatized utility employing 500 staff of which approximately 80 are supervisors. Their mission is “to exceed our customers’ expectations for quality energy in a safe and environmentally responsible manner, creating value for our customers, employees and shareholders.” The client is concerned that transfer rates are very poor and, therefore, is interested in the results of this study. Writer’s Role Since the mid-‘90s, the researcher has worked as a Resident Consultant/Trainer, reporting to the Executive Director of the unit for assignments in these areas.

His duties include the customized design and delivery of workshops for organizations in supervisory and management training, lecturing in the MBA and other academic programs, and designing and conducting management consulting projects related to areas of his expertise. Currently, he is helping the unit to integrate technology and acquire a distance- education capability and improve its ability to provide transfer-enhancing strategies and infrastructure to its clients. The researcher coordinated the research project with the client’s human resource division. The project involved the training of supervisors and a treatment intervention for 3 the experimental group, with data collection before, during, and after training.

The multisourced data collection, via a number of different techniques, was the most critical aspect of the researcher’s time and interactions with the client. 4 Chapter 2: Study of the Problem Problem Statement The problem to be solved in this applied dissertation was that skills learned in training are not adequately reflected in workplace behavior to make a significant positive impact on performance. Problem Description In the 21st century, the turbulent global economy and quickly changing business landscape primarily are driven by information technology, and knowledge has become a primary organizational asset (Alley, 1999). This intellectual capital takes two forms: structural capital and human capital.

Structural intellectual capital includes all the information assets owned by an enterprise, such as databases, patents, and proprietary technologies and processes. Human intellectual capital, on the other hand, consists of competencies of an enterprise’s management and staff, and is used to design, produce, and deliver ever more innovative and sophisticated products and services (Brainmarket, 2002). Employers want to ensure that all of their investments in human capital provide maximum returns. Unfortunately, the rate of transfer of skills learned in training that should be practiced back in the workplace has been disappointing for most organizations (Baldwin & Ford, 1988; Broad & Newstrom, 1992; Georgenson, 1982).

“Transfer of training” is an area of focus in the field of Instructional Technology (ITDE). Anglin (1995) defines this field as: “The systemic and systematic application of strategies and techniques derived from behavior and physical science concepts and other knowledge to the solution of instructional problems” (p. When there is widespread failure of trainees to use, in the workplace, what they have been taught in the classroom, then it becomes an instructional problem that must be addressed. Dick and Carey (1996) 5 state that instruction should be designed to overcome this problem, and Gagne, Briggs, and Wager (1992) have included transfer as one of their nine critical events of instruction that should be addressed in each lesson.

Over the past six years, the researcher’s employer has provided extensive organizational workshops on general management topics (as opposed to technical or industry-related topics) to this client. Senior management has become increasingly disillusioned with the results, to the point that they have stated that they “don’t want to send any more supervisors on training. We just want them to start using what they have already learned.” This problem exists in most management-training programs across the entire organization, regardless of the topic. It appears that problems with transfer sometimes start with the training itself.

Many training vendors do not use systematic instructional-design methods, resulting in poorly designed corporate workshops. Many courses have vague objectives or no objectives. Much of the delivery involves lecturing, with very little time to practice new behaviors (Reigeluth, 1983). Trainees are not oriented by their superiors before training or debriefed after it.

There are no explicit plans to integrate the new skills into the trainees’ jobs. Except in isolated and rare instances, the total transfer burden is on the trainee. This effort is often attempted in an unsupportive, if not hostile, work environment. In many instances, either there are no direct incentives to encourage new behaviors, or the existing incentives are outdated (Milheim, 1994).

Typically, the superior, unaware of the training content, either cannot support the trainee or puts the trainee on notice to forget about those things that the trainee learned in class—and to follow the traditional ways of doing tasks. In this environment, the exhibition of new skills is minimal, as the risk is great and the reward is 6 little or nonexistent. From the trainee’s point of view, why should they make great efforts to establish new habits, when they will go unnoticed at best, and punished at worst? There have been few attempts by the client to address this problem, as they, until recently, have been only semiconsciously aware of it. Traditionally, transfer was assumed to be an automatic process.

The assumption was that, if staff learned a better, faster, or less stressful way to do their job, they certainly would want to practice it. Low rates of transfer appear to have been attributed as a training vendor fault, in the sense that the rate was almost totally dependent on the instructor’s ability to “teach for transfer.” Too much emphasis was placed on the immediate (emotional) reaction of trainees after training, as recorded on “evaluation” forms, which research indicates has little correlation to the actual amount of learning that took place (Alliger & Janak, 1989).