Behavioural change through training- An exploratory study

Abstract

Measuring behavioural change is a challenge. Many organizations don´t measure behaviour changes because it takes too much time and resources. That´s the reason many training programs fail to deliver the expected outcome, and organizations do not gain the required benefits. This study has an exploratory approach with the aim of examining whether the training “Manage, Lead and Coach” has had any effect or has influenced the participants. The training took place at SKF College. It's a challenge to measure, whether there is a change in behaviour after participants have completed the training. If it is possible to measure, the question is, to what extent the behaviour has changed after the participants have finished the training? Don Kirkpatrick set the standard for training evaluation in 1959, and ever since, dedicated training professionals have used his The Four Level Model, for evaluating the impact of their work. The Four Level Model has been my theoretical framework that I used for evaluating behaviour change and the concentration has been in Level three "Behaviour" in the model.

Method: The method used is quantitative, and based on a survey comprising 23 questions sent to the participants. The group in Singapore answered the questionnaire before they did the training and the group in Sweden were asked to answer the questionnaire after they completed the training. Data from the respondents was subjected to analysis using the statistical software SPSS.

Results: The results are based on the exploratory study and tentatively indicate that participants had applied behavioural changes to some degree and the organisation may gain advantage from employee’s knowledge and skills that they acquired during the training. But what value it gives the organization is difficult to measure.