EFFECTIVENESS OF THE TRAINING FUNCTION IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

In Sri Lanka both private sector and public sector organizations allocate large amount of money and conduct different type of training programs for their employees. The common understanding among many people is that the private organizations are more effective than the public organizations in term of training. But the researchers have doubt about this assumption based on their personal experience working as trainers in many organizations and based on available literature. The research problem developed is do the public sector and private sector organizations execute effective training procedures to fulfill their organizational goals and is there any different in two sector organizations in term of training. Hence the main objective of the study was to examine the training process of the selected organization and to see whether there is a different between private and public sector organization in term of training process and training outcome. Secondly to see whether there is any differentiation between two approaches and which approach is better than the other? The main empirical investigation covers a sample of administrators and managers’ in-charge of training, trainers, trainees and the trained from the two organizations. Information was obtained through interviews, questionnaires, under a series of eleven criteria. This investigation revealed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of both organizations. The research revealed that public sector organization appeared to 'be weaker in need assessment through immediate bosses and evolving specific objectives of training. Hence through their training programs they were not able to achieve objectives. In other words there is a mismatch between organizational objectives and training needs. The privet sector organization is in strong position with regard to the criteria of using modern training methods and management input for training. But it is revealed that there is no big different or change of the training outcome of the conducting training program in this two sector organizations. It is clear that the gap can be narrowed down by the systematic application of those factors of manpower planning in the public sector, which cannot match with that of private sector.

Keywords: Training, Effectiveness, Training process

For full Paper: fmscresearch@sjp.ac.lk