PSYCHOLOGY MASTER'S THESIS ABSTRACT

Kenneth Calhoun

Industrial/Organizational
August 1991

Impact of Organizational Support on Employee Perceptions of Training Effectiveness
 

    The purpose of this study was to examine the impact that organizational support has on employees’ perceptions regarding the usefulness of training in the use of participative decision-making tools.  Support from key individuals in employees’ work environments was predicted to have the most impact on perceptions of training usefulness, regardless of the quality of training participants received.

    One hundred employees of a major aerospace company were trained in the use of participative management tools and were asked to rate the quality and anticipated usefulness of the training they received , as well as the degree of support they expected for using these tools.
    Hypotheses predicted that degree of support would be related to perceived effectiveness and that quality would be unrelated to perceived effectiveness.  As hypothesized, a strong relationship was found to exist between organizational support and perceived usefulness of training.  However, a relationship was also found to exist between perceived quality and usefulness of PDM training.

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