The Interactive Effects of Person and Situation Variables on Training Motivation

A thesis proposal by Elizabeth McCune

Committee members:Dr. Donald Truxillo (chair)Dr. Talya BauerDr. Mo Wang

Acknowledgments

• Committee members

• Jerry Gjesvold & Gillian Leitchling

• Michael Buck & Dave Cadiz

• Friends and supporters!

Training in Organizations

• $55 - $200 billion spent annually on training activities (Bassi & VanBuren, 2001)

• Increasing need for a flexible workforce

Training Research

• Criticized on theoretical grounds

• Shift in focus to individual differences

• Emergence of training motivation as an important construct

Purpose of the Proposed Study

Examine how personality Examine how personality

and situational variables and situational variables

interact to influence interact to influence

training motivationtraining motivation

Proposed Model

Training Motivation

Situation Variables

Fairness Perceptions

Transfer Climate

Negative Pretraining Events

Person Variables

Competence, Dutifulness, Achievement Striving

Ideas, Values

Activity, Positive Emotions

Proactivity

Theoretical Background

• Colquitt, LePine, & Noe (2001)– Training motivation as a mediator of

learning outcomes– Considered individual and situational

antecedents• Did not test for potential interactions

Individual Differences

• Five Factor Model– Conscientiousness, openness to experience, extraversion

(Barrick & Mount, 1991)

• FFM facets (Major et al., 2006)– Conscientiousness: competence, dutifulness, achievement

striving– Openness to experience: ideas, values– Extraversion: activity, positive emotions

• Proactive personality (Bateman & Crant, 1993)

Situational Variables

• Fairness perceptions (Quinones, 1995)

• Transfer of training climate (Tracey et al., 1995)

• Negative pretraining events (Smith-Jentsch et al., 1996)

Hypotheses for Fairness Perceptions

Training Motivation

Fairness Perceptions

Competence (H1) Dutifulness (H2)

Achievement Striving (H3) Ideas (H4) Values (RQ1) Activity (RQ2) Positive Emotions (H5) Proactivity (H6)

Hypotheses for Transfer Climate

Training Motivation

Transfer Climate

Competence (H7) Dutifulness (H8)

Achievement Striving (H9) Ideas (H10) Values (RQ3) Activity (RQ4) Positive Emotions (RQ5) Proactivity (H11)

Hypotheses for Negative Pretraining Events

Training Motivation

Negative Pretraining

Events

Competence (H12) Dutifulness (H13)

Achievement Striving (H14) Ideas (H15) Values (RQ6) Activity (RQ7)

Positive Emotions (H16) Proactivity (H17)

Method

• Participants– N = ~200– Field sample– Power analysis results

• N = 200, R-squared = .04 power = .8

Method (continued)

• Procedure– The training: 4 hr, mandatory supervisor

training aimed at handling behavior problems in the workplace

– Time 1 survey: administered before training– Time 2 survey: administered after training

Method (continued)

• Time 1 measures– Required: pretraining knowledge, self-

efficacy, motivation, demographics– Optional: facets of conscientiousness,

openness to experience, and extraversion; proactivity, fairness perceptions, and negative pretraining events

Method (continued)

• Time 2 measures– Posttraining knowledge, self-efficacy,

motivation; transfer climate, and perceived utility

Proposed Analyses

• Descriptive analysis– Distributional assumptions– Outliers– Reliability analysis– Correlation matrix

Proposed Analyses (continued)

• Hierarchical multiple regression– DV: Training motivation at Time 2– Step 1

• Pretraining motivation– Step 2

• Situational variable• Personality variable of interest

– Step 3• Interaction term

Proposed Analyses (continued)

• Example: Fairness Perceptions X Competence (H1)– DV: Training motivation at Time 2– Step 1

• Pretraining motivation

– Step 2• Centered fairness perceptions• Centered competence

– Step 3• fairness perceptions X competence

Implications

• Theoretical– Utility of the facets – Importance of fairness perceptions in

training – Identification of person X situation

interactions in training

Implications (continued)

• Practical– How to maximize trainee motivation – Emphasize importance of considering

person and context in needs analysis – Identification of trainees who are more likely

to succeed or fail

Thank you