This study examines how middle managers support their employees' strengths use via three sequential analyses. In Study 1, an open-ended questionnaire survey of high-performing middle managers at a global manufacturer in Japan (n = 144) was conducted to collect comments on strengths use support (SUS). The grounded theory approach was used to…

Orientation training plays a crucial role in the process of newcomer socialization by equipping employees with the knowledge, abilities, and skills necessary for success in a new work setting. However, relatively few studies have investigated orientation training from a socialization perspective and addressed its underlying mechanisms. To address…

External supervision is an expanding practice among social workers noted by many authors. However, the empirical evidence of its impact on work efficiency is mixed at best. In the current study, we empirically test the effect of external supervision on social workers' work engagement and perceived self-efficacy. Our treatment consists of five…

In the framework of positive psychology approach, the present study reports the effect of a mixed human resources (HR) intervention program. We developed an intervention by the integration of the classic resource-based intervention with the specific strength training program named FAMILY. Then, we examined the extent to which such a combined…

This study examined the relationship between career mentoring and work engagement from the mentor perspective, by estimating work meaningfulness as a mediator. The research model used quantitative survey data from 309 employees who mentored their junior colleagues in the on-the-job training programmes of Japanese companies. The results…

The significance of transfer of training to organizations has been acknowledged by many studies. However, the consequences of transfer of training, particularly for employees, have still not been adequately explored. The present study was conducted to address this gap. Specifically, it explores the relationship among transfer of training, service…

Opportunities to improve skills and opportunities to teach or train others may be associated with job satisfaction, work engagement and organizational commitment. The analysis reported in this paper used a subsample of 823 employees within two Japanese and three American worksites. We tested not only the direct relationships of each type of…

This qualitative study explores how employees learn from Team Primacy Concept-based employee evaluation and how they use the feedback in performing their jobs. Team Primacy Concept-based evaluation is a type of multirater evaluation. The distinctive characteristic of such evaluation is its peer feedback component during which the employee's…

The authors examined "perceived beneficiary" of employee development (self, organization) for relationships with employee development activity. Perceived organizational support served as a moderator. The authors conclude that employees may engage in development activities to partly benefit their organization to the extent that a positive exchange…

The purpose of this study was to explore alternative relationships between training opportunities and employee outcomes. A cross-sectional survey of 343 trainees from a broad range of Norwegian service organizations showed that the relationship between perceived training opportunities, and both task performance and citizenship behaviors were fully…

This study aims to gain insight into some of the factors that determine the transfer of training to the work context. The present research examined the relationship between three types of predictors on transfer of training, including training design, individual characteristics and work environment. Data was collected at two points in time from 182…

Graduate students were trained as raters either using frame of reference (FOR, n=220, behavior observation training (BOT, n=21), or performance appraisal (controls, n=21). They rated videotaped lecturers twice. FOR increased number of behaviors recalled; FOR and BOT improved recall quality. FOR improved rating accuracy even after 2 weeks.…

Networking characteristics and performance information from multiple raters were collected for 140 African-American and 45 white managers. Informal networks of high-performing African-Americans were composed of higher proportions of African-Americans than those of lower-performing counterparts. Leadership training should consider the concepts of…

The Learning Transfer System Inventory was completed by 1,616 employees in training. Pearson product-moment correlations showed that motivation and ability were most strongly related to perceptions of training utility. Multiple regression analysis revealed that utility reactions had a small but significant impact on predicting motivation to…

Three types of staff development portfolios were studied: dossiers, course-related learning, and reflective learning. Analysis of their use as developmental assessment tools indicated that reflective portfolios are particularly effective for performance and learning-related change. (Contains 30 references.) (SK)