Employee Training and Development 7e by Noe

Employee Training & Development by Noe (7th edition) is the 7th edition of the Employee Training & Development textbook authored by Raymond A. Noe, The Ohio State University and published by McGraw-Hill Education, New York, NY in 2017.

• 360-degree feedback. A special case of the upward feedback system. Here employees' behaviors or skills are evaluated not only by subordinates but also by peers, customers, bosses, and employees themselves via a questionnaire rating them on a number of dimensions.
• 70-20-10 model. A common learning model that assumes that 70 percent of learning occurs on the job, 20 percent occurs socially through coaching and mentoring, and 10 percent through formal classroom instruction.
• Ability. The physical and mental capacity to perform a task.
• Action learning. A training method that involves giving teams or work groups a problem, having them work on solving it and committing to an action plan, and then holding them accountable for carrying out the plan.
• Action plan. A written document detailing steps that a trainee and the manager will take to ensure that training transfers to the job.
• Adaptive training. Training that customizes or adapts the content presented to the trainee based on their learning style, ability, personality, or performance.
• Advance organizers. Outlines, texts, diagrams, and graphs that help trainees organize information that will be presented and practiced.
• Adventure learning. A training method focusing on developing teamwork and leadership skills using structured outdoor activities.
• Affective outcomes. Outcomes including attitudes and motivation.
• Age Discrimination in Employment Act. A federal law that prohibits discrimination against individuals 40 years of age or older.
• Alternative work arrangements. Independent contributors, on-call workers, temporary workers, and contract company workers.
• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). A 1990 act prohibiting workplace discrimination against people with disabilities.
• Andragogy. The theory of adult learning.
• Application assignments. Assignments that require trainees to identify work problems or situations and to apply training content to solve them.
• Application planning. The preparing of trainees to use key behaviors on the job.
• Apprenticeship. A work-study training method with both on-the-job and classroom training.
• Apps. Applications designed specifically for smartphones and tablet computers that are being used to supplement training, manage the path or sequence of training, and to help employees maintain training records.
• Assessment. The collecting of information and providing of feedback to employees about their behavior, communication style, or skills.
• Assessment center. A process in which multiple raters or evaluators (also known as assessors) evaluate employees' performances on a number of exercises.
• Asynchronous communication. A non real-time interaction in which people cannot communicate with each other without a time delay.
• Attitude. Combination of beliefs and feelings that predispose a person to behave in a certain way.
• Audiovisual instruction. Media-based training that is both watched and heard.
• Augmented reality. A live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are supplemented by computer-generated sound, video, graphics, or GPS data
• Automatization. Making performance of a task, recall of knowledge, or demonstration of a skill so automatic that it requires little thought or attention.
• Avatars. Computer depictions of humans that are used as imaginary coaches, co-workers, and customers in simulations.
• Balanced scorecard. A means of performance measurement that allows managers to view the overall company performance or the performance of departments or functions (such as training) from the perspective of internal and external customers, employees, and shareholders.
• Bandwidth. The number of bytes and bits (information) that can travel between computers per second.
• Basic skills. Skills necessary for employees to perform their jobs and learn the content of training programs.
• Behavior modeling. A training method in which trainees are presented with a model who demonstrates key behaviors to replicate and provides them with the opportunity to practice those key behaviors.
• Benchmarking. The use of information about other companies' training practices to help determine the appropriate type, level, and frequency of training.
• Bench strength. A pool of talented employees who are ready to move to new jobs or positions when they are needed.
• Benefits. The value company gains from a training program.
• Big data. Complex data sets characterized by volume, variety, and velocity that are developed by compiling data across different organizational systems, including marketing and sales, human resources, finance, accounting, customer service, and operations.
• Blended learning. Learning that involves a combination of online learning, face-to-face instruction, and other methods.
• Blog. A webpage where an author posts entries and readers can comment.
• Boosters. Short multiple-choice, short-answer quizzes, or other activities that can help learners consider training information as important and help retain it.
• Brand. The look and feeling of the training function that is used to create expectations for its customers.
• Business-embedded training. Training that aligns closely with the company's business strategy and that is characterized by five competencies: strategic direction, product design, structural versatility, product delivery, and accountability for results.
• Business game. A training method in which trainees gather information, analyze it, and make decisions.
• Business process outsourcing. The outsourcing of any business process, such as human resource management, production, or training.
• Business strategy. A plan that integrates a company's goals, policies, and actions.
• Career path. A sequence of job positions involving similar types of work and skills that employees move through in a company.
• Career support. Coaching, protection, sponsorship, and provision of challenging assignments, exposure, and visibility to an employee.
• Case study. A description of how employees or an organization dealt with a situation.
• Centralized training. Organizing the training department so that training and development programs, resources, and professionals are primarily housed in one location and decisions about training investment, programs, and delivery are made from that department.
• Change. The adoption of a new idea or behavior by a company.
• Chief learning officer (CLO). A leader of a company's knowledge management efforts (also called knowledge officer).
• Climate for transfer. Trainees' perceptions about a wide variety of characteristics of the work environment; these perceptions facilitate or inhibit use of trained skills or behavior.
• Closed skills. Training objectives that are linked to learning specific skills that are to be identically produced by the trainee on their job.
• Cloud computing. A computing system that provides information technology infrastructure over a network in a self-service, modifiable, and on-demand.
• Coach. A peer or manager who works with employees to motivate them, help them develop skills, and provide reinforcement and feedback.
• Cognitive ability. Verbal comprehension, quantitative ability, and reasoning ability.
• Cognitive outcomes. Outcomes that are used to measure what knowledge trainees learned in a training program.
• Cognitive strategies. Strategies that regulate the learning processes; they relate to the learner's decision regarding what information to attend to, how to remember, and how to solve problems.
• Community of practice (COP). A group of employees who work together, learn from each other, and develop a common understanding of how to get work accomplished.
• Comparison group. A group of employees who participate in an evaluation study but do not attend a training program.
• Competency. An area of personal capability that enables employees to perform their job.
• Competency model. A model identifying the competencies necessary for each job as well as the knowledge, skills, behavior, and personal characteristics underlying each competency.
• Competitive advantage. An upper hand over other firms in an industry.
• Competitiveness. A company's ability to maintain and gain market share in an industry.
• Compressed workweek. A work schedule that allows employees to work fewer days but with longer hours, for example, four days ten hours each day.
• Computer-based training (CBT). An interactive training experience in which the computer provides the learning stimulus, the trainee must respond, and the computer analyzes the responses and provides feedback to the trainee.
• Concentration strategy. A business strategy that focuses on increasing market share, reducing costs, or creating a market niche for products and services.
• Consequences. Incentives that employees receive for performing well.
• Continuous learning. A learning system in which employees are required to understand the entire work system including the relationships among their jobs, their work units, and the company. Also, employees are expected to acquire new skills and knowledge, apply them on the job, and share this information with fellow workers.
• Control. A manager's or employee's ability to obtain and distribute valuable resources.
• Coordination training. Training a team in how to share information and decision-making responsibilities to maximize team performance.
• Copyright. Legal protection for the expression of an idea.
• Corporate university. A centralized training organization in which learning is provided to not only company employees and managers but also stakeholders outside the company.
• Cost-benefit analysis. The process of determining the economic advantages of a training program using accounting methods.
• Course or program. Includes units or lessons that are smaller sections or modules covering different topics that can involve several hours, half-days, full days or even weeks.
• Criteria. Measures or outcomes that trainer and the company use to evaluate training programs.
• Criteria relevance. The extent to which training outcomes relate to the learned capabilities emphasized in training.
• Criterion contamination. When a training program's outcomes measure inappropriate capabilities or are affected by extraneous conditions.
• Criterion deficiency. The failure to measure training outcomes that were emphasized in training objectives.
• Cross-cultural preparation. The education of employees (expatriates) and their families who are to be sent to a foreign country.
• Cross training. A training method in which team members understand and practice each other's skills so that members are prepared to step in and take another member's place should someone temporarily or permanently leave the team; also, more simply, training employees to learn the skills of one or several additional jobs.
• Crowdsourcing. Asking a large group of employees (the crowd) using social media or the web to help provide information for needs assessment.
• Curriculum. An organized program of study designed to meet a complex learning objective such as preparing a learner to become a salesperson, certified computer network technician or a licensed nurse.
• Curriculum road map. A figure showing all of the courses in a curriculum, the paths learners can take through it, and the sequences in which courses have to be completed.
• Customer capital. The value of relationships with persons or other organizations outside a company for accomplishing the goals of the company (e.g., relationships with suppliers, customers, vendors, government agencies).
• Dashboards. A computer interface designed to receive and analyze the data from departments within the company to provide information to managers and other decision makers.
• Detailed lesson plan. The translation of the content and sequence of training activities into a guide used by the trainer to help deliver training.
• Development. Formal education, job experiences, relationships, and assessments of personality and abilities that help employees prepare for the future.
• Development planning or career management system. A system to motivate and retain employees by identifying and meeting their career and development needs.
• Digital collaboration. An interaction between two or more people mediated by a computer; the use of technology to enhance and extend employees' ability to work together regardless of their geographic proximity.
• Direct costs. Costs that are actually connected to training, including the salaries and benefits of all employees involved, program supplies, equipment and classroom rental or purchase, and travel costs.
• Discrimination. The degree to which trainees' performances on an outcome actually reflect true differences in performance.
• Disinvestment strategy. A business strategy that emphasize the liquidation and divestiture of businesses.
• Distance learning. Training method in which geographically dispersed companies provide information about new products, policies, or procedures as well as skills training and expert lectures to field locations.
• Diversity training. Training programs designed to change employees' attitudes about diversity and/or to develop skills needed to work with a diverse work force.
• Downward move. The reduction of an employee's responsibility and authority.
• Dual-career-path system. A career path system that enables technical employees to either remain in a technical career path or move into a management career path.
• Early retirement program. A system of offering (usually older) employees financial benefits to leave a company.
• Elaboration. A learning strategy requiring the trainee to relate the training material to other more familiar knowledge, skills, or behavior.
• E-learning. Instruction and delivery of training by computer online through the Internet or web.
• Electronic performance support system (EPSS). A computer application that can provide, as requested, skills training, information access, and expert advice.
• Employee engagement. The extent to which employees are fully involved in their work and the strength of their commitment to their job and the company.
• Error management training. Training in which trainees are given opportunities to make errors, which can aid in learning and improve trainees' performance on the job.
• Evaluation design. Designation of what information is to be collected, from whom, when, and how to determine the effectiveness of training.
• Expatriate. A person working in a country other than his or her nation of origin.
• Expectancy. The belief about the link between trying to perform a behavior (or effort) and actually performing well; the mental state that the learner brings to the instructional process.
• Experiential learning. A training method in which participants (1) are presented with conceptual knowledge and theory, (2) take part in a behavioral simulation, (3) analyze the activity, and (4) connect the theory and activity with on-the-job or real-life situations.
• Expert systems. Technology (usually software) that organizes and applies human experts' knowledge to specific problems.
• Explicit knowledge. Knowledge that can be formalized, codified, and communicated.
• External analysis. Examining the company's operating environment to identify opportunities and threats.
• External conditions. Processes in the learning environment that facilitate learning.
• External growth strategy. A business strategy emphasizing acquiring vendors and suppliers or buying businesses that allow the company to expand into new markets.
• External validity. The generalizability of study results to other groups and situations.
• Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). A federal law that provides for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for parents with new infants or newly adopted children; also covers employees who must take a leave of absence from work to care for a family member who is ill or to deal with a personal illness.
• Far transfer. Trainees' ability to apply learned capabilities to the work environment even though it is not identical to the training session environment.
• Feedback. Information that employees receive while they are performing about how well they are meeting objectives.
• Fidelity. The extent to which a training environment is similar to a work environment.
• Flextime. Providing employees with the option of choosing when to work during the workday, workweek, or work year.
• Flipped classroom. A type of blended learning in which learners online watch lectures, complete simulations, read books and articles, take quizzes to assess their knowledge and skills, then come to class to work on projects, cases, hear speakers, and interact with instructors.
• Focus group. A face-to-face meeting with subjectmatter experts (SMEs) in which specific training needs are addressed.
• Formal education program. An off-site or on-site program designed for a company's employees, a short course offered by a consultant or school, an executive MBA program, or a university program in which students live at the university while taking classes.
• Formal training and development. Training and development programs, courses, and events that are developed and organized by the company.
• Formative evaluation. Evaluation conducted to improve the training process; usually conducted during program design and development.
• Gap analysis. Determining the difference between employees' current and expected performance.
• Generalization. A trainee's ability to apply learned capabilities to on-the-job work problems and situations that are similar but not identical to problems and situations encountered in the learning environment.
• Generalizing. Adapting learning for use in similar but not identical situations.
• Glass ceiling. A barrier to advancement to an organization's higher levels.
• Goal. What a company hopes to achieve in the mediumto long-term future.
• Goal orientation. A trainee's goals in a learning situation.
• Goal setting. An employee's process of developing short- and long-term career objectives.
• Goal setting theory. A theory assuming that behavior results from a person's conscious goals and intentions.
• Gratifying. The feedback that a learner receives from using learning content.
• Group building methods. Training methods designed to improve team or group effectiveness.
• Group mentoring program. A program in which a successful senior employee is paired with a group of four to six less experienced protégés to help them understand the organization, guide them in analyzing their experiences, and help them clarify career directions.
• Guided team self-correction. Training that emphasizes continuous learning and knowledge sharing in teams through team members observing each other's behavior and giving and receiving performance feedback.
• Hands-on method. A training method in which the trainee is actively involved in learning.
• Hawthorne effect. A situation in which employees in an evaluation study perform at a high level simply because of the attention they are receiving.
• High-potential employee. An employee who the company believes is capable of succeeding in a higher-level managerial position.
• Human capital. The sum of the attributes, life experiences, knowledge, inventiveness, energy, and enthusiasm that a company's employees invest in their work.
• Human capital management. The integration of training with other human resource functions so as to track how training benefits the company.
• Human resource development. The integrated use of training and development, organizational development, and career development to improve individual, group, and organizational effectiveness.
• Human resource management. The policies, practices, and systems that influence employees' behavior, attitudes, and performance.
• Human resource management practices (HRM) practices. Management activities relating to investments in staffing, performance management, training, and compensation and benefits.
• Human resource planning. The identification, analysis, forecasting, and planning of changes needed in a company's human resources area.
• Hyperlinks. Links that allow a user to easily move from one web page to another.
• In-basket. A training exercise involving simulation of the administrative tasks of the manager's job.
• Inclusion. Creating an environment in which employees share a sense of belonging, mutual respect, and commitment with others so they can perform their best work.
• Indirect costs. Costs not related specifically to a training program's design, development, or delivery.
• Informal learning. Learning that is learner initiated, involves action and doing, is motivated by an intent to develop, and does not occur in a formal learning setting.
• Informational interview. An interview an employee conducts with a manager or other employee to gather information about the skills, job demands, and benefits of that person's job.
• Input. Instructions that tell employees what, how, and when to perform; also, the resources that employees are given to help them perform their jobs.
• Instruction. The characteristics of the environment in which learning is to occur.
• Instructional System Design (ISD). A process for designing and developing training programs.
• Instrumentality. In expectancy theory, a belief that performing a given behavior is associated with a particular outcome.
• Intellectual capital. The codified knowledge that exists in a company.
• Intellectual skills. The mastery of concepts and rules.
• Interactive distance learning (IDL). The use of satellite technology to broadcast programs to different locations, allowing trainees to respond to questions posed during the training program using a keypad.
• Internal analysis. Identifying the company's strength and weaknesses based on examining the available quantity and quality of financial, physical, and human capital.
• Internal conditions. Processes within the learner that must be present for learning to occur.
• Internal growth strategy. A business strategy focusing on new market and product development, innovation, and joint ventures.
• Internal validity. Establishing that a treatment (training) made a difference.
• Interview. Employees answer questions about their work and personal experiences, skill strengths and weaknesses, and career plans.
• ISO 10015. A quality management tool designed to ensure that training is linked to a company's needs and performance.
• ISO 9000:2000. A family of standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization that includes 20 requirements for dealing with such issues as how to establish quality standards and document work processes.
• Job. A specific position requiring completion of certain tasks.
• Job analysis. The process of developing a description of a job (duties, tasks, and responsibilities) and the specifications (knowledge, skills, and abilities) that an employee must have to perform it.
• Job enlargement. The adding of challenges or new responsibilities to an employee's current job.
• Job experience. The relationships, problems, demands, tasks, and other features that an employee faces on the job.
• Job hopping. The practice of employees changing jobs usually between companies every two to three years.
• Job incumbent. An employee currently holding a particular job.
• Job rotation. Assigning employees a series of jobs in various functional areas of a company or movement among jobs in a single functional area or department.
• Job sharing. A work situation in which two employees divide the hours, responsibilities, and benefits of a full-time job.
• Joint union-management training program. A program created, funded, and supported by both union and management to provide a range of services to help employees learn skills that are directly related to their jobs and that are “portable” (valuable to employers in other companies or industries).
• Just-in-time learning (embedded learning). Learning that occurs on the job as needed.
• Kaizen. Practices in which employees from all levels of the company focus on continuous improvement of business processes.
• Key behaviors. A set of behaviors that is necessary to complete a task; an important part of behavior modeling training.
• Knowledge. Facts or procedures that individuals or teams of employees know or know how to do (human and social knowledge); also a company's rules, processes, tools, and routines (structured knowledge).
• Knowledge management. The process of enhancing company performance by designing and implementing tools, processes, systems, structures, and cultures to improve the creating, sharing, and use of knowledge.
• Knowledge officer. A leader of a company's knowledge management efforts (also called a chief learning officer).
• Knowledge workers. Employees who own the means of producing a product or service. These employees have a specialized body of knowledge or expertise that they use to perform their jobs and contribute to company effectiveness.
• Lapse. Situation in which a trainee uses previously learned, less effective capabilities instead of trying to apply capabilities emphasized in a training program.
• Leaderless group discussion. A training exercise in which a team of five to seven employees must work together to solve an assigned problem within a certain time period.
• Lean thinking. Doing more with less effort, equipment, space, and time, but providing customers with what they need and want. Part of lean thinking includes training workers in new skills or how to apply old skills in new ways so that they can quickly take over new responsibilities or use new skills to help fill customer orders.
• Learner control. A trainee's ability to learn actively through self-pacing, selecting how content is presented, exercises, exploring links to other material, and conversations with other trainees and experts.
• Learning Records Store (LRS). A technology that collects and stores employees' learning experiences in the form of statements that can be organized and presented in a meaningful way.
• Learner-content interaction. The learner interacts with the training content such as reading text on the web or in books, listening to multimedia modules and in activities that require the manipulation of tools or objects such as writing and completing case studies.
• Learner-instructor interaction. Discussion between the learner and the expert (trainer).
• Learner-learner interaction. Discussion between learners with or without an instructor.
• Learning. The acquisition of knowledge by individual employees or groups of employees who are willing to apply that knowledge in their jobs in making decisions and accomplishing tasks for the company; a relatively permanent change in human capabilities that does not result from growth processes.
• Learning management system (LMS). A system for automating the administration of online training programs.
• Learning organization. A company that has an enhanced capacity to learn, adapt, and change; an organization whose employees continuously attempt to learn new things and then apply what they have learned to improve product or service quality.
• Learning orientation. Learners who try to increase their ability or competence in a task.
• Lecture. A training method in which the trainer communicates through spoken words what trainees are supposed to learn.
• Lesson plan overview. A plan that matches a training program's major activities to specific times or time intervals.
• Lifelong Learning Account (LiLA). An account for adult education to which both the employee and the company contribute and the employee keeps -- even if he or she leaves the company.
• Logical verification. Perceiving a relationship between a new task and a task that has already mastered.
• Maintenance. The process of continuing to use newly acquired capabilities over time.
• Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. A national award created in 1987 to recognize U.S. companies' quality achievements and to publicize quality strategies.
• Managing diversity and inclusion. The creation of an environment that allows all employees (regardless of their demographic group) to contribute to organizational goals and experience personal growth.
• Massed practice. A training approach in which trainees practice a task continuously without resting.
• Massive open online courses (MOOCs). Learning that is designed to enroll large number of learners (massive) -- it is free and accessible to anyone with an Internet connection (open); it takes place online using videos of lectures, interactive coursework including discussion groups and wikis (online); and it has specific start and completion dates, quizzes and assessment, and exams (courses).
• Mental requirements. The degree to which a person must use or demonstrate mental skills or cognitive skills or abilities to perform a task.
• Mentor. An experienced, productive senior employee who helps develop a less experienced employee (a protégé).
• Metacognition. A learning strategy whereby trainees direct their attention to their own learning process.
• Metrics. Business-level outcomes chosen to measure the overall value of training or learning initiatives.
• Micro blogs or micro sharing. Software tools such as Twitter that enable communications in short bursts of text, links, and multimedia either through stand-alone applications or through online communities or social networks.
• Mission. A company's long-term reason for existing.
• Mobile learning. Refers to informal or formal learning delivered using a mobile device such as a smartphone, netbook, notebook computer, or i-Pad.
• Modeling. Having employees who have mastered the desired learning outcomes demonstrate them for trainees.
• Modeling display. A training method in which trainees are shown key behaviors, which they then practice; often done by videotape or computer.
• Motivation to learn. A trainee's desire to learn the content of a training program.
• Motor skills. Coordination of physical movements.
• Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI). A psychological test for employee development consisting of over 100 questions about how the person feels or prefers to behave in different situations.
• Near transfer. A trainee's ability to apply learned capabilities exactly to the work situation.
• Need. A deficiency that a person is experiencing at any point in time.
• Needs assessment. The process used to determine if training is necessary; the first step in the Instructional System Design (ISD) model.
• Nine-box grid. A three-by-three matrix used by groups of managers and executives to compare employees within one department, function, division, or the entire company for analysis and discussion of talent, to help formulate effective development plans and activities, and to identify talented employees who can be groomed for top-level management positions in the company.
• Norms. Accepted standards of behavior for work-group members.
• Objective. The purpose and expected outcome of training activities.
• Offshoring. The process of moving jobs from the United States to other locations in the world.
• Onboarding. The orientation process for newly hired managers.
• Online learning. Instruction and delivery of training by computer online through the Internet or web.
• On-the-job training (OJT). Training in which new or inexperienced employees learn through first observing peers or managers performing a job and then trying to imitate their behavior.
• Open skills. Training objectives linked to general learning principles.
• Opportunity to perform. The chance to use learned capabilities.
• Organizational analysis. A training analysis that determines the appropriateness of training, considering the context in which training will occur.
• Organizing. A learning strategy that requires the learner to find similarities and themes in training materials.
• Other. In task analysis, a term referring to the conditions under which tasks are performed; for example, physical condition of the work environment or psychological conditions, such as pressure or stress.
• Output. A job's performance standards.
• Outsourcing. The acquisition of training and development activities from outside a company.
• Overall task complexity. The degree to which a task requires a number of distinct behaviors, the number of choices involved in performing the task, and the degree of uncertainty in performing the task.
• Overlearning. Employees' continuing to practice even if they have been able to perform the objective several times.
• Part practice. A training approach in which each objective or task is practiced individually as soon as it is introduced in a training program.
• Past accomplishments. A system of allowing employees to build a history of successful accomplishments.
• Perception. The ability to organize a message from the environment so that it can be processed and acted upon.
• Performance analysis approach. An approach to solving business problems that identifies performance gaps or deficiencies and examines training as a possible solution.
• Performance appraisal. The process of measuring an employee's performance.
• Performance orientation. A learner's focus on task performance and how the learner compares to others.
• Person analysis. Training analysis that involves (1) determining whether performance deficiencies result from lack of knowledge, skill, or ability or else from a motivational or work-design problem, (2) identifying who needs training, and (3) determining employees' readiness for training.
• Person characteristics. An employee's knowledge, skill, ability, behavior, or attitudes.
• Phased retirement. A phase during which older employees gradually reduce their hours, which helps them transition into retirement.
• Physical requirements. The degree to which a person must use or demonstrate physical skills and abilities to perform and complete a task.
• Pilot testing. The process of previewing a training program with potential trainees and managers or other customers.
• Plug-in. Extra software that needs to be loaded on a computer, for example, to listen to sound or watch video.
• Post-test only. An evaluation design in which only posttraining outcomes are collected.
• Post-training measure. A measure of outcomes taken after training.
• Power. The ability to influence others.
• Practicality. The ease with which outcome measures can be collected.
• Practice. An employee's demonstration of a learned capability; the physical or mental rehearsal of a task, knowledge, or skill to achieve proficiency in performing the task or skill or demonstrating the knowledge.
• Preretirement socialization. The process of helping employees prepare for exit from work.
• Presence. In training, the perception of actually being in a particular environment.
• Presentation methods. Training methods in which trainees are passive recipients of information.
• Pretest/post-test. An evaluation design in which both pretraining and post-training outcome measures are collected.
• Pretest/post-test with comparison group. An evaluation design that includes trainees and a comparison group. Both pretraining and post-training outcome measures are collected.
• Pretraining measure. A baseline measure of outcomes.
• Program design. The organization and coordination of a training program.
• Project management. The skills needed to manage a team of people and resources to create a learning solution.
• Promotion. An advancement into a position with greater challenges, more responsibility, and more authority than the previous job provided; usually includes a pay increase as well.
• Protean career. A career that is frequently changing based on changes in the person's interests, abilities, and values as well as changes in the work environment.
• Psychological success. A feeling of pride and accomplishment that comes from achieving life goals.
• Psychosocial support. Serving as a friend and role model to an employee; also includes providing positive regard, acceptance, and an outlet for the protégé to talk about anxieties and fears.
• Random assignment. The assignment of employees to training or a comparison group on the basis of chance.
• Rapid instructional design (RID). A group of techniques that allow training to be built more quickly; the two principles of RID are that instructional content and process can be developed independently of each other and that resources devoted to design and delivery of instruction can be reallocated as appropriate.
• Rapid needs assessment. A needs assessment that is done quickly and accurately but without sacrificing the quality of the process or the outcomes.
• Rapid prototyping. An iterative process used in designing e-learning in which initial design ideas are proposed and provided in rough form in an online working prototype that is reviewed and refined by design team members.
• Reaction outcomes. A trainee's perceptions of a training program, including perceptions of the facilities, trainers, and content.
• Readability. Written materials' level of difficulty.
• Readiness for training. The condition of (1) employees having the personal characteristics necessary to learn program content and apply it on the job, and (2) the work environment facilitating learning and not interfering with performance.
• Realistic job preview. Stage in which a prospective employee is provided accurate information about attractive and unattractive aspects of a job, working conditions, company, and location to be sure that the employee develops appropriate expectations.
• Reality check. The information employees receive about how the company evaluates their skills and knowledge and where they fit into the company's plans (potential promotion opportunities, lateral moves).
• Reasonable accommodation. In terms of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and training, making training facilities readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities; may also include modifying instructional media, adjusting training policies, and providing trainees with readers or interpreters.
• Recycling. Changing one's major work activity after having been established in a particular field.
• Reflection. Trainees spend a short amount of time, such as fifteen minutes, reviewing and writing about what they learned and how they performed.
• Rehearsal. A learning strategy focusing on learning through repetition (memorization).
• Reinforcement theory. A theory emphasizing that people are motivated to perform or avoid certain behaviors because of past outcomes that have resulted from those behaviors.
• Reliability. The degree to which outcomes can be measured consistently over time.
• Repatriation. Preparing expatriates for return to the parent company and country from a foreign assignment.
• Repurposing. Directly translating a training program that uses a traditional training method onto the web.
• Request for proposal (RFP). A document that outlines for potential vendors and consultants the requirements for winning and fulfilling a contract with a company.
• Resistance to change. Managers' and/or employees' unwillingness to change.
• Results. Outcomes used to determine a training program's payoff.
• Retirement. The leaving of a job and work role to make the transition into life without work.
• Retrieval. The identification of learned material in long-term memory and use of it to influence performance.
• Return on expectations (ROE). The process through which evaluation demonstrates to key business stakeholders, such as top level managers, that their expectations about training have been satisfied.
• Return on investment (ROI). A comparison of a training program's monetary benefits and costs.
• Reversal. A time period in which training participants no longer receive training intervention.
• Role-play. A training exercise in which the participant takes the part or role of a manager or some other employee; training method in which trainees are given information about a situation and act out characters assigned to them.
• Sabbatical. A leave of absence from the company to renew or develop skills.
• Scenario-based training. Training that places team members in a realistic context while learning.
• School-to-Work Opportunities Act. A federal law designed to assist states in building school-to-work systems that prepare students for high-skill, high-wage jobs or future education.
• Sector partnerships. Government agencies and industry trade groups that help identify the skills that local employers require and work with community colleges, universities, and other educational institutions to provide qualified employees.
• Self-assessment. An employee's use of information to determine career interests, values, aptitudes, and behavioral tendencies.
• Self-evaluation. Learners' estimates of how much they know or have learned from training.
• Self-directed learning. Training in which employees take responsibility for all aspects of their learning (e.g., when it occurs, who is involved).
• Self-efficacy. Employees' belief that they can perform their job or learn the content of a training program successfully.
• Self-management. A person's attempt to control certain aspects of his or her decision making and behavior.
• Self-regulation. Learners' involvement with the training material and assessing their progress toward learning.
• Semantic encoding. The actual coding process of incoming memory.
• Serious games. Games in which the training content is turned into a game but has business objectives.
• Shared media. Audio or video such as YouTube that can be accessed and shared with others.
• Simulation. A training method that represents a reallife situation, with trainees' decisions resulting in outcomes that mirror what would happen if they were on the job.
• Situational constraints. Work environment characteristics that include lack of proper equipment, materials, supplies, budgetary support, and time.
• Six Sigma process. A process of measuring, analyzing, improving, and then controlling processes once they have been brought within the Six Sigma quality tolerances or standards.
• Skill. Competency in performing a task.
• Skill-based outcomes. Outcomes used to assess the level of technical or motor skills or behavior; include skill acquisition or learning and on-the-job use of skills.
• Social capital. The value of relationships among employees within a company.
• Social learning. Learning with and from others.
• Social learning theory. A theory emphasizing that people learn by observing other persons (models) who they believe are credible and knowledgeable.
• Social media. Online and mobile technology used to create interactive communications allowing the creation and exchange of user-generated content
• Social network analysis. A map of employee relationships that can be used to help identify informal employee communications and information- and knowledge-sharing patterns.
• Social support. Feedback and reinforcement from managers and peers.
• Solomon four-group. An evaluation design combining the pretest/post-test comparison group and the post-testonly control group designs.
• Spaced practice. A training approach in which trainees are given rest intervals within the practice session.
• Staffing strategy. A company's decisions regarding where to find employees, how to select them, and the mix of employee skills and statuses.
• Stakeholders. Company leaders, top-level managers, mid-level managers, trainers, and employees who are end users of learning who have an interest in training and development and their support is important for determining its success (or failure).
• Storyboard. A group of pictures created using pencil-and-paper or markers on notebooks, erasable marker boards, flip charts, or PowerPoint slides that tell a story.
• Strategic choice. The strategy believed to be the best alternative to achieve the company goals.
• Strategic training and development initiatives. Learning-related actions that a company takes to achieve its business strategy.
• Strategic value. Employees' potential to improve company effectiveness and efficiency.
• Stretch assignments. Job assignments that help employees develop because there is a mismatch between the employee's skills and past experiences and the skills required for success on the job.
• STEM skills. Science, technology, engineering, and math skills that U.S. employers need and value, but employees lack.
• Subject-matter expert (SME). A person who knows a great deal about (1) training issues, (2) the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for task performance, (3) necessary equipment, and (4) the conditions under which tasks have to be performed.
• Success cases or stories. Concrete examples of the impact of training that show how learning leads to results that the company finds worthwhile and the managers find credible.
• Succession planning. The process of identifying and tracking high-potential employees for advancement in a company.
• Summative evaluation. Evaluation of the extent that trainees have changed as a result of participating in a training program.
• Support network. A group of two or more trainees who agree to meet and discuss their progress in using learned capabilities on the job.
• Survivor. An employee remaining with a company after downsizing.
• Sustainability. The ability of a company to make a profit without sacrificing the resources of its employees, the community, or the environment.
• SWOT analysis. An identification of a company's operating environment as well as an internal analysis of its strengths and weaknesses. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
• Synchronous communication. Communication in which trainers, experts, and learners interact with each other live and in real time in the same way that they would in face-to-face classroom instruction.
• Tacit knowledge. Personal knowledge that is based on individual experience and that is difficult to explain to others.
• Talent management. The process of attracting, retaining, developing, and motivating highly skilled employees and managers.
• Task. A statement of an employee's work activity in a specific job.
• Task analysis. Training analysis that involves identifying the tasks and knowledge, skills, and behaviors that need to be emphasized in training for employees to complete their tasks.
• Task redefinition. Changes in managers' and/or employees' roles and methods.
• Team leader training. Training that a team manager or facilitator receives.
• Team training. A training method that involves coordinating the performances of individuals who work together to achieve a common goal.
• Telecommuting. Working in a remote location (distant from a central office), where the employee has limited contact with peers but can communicate electronically (also called teleworking).
• Teleconferencing. The synchronous exchange of audio, video, and/or text between two or more individuals or groups at two or more locations.
• Temporary assignments. Job tryouts including employee exchanges and volunteer assignments in which employees take on a position to help them determine if they are interested in working in a new role.
• Threats to validity. Factors that lead one to question either (1) the believability of a study's results or (2) the extent to which evaluation results are generalizable to other groups of trainees and situations.
• Time series. An evaluation design in which training outcomes are collected at periodic intervals pre- and post-training.
• Tin Can API (or experience API). A specification for learning technology that makes it possible to collect data about an employee or a team's online and face-to-face learning experiences.
• Total Quality Management (TQM). A style of doing business that relies on the talents and capabilities of both labor and management to build and provide high-quality products and services and continuously improve them.
• Traditional training methods. Training methods requiring an instructor or facilitator and involve faceto-face interaction between trainees.
• Training. A company's planned effort to facilitate employees' learning of job-related competencies.
• Training administration. Coordination of activities before, during, and after a training program.
• Training context. The physical, intellectual, and emotional environment in which training occurs.
• Training design process. A systematic approach to developing training programs. Its six steps include conducting needs assessment, ensuring employees' readiness for training, creating a learning environment, ensuring transfer of training, selecting training methods, and evaluating training programs.
• Training effectiveness. The benefits that a company and its trainees receive from training.
• Training evaluation. The process of collecting the outcomes needed to determine whether training has been effective.
• Training outcomes (criteria). Measures that a company and its trainer use to evaluate training programs.
• Training site. The place where training is conducted.
• Transfer. Giving an employee a different job assignment in a different area of the company.
• Transfer of training. Trainees' applying to their jobs the learned capabilities gained in training.
• Tuition reimbursement. The practice of reimbursing employees the costs for college and university courses and degree programs.
• Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. An act that covers deployed employees' rights, such as guaranteeing jobs when they return, except under special circumstances.
• Uniqueness. The extent to which employees are rare and specialized and not highly available in the labor market.
• Upward feedback. An appraisal process involving the collection of subordinates' evaluations of managers' behaviors or skills.
• Utility analysis. A cost-benefit analysis method that involves assessing the dollar value of training based on estimates of the difference in job performance between trained and untrained employees, the number of individuals trained, the length of time a training program is expected to influence performance, and the variability in job performance in the untrained group of employees.
• Valence. The value that a person places on an outcome.
• Values. Principles and virtues that symbolize the company's beliefs.
• Verbal information. Names or labels, facts, and bodies of knowledge.
• Verbal persuasion. Offering words of encouragement to convince others that they can learn.
• Vicarious reinforcement. A situation in which a trainee sees an example of someone being reinforced for using certain behaviors.
• Virtual classroom. Using a computer and the Internet to distribute instructor-led training to geographically dispersed employees.
• Virtual reality. A computer-based technology often used in simulations that provides trainees with a threedimensional learning experience that approximates reality.
• Virtual team. A team that is separated by time, geographic distance, culture, and/or organizational boundaries and that relies almost exclusively on technology to interact and complete projects.
• Virtual work arrangement. A work arrangement (including virtual teams as well as teleworking) in which location, organization structure, and employment relationship are not limiting factors.
• Virtual worlds. Computer-based, simulated online three-dimensional representation of the real world where learning programs can be hosted.
• Vision. The picture of the future that a company wants to achieve.
• Volunteer assignments. Employees develop their skills through serving the community by taking positions in community organizations.
• Web 2.0. User-created social networking features on the Internet, including blogs, wikis, and Twitter.
• Web-based training. Training delivered on public or private computer networks and displayed by a web browser (also called Internet-based training).
• Webcasting. Classroom instructions that are provided online through live broadcasts.
• Whole practice. A training approach in which all tasks or objectives are practiced at the same time.
• Wiki. A website that allows many users to create, edit, and update content and share knowledge.
• Workforce analytics. The practice of using quantitative methods and scientific methods to analyze data from human resource databases, corporate financial statements, employee surveys and other data sources to make evidence-based decisions and show that human resource practices (including training, development, and learning) influence important company metrics.
• Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. A 2014 federal law that created a new, comprehensive work force investment system that is customer focused, that provides Americans with career management information and high-quality services, and that helps match U.S. companies with skilled workers.
• Working storage. The rehearsal and repetition of information, allowing it to be coded for memory.
• Work-life balance. Helping employees deal with the stresses, strains, and conflicts related to trying to balance work and non-work demands.
• Work team. A group of employees with various skills who interact to assemble a product or produce a service.