RESEARCH PROPOSAL ON

Effectiveness of Foundation training: A study of Health cadre service in Bangladesh

Chapter -01

Prepared By

Mohammad Ziaur Rahman

Master of Management (By Research)

Metric No. 8182000291

Faculty of Business and Accountancy ( FBA)

Universiti Selangor ( UNISEL)

October, 2018
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Effectiveness of Foundation training: A study of Health cadre service in Bangladesh

1. Introduction

Training anywhere, as in Bangladesh is treated as a major catalyst of change or reform

and also a tool to prevent obsolescence. It is, in fact, a costly as well as a difficult exercise

because changing is a challenging job. Improving the quality of performance, behaviour,

attitudinal transformation and value system of employees is not at all possible unless a

favourable learning environment is created.

The modern concept of Human Resource Development treats the worker or person as a

catalyst of development whose desire is to enhance skills, ability and competency with a view

to achieving personal and organizational goals. In national context it is the process by which

people in various groups are developed to achieve new competencies for self-reliance, self-

confidence and self-support. However, general competency develops from education but

specific competency is the outcome of training.

So, the government of Bangladesh is very much concerned about the competency

enhancement of the BCS officers specially the members of Health cadre. The

government expects some typical results from this foundation training interventions like

improved performance, high level of productivity, poor people service delivery.

At the same time government has been spending a huge amount of currency for imparting

foundation training and development programs. So, it a very relevant to have an all-out dissection

and evaluation of the effectiveness of foundation training specially for the BCS Health Cadre

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officers conducted by National Academy for Planning and Development ( NAPD) in order to get a

clear feedback of those interventions.

Importance of Training

According to Adralin (2004), training help to enhance organizational commitment, it improve

employee job performance, it help to cope with internal and external challenges, employee morale

also enhances, knowledge and skills also upgraded, efficient work environment, employee’s

problem solving skills also develop, they able to acquire technical skills to use machinery, tools,

problem solving skills, it also build confidence in employee personality. Due to that many

organizations spend lots of money for training. Training now has become strategic

training, as it is serving long term strategic organizational goal.

1.1 Background of the Study

As per Public Administration Training Policy-2003, Foundation Training is compulsory for

all Class-I Government officers. The contents of this course are carefully selected so that
participants can acquire basic knowledge on governance, office management and
development issues. The course aims at building personality, stimulating creativity and
instilling leadership qualities into the minds of the officers. The course provides an
opportunity to them to familiarize themselves with various dimensions of socio-economic
developments of the country and enhances the administrative capability of the officers.
The duration of the Special Foundation training course is two months (60 days). National
Academy for Planning and Development arranged this training program regularly. But no
study is made on effectiveness of training such training.

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1.2 Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the foundation training programs

are being offered for the Health cadre officers of Bangladesh.. by applying the four levels

Kirkpatrick model consisting of reaction, learning, behavior & Results. And also find out the

possible solution to make the training program more effective

1.3 .Problem Statement:

People at large of Bangladesh are asking for transparency and change of attitude of

public servants. Without proper training this demand cannot be fulfilled. Through proper training

the sense of responsibility, accountability and dynamism can be inculcated in the civil servants like

health cadre officers. For this reason government of Bangladesh is concern to develop their

professional knowledge, skill, attitudinal development through foundation training and

development interventions. But in reality the government efforts to enhance the professional

competence of the civil service health cadre officers through training interventions seldom see the

expected result and found often failed to produce desired out come. Due to proper need assessment

of the trainees, lack of offering attractive training package, lack of proper monitoring and

limited opportunity to use learned lesson in the work place made this training interventions

virtually ineffective. Therefore, the present study tries to assess the effectiveness of the Foundation

training programmes in terms of achieving its objectives with special reference to Bangladesh Civil

Service Health Cadre officers. On the other hand, this study will provide a basis for realistic policy

recommendations for improving effectiveness of training interventions of public sector as a whole.

1.4. Research Questions:

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In order to obtain the crafted objectives, the following research questions are relevant:

1 Are the foundation training programs being offered for the officers of BCS Health

effective in terms of acquisition of proper knowledge, skill and attitude?

2 Is there any gap between programme-objectives and achievement from the

training programmes?

3 What would be the main factors to make foundation training programs more effective.

1.5. Research objectives

The specific objectives of the study are stated below:

1. To assess the effectiveness of foundation training programs are being offered for the officers of

Bangladesh Civil Service Health Cadre;

2. To find out the existing gap between the training objectives and training achievements;

3. To make specific recommendations on increasing effectiveness of the foundation training

courses for the officers of BCS Health Cadre.

1.7 Scope and Limitations of the Study

This study deals with evaluates the foundation training programs for the health cadre officers. On

the other hand, this study is done for the partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Management

under Faculty of Business and Administration ,Unisel, Malaysia. The main limitation of the study is

time constraint. Due to shortage of time the study conducted on the basis of both the primary and

secondary information. Taking opinion from the all graduated participants was not possible to take.

Questionnaires were distributed to all the participants who completed the foundation training

program from NAPD on the last 02 years (2017- 2018).

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This study will not cover the training need analysis process, and not directly measure the

moderator/facilitators influence on training, this will also not cover the training budget and cost

analysis process.

Significance of the Study:

Most of research on training effectiveness in Bangladesh has focused on Kirkpatrick’s level one

(reaction) and level two (learning) because of

the difficulty of obtaining relevant information on further levels .So, this

study tries to evaluate the effectiveness of the foundation training program by using

Kirkpatrick’s model and investigate the influence of moderator variables on training

effectiveness. Without considering the role of trainees’ individual and work environment

characteristics as influencing training effectiveness, it is not possible to fully understand why

training is or is not effective. This study expands our understanding of the progressive causal

relationship of reaction, learning, and behavior to results. In particular, it contributes to our

understanding of individual and work environment characteristic variables, which are: learning

motivation, self-efficacy, motivation to transfer, social and organizational support, as moderators of

the relationship between training and its outcome. Furthermore, this study can provide useful

knowledge of training effectiveness and the important criteria for training evaluation to researchers

and implementers.

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However a time constrain this study is cross sectional, primary data was gathered through

interviews conducted from different batches representing different levels of the Kirkpatrick

model, i.e for the level one evaluation interviews were conducted from employees who had recently

completed their training; similarly, for level 2,3,&4 the respondent, who had completed same

training (FTC) from NAPD about 3 months, 6 months and year earlier respectively.

1.6 Definition of Terms

Training effectiveness is determined with respect to the achievement of training’s goal

or set of training’s goal (Warner and DeSimone, 2009).

Training evaluation is defined as the systematic collection, analysis, and synthesis of

descriptive and judgmental information necessary to make effective training decisions related

to the selection, adoption, value, and modification of various instructional activities (Warner

and DeSimone, 2009).

Based on Kirkpatrick’s (1976, 1994) model this study defines key terms for analysis on

training effectiveness as follows:

Reaction refers to assess trainees’ feelings for and liking of a training program.

Affective reactions measure the extent to which a participant “liked” or was satisfied with

different components of the training (e.g. course structure, testing process, instructors,

materials, training management and administration process). Utility reactions consider the

extent to which the participants can apply the content of training to their job.

Learning refers to the knowledge, skills, and attitude acquired by trainees. Evaluation

on learning aims at understanding trainees’ comprehension of instruction, principles, ideas,

knowledge and skills from training.

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Behavior or transfer refers to the extent to which a change in behavior has occurred

because the trainees attended the program, which is measured (assessed) in the workplace.

Results refer to the final results that occurred because the trainees attended the

program.

Summary:

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the foundation training effectiveness on NAPD by applying

the four levels Kirkpatrick model consisting of reaction, learning, behavior & Results. This study is

cross sectional, primary data was

collected through interviews from different batches representing different levels of the Kirkpatrick

model.Effectiveness of training at the different levels was being evaluated through construct/theme

developed on thebasis of literature review. For level one evaluation interviews were conducted

from employees who had recently completed their training; for level 2,3&4 the respondents, who

had completed same training about 3 months, 6 months and year earlier respectively.