Abstract
ABSTRACT
End-user training (EUT) is unlikely to deliver value to organisations when end users do not transfer newly learned skills into their workplace. The question of how to design EUT to encourage employees to learn and want to use new IT applications in the workplace remains largely unanswered. This study investigated two training techniques that could stimulate learning and skill transfer to the workplace. The study, conducted in three phases, addresses the problem of encouraging teaching staff to use “Moodle” software in a large private university in Thailand.
Phase I offered a preliminary study of the organisational background and investigated end-user perception on IT. Phase II examined the development of two training techniques: goal-matching (GM) and persuasive communication (PC). Goal-matching was based on a model put forward by Harackiewicz et al. (2004), and employed Goldstein and Ford’s (2002) needs assessment for goal-matching. Persuasive communication was based on Fishbein and Ajzen’s (1975) use of the process on the change in belief model, employing Human Information Processing for PC script. Phase III was a field experiment which examined the influences of GM and PC on cognitive, skill-based, affective, and behavioural outcomes. A 2 x 2 pre-test and post-test quasi-experiment was designed.
This study found significant main and interaction effects of GM and PC on the affective and behavioural outcomes. Importantly, their interaction effect yielded a significantly higher impact on several affective outcomes and also behavioural action and commitment, than when they were used in isolation. PC could stimulate trainees to learn and thus improve their cognitive knowledge. This thesis contributes theoretically and practically to EUT effectiveness in organisations. The results suggest that GM and PC could be used as training techniques to stimulate learning and skill transfer in a specific workplace context. Contributions, implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.