Organizational investments in employee training and development have steadily increased over the past decade. Yet, training needs assessment (TNA) remains an understudied topic in the training literature. This study used a large sample of municipal employees in the USA to examine the effects of rater and their job/organizational position on TNA ratings. Results indicated that supervisors tended to rate their own training needs higher than how non-supervisors rated their supervisors' training needs. The opposite was found for non-supervisor self-ratings-they tended to be lower than the supervisors' ratings of their subordinates. We also found initial validity evidence for inferences made from TNA self-ratings of managerial competencies, which distinguished between employees in supervisory and non-supervisory positions. Practical and theoretical implications, as well as study limitations and directions for future research, are discussed.
Cigularov has investigated various organizational issues related to leadership and culture, employee burnout and stress, as well as training programs and interventions. Dr. Cigularov has extensive experience with program design and evaluation and he has consulted numerous organizations, including the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, on designing, evaluating, and disseminating effective interventions and training programs. He has expertise in both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, which he uses to better understand and help organizations create and engender safer, healthier, and more fulfilling workplaces. Dr. Cigularov has conducted numerous needs assessments of targeted student populations, including medical residents, STEM students, transfer students, graduate students in sciences, and second career engineering students.
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