Training and development challenges experienced by employees and managers

Due to rapid increase in technological advancement, dynamic labour markets, performance-oriented forms of work and globalisation, training and development have experienced substantial and far-reaching changes. This has led renewed challenges in the provision of training and development. Although extant research has linked training and development to various organisational outcomes, challenges associated with its execution have not been adequately investigated. Therefore, guided by Human Capital Theory and Social Learning Theory, the current study to explore the training and development complexities at the workplace. The current study used a qualitative approach, grounded in an inductive approach and guided by thematic analysis, to explore participants’ personal meanings as shaped by their lived experiences. The study utilised purposive and snowball sampling techniques to select participants who met the researchers’ predefined criteria and aligned with the study’s objectives. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with 22 participants, comprising a mix of human resource personnel as well as both new and existing employees drawn from various sectors. This study engaged in thematic analysis with differentiated analysis across participant groups to explore the contextual dynamics shaping the training and development challenges of corporates in South Africa. The findings of this study indicated that the training and development faced by HR personnel include identification of training needs obstacles, unwillingness of employee to participate in training, limited time allocation for training, incompetence of the trainer, difficulties in keeping abreast with accelerating technology, and poor financial and resource support. While veteran employees encounter training and development challenges such as poor execution of the training, poor alignment between training programmes and employees’ personal goals, and poor management communication channels, new employees indicated that poor structure and ineffectiveness of induction training. Thus, the study makes a theoretical contribution by showing that employee constraints and management hindrances are not independent phenomena, but deeply intertwined mechanisms shaping training and development. In addition, the study extends Human Capital Theory and Social Learning Theory by demonstrating that workplace training and development challenges are shaped by the interaction between organisational investment in employee capabilities and the social and managerial environments in which learning occurs.