1 Introduction
In contemporary era, human beings are progressing dramatically on various fronts. To respond to the rapid international competition, numerous corporations focus on the management and development of human resource to enhance their organizational competence. Training, one of the vital components of human resource strategies, has been treated as an indispensable part that facilitates organizational performance and prod uctivity. Being aware of employee’s attitude towards training and development activities as well as realizing its influence on employee job satisfaction is significant for both practitioners and researchers. Although some western studies have indicated that there is a positive relationship between training and job satisfaction, it still needs an in-depth investigation under the context of China, the typical representative of developing countries with a relatively poor human resource system. Therefore, the main aim of this research is to bridge the gap through evaluating the perception of training and exploring its influence on Chinese employee’s job satisfaction. A survey is approached with questionnaire and interview in this research.
1.1 Research background
1.1.1 Training
Training, one of the most indispensable elements of human resource management (HRM) and human resource development (HRD), has been approved of great significance by western literature. Not only does it make a great contribution to increasing productivity (Nadeem, 2010), it also improves employees’performance
(Pfeffer, 1998) and organizational performance (Thang et al., 2010). Meanwhile, it helps to cultivate a long term learning environment for individuals, groups and organizations (Watkins, 1991). Furthermore, it should be noted that strategic human resource management (SHRM), human capital theory and high performance working system (HPWS) also point out the benefit and the necessity of training throughout the organizations.
From the perspective of the government, numerous countries have established policies on training to meet the changing requirement of employees. For instance, the dual training system which includes training at job and vocational school training in Germany is r egarded as a typical instance to improve employees’ competitiveness. As for an organization, training is treated as one of the indispensable HR practices to enhance organizational commitment and organizational performance (Gamble and Huang, 2008). In terms of employees, it helps to increase the salary standard, improve the employability and enhance the possibility of getting promotion. Thus, it is indicated that more than 50% workers regard continuous training as an effective way to strengthen their competitive advantage (Pischke, 2001).
1.1.2 Job satisfaction with training
Due to the significance of training, practitioners and researchers need to understand the influence of training on employees. Being aware of how employees feel about training programs and understanding the components of training that contributes to
employee job satisfaction are quite necessary for the success of an organization. According to Violino (2001), satisfaction with training and development is regarded as a main factor that employees evaluate and decide on their career. Hence, employers and managers make efforts to enable their employees experience a high level of job satisfaction as they need to benefit from the lower turnover rates and higher productivity. Western researches have revealed that employee job satisfaction as well as organizational commitment can be affected by organizational training. For instance, according to Ranstad’s North America Employment Review survey fo r twenty-six hundred American and Canadian employees in 2001, more than 80 percent of respondents treated workplace training as a key component in job hunting process. (“What Drives,” 2001). Similarly, another Network Computing survey which comprises fourteen hundred information technology (IT) professionals indicates that IT employees put educational and training opportunities in a priority position in their career (Violino, 2001). Although the relationship between training and job satisfaction has been explored by some researches, it still needs further investigation. (Rowen and Conine, 2003; Georellis and Lange, 2007)。