Assume that you have been hired as a new manager to oversee a training department for an organization, which could be your workplace, a company with which you are familiar, or a company that you select from the Internet. The organization should be one for which you have (or can obtain) enough information to complete the assignments for this course. (Any interviews conducted must follow the Strayer guidelines highlighted below for conducting interviews.)
Complete the following to prepare for the assignment:
- Select an organization for which your training program will be designed and delivered.
- Use the Internet to obtain preliminary research about the organization.
- Identify individuals who are in the selected roles. (Do not use disclose any personally identifiable information. Follow the Guidelines for conducting interviews.)
- Review the requirements for all the assignments in this course before preparing questions for the individual you plan to contact.
- Prepare at least five key questions for the interviewees. (Do not ask specific questions about the information that can be obtained from the organization’s website.)
Guidelines for Conducting Interviews
Before you engage in an interview assignment, be mindful of the following:
• The interview findings may only be shared in this class with your instructor. No publication of projects containing the results of, or information from the interviews conducted for this course, is allowed, including publication in social media, blogs, or the Internet generally.
• When presenting the results of the interviews to their instructor and/or classmates, students may not disclose personally identifiable information about an interviewee or an organization/business. You may identify by region and type of business; for example, a small, regional non-profit that works with families in transitional housing.
• Incorporate a numbering system to identify each participant when discussing them in your assignment; for example, Interviewee 01, 02, or 03.
• All interviewees must be at least eighteen years old.
Instructions
Write a 2–4-page paper. For this paper, you will interview at least three employees of the organization you selected. At least one should be in a management role. In your paper, describe the organization, highlighting the following (this information will be gathered during an interview with a member of management):
A. type (government, business, nonprofit)
B. type or types of products or services, and the training and development currently provided within the organization.
C. number of employees and frequency of departmental training for the goods or services offered.
D. opportunities to improve training and development in the organization.
E. Note: Consider the similarities or differences between the manager’s thoughts and the ideas conveyed by the staff members interviewed; this will be important in responding to the items below: - Describe the job roles of at least three interviewees, providing a rationale for selecting these positions from which to obtain information about training needs.
- Discuss the primary roles and goals of the training program, commenting on how the roles and goals align with the organization’s mission statement.
- Discuss the training needs identified by the interviewees; highlight how the training department determines the needs.
- Discuss at least three ways the organization measures the effectiveness of the training.
- Recommend a preliminary course of action to improve the organization’s training.
• Use at least two sources to support your writing. Choose sources that are credible, relevant, and appropriate. Cite each source listed on your source page at least one time within your assignment. Assess an organization’s training needs and effectiveness by gathering data from invested stakeholders.
