ABSTRACT

Training has traditionally been viewed in industry as primarily a cost-centered activity. In the short term, training consumes revenue; it does not generate revenue. As a result, training is typically seen as a last-ditch response to a crisis such as a shortage of employees with critical skills. Although it is certainly true that corporate managers recognize that training is often necessary to bring employees to a level that allows them to produce revenue, the traditional bias toward keeping training at the absolute minimum remains prevalent. The numbers are even more depressing: In 1992, it was estimated by the American Society for Training and Development that American companies spend in the neighborhood of $30 billion a year on training. Even though this number at first seems impressive, further examination shows that this expenditure represents spending on a tenth of the workforce by less than 1% of American companies. Additionally, most training dollars are spent on managerial positions and not on “frontline workers” (“Training and the Workplace,” 1992).