Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/929503

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Title
What drives training in India’s IT-enabled and business process outsourcing services industry?
Author/Creator
Malik, Ashish;  Nilakant, Venkataraman
Description
Why do some firms invest more than others in training even if in the same industry? Applying a case study methodology to India’s information technology (IT) sector, we examine a much-neglected area and an often-cited need to consider external factors, especially the needs of an organisation’s customers/clients in a firm’s decision to invest in training. Employee turnover, client specifications and quality management systems were found to be the most important factors in shaping the nature and extent of training in the firms that were studied. The temporal dimension of the task, that is, the status of the process in its life cycle, was another significant factor in influencing the volume of training. This study confirms earlier findings that the choice of product-market strategy drives the nature and extent of firm training. However, our findings indicate that there is no simple relationship between firm strategy and training. The language of metrics-based quality improvement permeated all the organisations studied. This language facilitated conversion of client specifications into specific training activities. This ability, together with the firm’s varying levels of market and learning orientations, produced varying levels of operational and training responses. In addition to the factors identified in the extant literature that explain investment in training, this study’s distinctive contribution is in identifying the influence of a firm’s market orientation, learning orientation and quality management systems on the nature and extent of training in the IT-enabled services sector in India. Implications for research, policy makers and practitioners are briefly discussed.
Relation
2008 Academy of Management Annual Meeting: The Questions We Ask. Proceedings of the 2008 Academy of Management Annual Meeting (Anaheim, CA August 8 - 13, 2008)
Relation
http://meeting.aomonline.org/2008
Date
2008
Publisher
Academy of Management
Keyword(s)
business process outsourcing;  training;  India
Resource Type
conference paper
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/929503
Language
eng
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"What drives training in India’s IT-enabled and business process outsourcing services industry?"
 
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