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The purpose of this paper is to explore why some firms succeed while others flounder or fail to implement quality improvement programmes. It synthesises self-efficacy literature to propose a model of self-efficacy’s role in affecting implementation success of quality improvement programmes in organisations.

A review of scholarly articles on the topics of self-efficacy and quality initiatives brings to light self-efficacy’s role in successful quality programme implementation. When considered in the context of organisation barriers, it can lead to organisational success.

It is determined that quality training programmes play an important role in affecting existing efficacies and leading to “quality self-efficacy” in employees. The proposed model and related propositions suggest that right approaches of implementing quality training among certain types of employees and/or organisations can promote teamwork to achieve performance success.

Moving forward, the proposed model should be empirically tested to improve our understanding of quality self-efficacy construct and its role in aiding organisational success. Furthermore, it would offer guidelines for the implementation of quality programmes in the most optimal way.

In applying theories on self-efficacy, motivation, empowerment, and quality training, the authors posit that existing efficacy and quality self-efficacy are crucial for quality implementation efforts to overcome organisational barriers and lead to effective teamwork and performance success.

The authors postulate that deciding factors for organisational success originate from employees themselves as existing efficacies. Even though employees can foster quality self-efficacy through the implementation of quality improvement initiatives, existing self-efficacy, and organisation barriers will be moderating forces on eventual effectiveness of quality self-efficacy, teamwork, and organisational performance.

The model and related propositions, linking self- and collective efficacies to quality training, teamwork, and quality performance, offered in this paper will prove useful for organisational decision-makers in selecting quality programmes for implementation in organisation to achieve performance success.

Describes the experiences of several public hospitals which have implemented quality methods and management and lists some of the lessons they learned that could be usefully adopted by other services. Asks: how do you introduce a quality programme into an organization whose employees are already empowered, and who view themselves as the sole arbiters of quality? Is a quality programme doomed if the preconditions proposed by the “quality gurus” are absent ‐ such as top management commitment and constancy of purpose? Which type of quality programme is feasible when there is no time and money for quality investment, and customer satisfaction is only one of the many determinants of organizational survival in a political environment? Concludes that generally, the hospitals which had a greater success found ways to involve different professions and adapted the methods to their particular circumstances.

The purpose of this study is to explore a range of training practices adopted by multinational companies (MNCs) operating in Asia. It investigated the level of training expenditure, the nature of training programs offered and the concerns about training in MNCs.

Data were obtained through a survey of 529 MNCs operating in six Asian countries to examine the average cost spent on training and the type of training programs offered to different groups of employees. The respondents were also asked to indicate their perceptions on the training provided and how effective the training has on firm performance.

It appears that MNCs invested significantly in training. Training was found to be more widespread in service organisations than manufacturing organisations operating in Asia. The majority of training emphasised managerial and professional staff development; and was generally conducted externally. Respondents were concerned mainly with the quality and relevance of training programs offered externally.

The results provide MNCs, especially those headquartered in European and other Western countries with insights into designing and offering more relevant and better quality training programs to their employees located in Asian subsidiaries.

This study aims to examine the effects of vocational training programs for people with disabilities on their income.

It conducted a multinomial regression analysis of 10,469 survey responses from 31 provincial administrative areas in mainland China.

It finds the following antecedents all influence the trainees’ self-reported income, including their perception of the quality of the program, the training subject, the degree of consistency between their current job and this subject, their employment sector, their motivation and access to training resources and the geographical location of the program.

The findings are not representative of people with disabilities across mainland China because the respondents were not randomly sampled.

The findings suggest that to increase the income of people with disabilities, the training can be designed according to the needs of employers by teaching subjects relevant to the needs of the labor market, reaching out to motivated trainees and enhancing the quality of training. Training institutions, employers and governments are recommended to work together to integrate class-based learning with workplace-based learning and practices. More training resources can be devoted to the self-employed people with disabilities or those who operate in the informal sector and are in less-developed areas.

The improvement of employment opportunities and income of people with disabilities supports the safeguarding of their social economic rights and the building of an inclusive society.

Few studies have empirically explored and explained the effects of vocational training programs on people with disabilities’ income. This article fills this gap by assessing the performance of China's vocational training programs funded by the Federation of Disabled Persons at all levels.

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales.

In this contribution, a model of evaluation of customer satisfaction about training programs is described. The model is developed and implemented for an association of training companies. The evaluation has been conducted by an independent organisation to enhance the thrustworthiness of the evaluation results. The model is aimed at determining the quality of training programs as perceived by project managers from the organisations that purchased in company training programs from the training companies. Reliability research showed satisfying results. The model is based on the methodology in effectiveness research, and the data was used to test a model of training effectiveness. The results show that this model is confirmed for two categories of projects: projects that were aimed at achieving learning results and changed job performance respectively. The model does not fit for projects aimed at supporting organisational change. Various questions as to the development of the evaluation model are discussed.

Quality educational leadership preparation has positive influences on practices of graduates. In the Finnish decentralized education system, little is yet known about the sources of principals’ practices. This research explores the sources of principals’ self- assessed leadership practices in Central Finland and identifies areas for more emphasis. Respondents were selected by purposive sampling. This multiple case study employed eight semi-structured individual interviews as means of data collection. Inductive content analysis was performed. From the findings, besides personal experiences, knowledge from course, and field work, leadership and networking are also major sources of principals' practices. Training positively enhances the practices of principals as they engage in more collaboration and trust. Notwithstanding, professional development is essential for principals to stay relevant to the contemporary world of today and to be confident to face future challenges. Methods of course delivery, management of human and financial resources, as well as creating and sustaining local and international collaborations with other training institutions should be prioritized to improve on training.

Public mental health training can effectively support well-being at a population level. The application of this type of training is increasingly prevalent, however, training evaluation is currently limited and inconsistent. This paper aims to summarise the characteristics of public mental health training available in England, presents key quality criteria for this training and identifies gaps in training provision.

This paper uses a pragmatic mixed-methods approach including database and Google Searches, focus groups and survey methods. The data analysis included a structured data extraction template for the training availability scoping and thematic analysis of the survey and focus groups.

This paper identifies a total of 74 training courses targeting workplace employees, young people and the general population. Most courses were delivered face-to-face (54), followed by e-learning (16) and blended modalities (4). This paper derives four core quality principles, focussing on the training approach, key features of training, trainer attributes and evaluation. There were no significant gaps in training provision, although areas for future development included consistency in public mental health terminology, systems and populations requiring additional training and the logistics of training delivery, etc.

The results contribute to the evidence base of interventions that are currently available, supporting the efforts to evaluate the impact of training provision in this area. This paper provides a novel approach to assessing training quality and discuss areas for development and innovation in this field.

The influence of quality on customer perceptions and thereby consumption behavior has led some analysts to call quality the single most important factor for long‐term competitive success. It is not surprising then that almost everyone agrees that quality is vital and that every company needs to have a well‐designed and executed quality program in place. Unfortunately, quality programs often fail to deliver the outstanding – parts per million – quality that is required for competitive advantage. Quality programs have proven to be difficult to implement successfully, leading many to ask, “Why is it so hard to implement a successful quality management program?” The research discussed in this paper specifically addresses this issue of implementation difficulty. Insight from over 300 quality directors reveals that obtaining managerial commitment, establishing a quality culture, and fully involving employees are the three most intractable challenges encountered in the implementation of quality programs. Indeed, these three issues represent almost half of the problems identified by the quality directors. As managers approach the implementation of a new quality program, they must use a methodology that can overcome the challenges to implementation by first garnering managerial commitment and establishing early quality successes. Building momentum based on measurable successes is critical to establishing a quality culture.

This paper aims to present an exploratory study of the evaluation of training programs, based on a theoretical framework reviewing both the training literature and the strategic performance measurement (SPM) literature. The purpose of the paper is to analyse whether the operational approach (suggested by the training literature) and the strategic approach (suggested by the SPM literature) are actionable and feasible to measure the performance of training programs, and which relationships occur between these approaches.

The methodology supporting the paper is largely oriented to action research. The research project took about 12 months, working with five Italian healthcare organisations in order to develop an actionable system for measuring the performance of selected training programs.

The results suggest that the operational and the strategic approaches are actionable and feasible to measure the performance of selected training programs; that these approaches are complementary, and not alternative; and that their contextual use is mutually beneficial, because it allows alignment of the evaluation of training programs towards organisational priorities.

The limitations of the paper concern its explorative nature. The paper does not expand its focus from the training programs to the training function, and from the training literature to the strategic human resource literature. Research on these topics may contribute to further analysing the links between training evaluation and SPM systems.

The paper shows the feasibility of a systematic evaluation of selected training programs at an organisational level of analysis, aiming at increasing organisational effectiveness.

The paper suggests the relevance of evaluating training programs according to an SPM framework based on the Balanced Scorecard.