SIOP Professional Practice Book Offers Advanced Training Practices

Mariah Clawson, SIOP Communications Intern

Creating, Implementing, and Managing Effective Training and Development: State-of-the-Art Lessons for Practice offers the most advanced training practices available today for your work organization. HR professionals; business leaders; practitioners who are selling, implementing, and evaluating training systems regularly; and those in performance consulting will find a wealth of information in this SIOP Professional Practice Series edition.

In this multiauthored book, often-unshared breakthroughs from several training disciplines are combined with guidelines useful to implement and maintain a state-of-the-art training program.

Chapters such as “A Strategic View of Organizational Training and Learning” by Scott Tannenbaum, “Training for a Diverse Workplace” by Donna Chrobot-Mason and Miguel A. Quiones, and “Creating and Maintaining the Learning Organization” by John C. Jeppesen explore and analyze the best practices and most current developments in strategic planning and needs of assessment. Also, topics such as training design and media selection, training delivery, transfer of training, and long-term maintenance of leading programs are discussed.

In the first chapter, “Beg, Borrow, and Steal: How the Best Training Professionals Keep Up,” colleagues and coauthors Linda L. Rogers and Colleen W. Peterson answered multiple questions including “What are the primary sources of information you look to when investigating new methods or trends in training and development?” Rogers and Peterson said, “Although respondents named a number of different sources, the two sources for which there was the strongest consensus were other professionals in the field, including coworkers and peers in professional organizations, and trade publications such as Training and Development Journal.”

Editor Kurt Kraiger, PhD, decided to cover this topic when he was engaged in training—both as a researcher and as a consultant. He said, “My research had been influenced by the applied work I did and vice versa. So, this was an opportunity to bring together really bright authors and share that vision.”

Dr. Kraiger is a professor of psychology at the University of Colorado at Denver. He has consulted in the areas of training, selection, and organizational effectiveness for several organizations.  He is also actively engaged in research on learning in ill-structured environments (e.g., computer-based training and through mentoring programs). He is the creator of the Vocational Workforce Assessment Network (VWAN), an online tool that provides low cost vocational assessment services.

Dr. Kraiger is glad his edition has been beneficial to so many.  “Over the years, I’ve received great feedback from training professionals who found it helpful in practice. But I also heard from many students who said it was their text in a graduate text. I have a lot of pride that it has fulfilled both roles.”

In addition to creating this SIOP Professional Practice Series edition, Dr. Kraiger is a SIOP Fellow and former SIOP president (2009-2010).

The SIOP Professional Practice Series books are informative and relevant guides, intended to provide current information regarding science and best practices in a variety of industrial and organizational psychology topics. In each volume, the reader will find guidance and insights that are firmly grounded in science as well as advice on how to apply the concepts, findings, methods, and tools to organizational problems. The series is designed to meet the needs of a broad audience of practitioners, including industrial and organizational psychologists, organizational scientists and practitioners, human resources professionals, managers, executives, and others interested in organizational behavior and performance.