Strategic Human Resource Management

Section Four

Table 4-3
Distribution of Training by Job Category

Job Category

Percent of

Organizations

Providing Training

Mean Number of

Hours Delivered

Middle Managers

Professionals

Executives

Salespeople

First-Line Supervisors

Senior Managers

Production Workers

Customer Service People

Office/Administrative
Workers

75.9

59.6

67.3

40.4

73.3

58.5

33.3

45.0

66.7

35.1

35.5

32.9

40.7

35.4

31.2

30.7

33.0

19.0

Source: Extracted from Jack Gordon. “Where the Training Goes,” Training 27, no. 10
(1990): 52. Reprinted with permission from the October issue of Training magazine.
Copyright © 1990. Lakewood, Minneapolis, MN. All rights reserved. Not for resale.

Aside from an uneven distribution of training across job
categories, the extent to which companies provide training over
time also is irregular. During good economic times, many
corporations invest heavily in the training of their employees.
Even though the cyclical nature of training is well known, some