The impact of organisational change on the nature and extent of training in Australian enterprises

This article reports on a study investigating the relationship between the introduction of new management practices and the training provided by Australian enterprises for their employees. The new management practices investigated include teamworking, total quality management, lean production, business process re-engineering and the learning organisation. The study involved a survey of human resource managers in medium to large size Australian enterprises. The study models the impact of the introduction of new management practices and the extent of training provision in the enterprises and on the form and nature of the training. The article concludes that whereas new management practices have a significant impact on training provision in enterprises, the effect is highly differentiated and that a critical relationship is the integration of training with the business strategy of the enterprise.