Page 146 - DMGT518_TRAINING_AND_DEVELOPMENT_SYSTEM

Unit 9: Trainer’s Style

Notes

Notes Power that the trainer actually exercise have two bases:
(a) One forces coercion i.e. reliance on formal authority and force.
(b) Power may have a persuasive-sharing basis and rely on helping others to think and
make choices and there by spread power.

Influence: It is useful to distinguish the behavior that influences participants directly or indirectly.
Table 9.1: Direct Influence and Indirect Influence

Statements of direct influence are those in Statements of indirect influence are those in
which trainers: which trainers:
 Express or lecture about ideas or knowledge  Accept, clarify and support the ideas and
feeling of participants
 Give directions or orders  Praise and encourage
 Criticize or deprecate participants behavior  Ask questions to stimulate participation in
or deprecate participants behavior with decision making
intent to change it
 Justify their own position or authority  Ask questions to orient participants to the
task or to the topic of discussion

4. Trainers Behaviour and Participants’ Dependence
(a) When goals are ambiguous, direct influence by the teacher increases dependence by
centralizing the authority structure and/or restricting social access.
(b) When goals are unambiguous, indirect influence by the teacher increases independence
by decentralizing the authority structure and/or freeing social access.
(c) When goals are clear and attractive, direct influence will tend to increase dependence,
and indirect influence will tend to decrease dependence, but only to the extent that
the student cannot see the relationships between the teacher’s comments and the
clear goal.

(d) When goals are clear and unattractive, direct teacher influence is necessary to sustain
work by restricting social process and centralizing authority through a system of
rewards and punishments, producing high dependency.
5. Trainers ‘Realness’ Under Pressure
(a) 1 dilemma-Participants expectation versus trainers intention: Participants carry a burden
st
in the form of expectations when they just meet the trainer. Participants have some
picture of a trainer long before they actually meet the particular trainer here. In case
if there is any mismatch between the participant’s expectation and trainer, then
arises a better or unhealthy training condition.
nd
(b) 2 dilemma-Individual versus group needs: Participants differ in interest, methods of
work, the speed of learning and how they interpret the trainer’s behaviour. But
except for minor modification the trainer actions have to be same for all. Hence the
trainer attention must stay with the participants and in their leaning. Thus attention
of the trainer must stay with the participant and learning.

rd
(c) 3 Dilemma-Consistency versus flexibility: Participants expect trainers to be consistent
preferably faultless without fail- preferably from the day one. Thus trainer needs to
be consistent in his behavior. This consistency can be established when trainer takes

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 141