Online published on 28 February, 2020.
In a globally competitive space, employers are looking for talent with improved capabilities, knowledge and skills for a competitive advantage. Organizations are constantly working on building capability across the world. As per research findings, capability building is one of the top-three priorities in most of the organizations. It is more significant for organizations operating in parts of Asia, particularly in India and China (McKinsey, 2015). Skills, abilities and knowledge of the employees need constant improvement and to perform on the job necessitates operational training programs. Organizations invest in developing new skills, and do a long term planning to enable their employees to remain productive in the dynamic economic conditions. This helps the employees to improve their performance on the job and remain committed to the organization.
This research work details the adventure learning process with particular reference to Outbound Training. OT is referred by names such as, Corporate Adventure Training and Outdoor Management Development, Outbound Management Programs, Outdoor-based training, adventure based training, adventure based learning, adventure education, adventure counselling, outdoor adventure learning, outdoor experiential education, wilderness education and outdoor development etc. Outbound training is an application of structured experiences that takes place outdoors.
Researchers have investigated the role of outbound training and have found that it is used basically for enhancing an individuals’ understanding of one self, capability to lead people, approach to solve problems, do proper planning, team work skills etc. Most of the organizations provide management training. Many of them opt for an outbound training methodology to impart soft skill training. This study is also been done for the first time for ITeS companies located in the National Capital Region (NCR) of India. The companies that took part in the study are Accenture, HCL Technologies and TCS. Thus, this study is first of its kind to gauge the importance of Outbound Training in ITeS industry in NCR region to prove it as a viable tool in organizational development.
Snowball sampling technique was adapted for the smooth conduct of the survey with 395 as sample size. Quantitative analysis often utilises descriptive and inferential statistics as well as frequency tables, sample size, averagesand measures of variationsetc (Bryman, 2008). In thisstudy, Descriptive analysis, Frequency distribution, Cross tabulation (chi-square), Factor analysis, co-relation and regression were used for analysis.
Findings based on Factor Analysis demonstrated that three factors were critical factors for successful outbound training-Individual performance, Organizational performance and Focus on transfer. Therefore, a regression analysis was conducted to study a relationship between them
To conclude, the study suggests that Organizations should focus on transfer of learning of OT programs as organizational learning is critical for the growth and success of an organization. This research sets up several lines of future research on OMD. Firstly a large-scale quantitative research can be done to assess the efficacy of outbound training. A longitudinal study can be takenup in future, as theprocess of skill transfer and behaviour modification is a long term process. Similar research findings conducted for a different set of population might come in handy as the issue of transfer of learning would remain the same.
