Australia

Raman K. Attri rkattri@hotmail.com

2/21/2014 Copyrights © Raman K. Attri

Technical training expert and a training industry

thought leader

Supported, worked or consulted in Hi-Tech

Industry

Experienced in deploying training strategies

successfully to accelerate time-to-expertise of

employees

Hold strong opinions on best practices to orchestrate

complex training in complex organizations

Interested in participating in a forum of experts to shape

industry-wide knowledge base

2/21/2014 Copyrights © Raman K. Attri

Here is how you can express your experience and opinions to develop a new industry-wide knowledge base.

Invitation for Participation in Unique and Innovative

Research Study

Raman K. Attri Doctoral Research Student

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) Degree

Alternative Research Title Training Strategies to “Accelerate” Acquisition

of Proficiency of Technical Professionals in Complex Jobs Skills in Hi-Tech Industry

Training Strategies

refers to collection of methods, techniques, interventions, mechanisms, processes, philosophies, methodologies, structures & systems and instructional design

Acceleration

refers to shortening, compressing, improving or hastening of speed of achievement of goal

Proficiency

A stage of consistent superior performance characterized by reliability, repeatability, reproducibility and consistency of skills regardless of the situation, problem and challenge.

Time-to-Proficiency

Refers to time taken by an individual or group to reach to desired level of proficiency, expertise or productivity in knowledge/skills required to perform the job efficiently and effectively

Complex Job skills

refers to jobs requiring higher order knowledge, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, cognitive and metacognitive skills, troubleshooting and hands-on skills

Hi-Tech industry Refers to OECD definition of various sectors

driven by technology: Aerospace, Automotive, Artificial Intelligence, Biotechnology, Computer science, Information technology, Nanotechnology, Nuclear Physics, Photonics, Robotics, Semiconductors, Telecommunications

driven by R&D investments: Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals, Aircraft & spacecraft, Medical, precision & optical instruments, Radio, television & communication equipment, Office, accounting & computing machinery, Electrical machinery & apparatus, Motor vehicles, trailers & semi-trailers, Railroad & transport equipment, Chemical & chemical products, Machinery & equipment

2/21/2014 Copyrights © Raman K. Attri

2/21/2014 Copyrights © Raman K. Attri

•Time-to-market of new technologies, services, products and solutions is being squeezed (or accelerated) by organizations to gain competitive edge over others

•New business and emerging customer problems constantly requires evolution of highly complex technologies to address these customer needs

•Hi-tech industry is at critical point with dire need to build capabilities of their engineers at or more than the speed of time-to-market.

•There is a lag observed between speed with which organizations can build capability of employees and the speed of time-to-market of products/services/solutions/technologies

•Currently no proven or practical BKMs / Knowledge base available in literature which requires new training approaches to address business challenge of shortening time-to-proficiency of employees.

• It is crucial for organizations in particular and for the hi-tech industry in general to develop a knowledge base (academic or practitioner) on successful raining strategies

Research Question: What specific training strategies (methods, techniques, mechanisms, systems, processes, instructional design, methodologies, interventions, etc.) have helped leading hi-tech industry organizations to successfully “accelerate” acquisition of complex job skills of its technical professionals?

2/21/2014 Copyrights © Raman K. Attri

“Our vision is that methods for accelerating the achievement of proficiency, and even extraordinary expertise, might be taken to new levels such that one can accelerate the achievement of proficiency across

the journeyman-to-expert span post-hiring.” (Hoffman, Andrews & Feltovich,2012, p. 9)

2/21/2014 Copyrights © Raman K. Attri

Receive copy of final research report on the rare

research findings

Insight into proven training strategies that

worked across the hi-tech industry sector

Creating of forum of like-minded specialists to

generate industry-wide BKMs

Potential future research & consulting

collaborations, joint-authoring or other similar

opportunities

2/21/2014 Copyrights © Raman K. Attri

Select target participants with expertise and experience closely related to goal of the research.

2/21/2014

Copyrights © Raman K. Attri

Expression of interest via Questionnaire

Express interest, consent & preferred mode

Real-time Interview conducted by Researcher

Via Phone, Video, Audio, WebEx, Online, Face-to-Face, etc.

Self-filled Interview Questionnaire

Via Web –based, E-mail or paper-based

Follow-up Real-time Interview

(Some participants only)

Phone, Video, Audio, WebEx, Online, F2F etc.

Focus Group of Experts

(Optional : Select Industry Experts Only)

(Phone, Video, Audio, WebEx, Online, etc.)

60 minutes

30 minutes

30 minutes

60 minutes

10 minutes

A or B A B

Expected time commitment from each participant is maximum of 2.5 hours spread over 1-2 years time frame

Questionnaire: Validate findings

Small population of participants

Via Web –based, E-mail or paper-based

20 minutes

Time Frame step Interaction Expected time

Jan’14 – Jun’14

1 • Participant fill expression of interest of participation in the research.

• Relevant information like experience, expertise is furnished by the participants.

• Preferred mode of participation and interactions with researcher will be recorded.

10 minutes to fill survey

Jul’14-Sep’14 2 • Qualified participants will be selected through applying the defined criteria.

• Participants who preferred real-time interview will receive an e-mail confirmation regarding proposed time / method of interview. Sample interview questions will also be sent to them.

• Participants who preferred self-filled questionnaire interview will receive embedded questionnaire or link to online questionnaire.

5 minutes to read e-mail

Oct’14 – Mar’15

3 • Participants who preferred real-time interview, an in-depth interview will be conducted as per confirmed time and as per preferred method.

• Participants who preferred to respond via self-filled questionnaire interview will be reminded to fill the same. Some participants may be requested for a follow-on interview if needed.

30 to 60 minutes to fill questionnaire or attend interview

Jan’15 – Mar15

4 Participants will receive a link in their e-mail for transcripts of their interview for their review

10 minutes to review at free will

Apr’15 – jun’15

5 Same or different set of participants will receive a Validation Questionnaire (developed based on data analysis of interview or self-filled interview questionnaire) to triangulate the findings

20 minutes to fill the survey (same or different set of participants)

Jul’15 – Sept’15

6 Few key industry leaders will be invited to form a focus group to review the research findings

60 minutes (optional)

Jan’16- Mar’16

7 Participants will receive a thanks e-mail along copy or the link to the final research report.

5 minutes to download report

2/21/2014 Copyrights © Raman K. Attri

2/21/2014 Copyrights © Raman K. Attri

Specific experience or expertise related to accelerating expertise, bringing employees up to speed faster, shortening OJT, squeezing time taken by employees to acquire desired proficiency/productivity/ expertise, etc.

Personally led, managed, designed, consulted, implemented or contributed to a project with primary goal or the byproduct as to accelerate proficiency/productivity/expertise etc.

Worked, supported, managed or consulted in the Training / Learning function in Hi-Tech industry

At least one success story, case study or a project to share with the researcher during the interview

Willingness to provide in-depth insights on how organization orchestrated specific training strategy (ies) within the quoted success story to achieve results

Industry

Specific Expertise

Project Experience

Success story

Willingness

Target participants are those who have expertise and experience closely related to goal of the research.

•Qualitative Approach: People’s personal experiences of phenomenon

•Exploratory Stand: ‘discuss new idea’ (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie , 2004; Marshal and Rossman, 1989)

•Constructionism paradigm: Reality produced through interaction of subject with the environment

and focus on “how” questions

Approach

• Case Study Methodology: Real life experience of thought leaders (Yin, 1989)

• Two stage sequential qualitative study Methodology

•Sampling Method: Purposive sampling (Morse, 1991; Glaser & Strauss, 1967)

•Snow ball sampling referrals

•Participants: Training industry thought leaders (time-to-proficiency/ expertise development)

• Sampling Unit: Case

Sampling

•Online expression of interest, consent and demographic information

•Select participants based on years of experience, competencies, industry, position, organization,

experience in training and contribution in research area

Participant

selection

•Stage-I (To understand phenomenon)

•In-depth Interviews (Real-time: Phone, Audio, Video, Webex, Skype, Google Hangouts, Face to

Face etc)

•Self-filled interview questionnaire (Web-based questionnaire, Embedded E-mail Questionnaire or

paper-based, etc.)

•Stage-II (To triangulate the findings)

•Validation Questionnaire developed from data from stage-I to triangulate the findings

Data

Collection

• Case oriented data analysis: Analysis of similarities or within a case and across the cases

• Separate analysis of data from interview and questionnaire

• Continuous data collection and analysis

• Theory development based on emergent data

• Open, axial & selective coding for theory development

• Data Reduction Techniques (Miles and Huberman, 1994)

• Use the result of stage-1 analysis to frame Stage-2 qualitative questions for targeted

questions

Data Analysis

•Credibility and Quality

•Theoretical triangulation: interpreting the strategies from several different theories like

cognitive, behavioral, instructional and performance theories

•Data triangulation: By reviewing ideas, opinions, inferences and statements of experts

in their blogs, shared papers, publications and public appearances. (Suter, 2011)

•Methodological triangulation:

•Stage-II validation questionnaire will be developed from data analysis of Stage-1 data

•Stage-II questionnaire will be administered on same or different set of participants to

triangulate the findings of Stage-I.

•Data from Stage-II will be analyzed to establish credibility of stage-1

•One round of “feed forward” Delphi method will be conducted to validate final

research outcomes with select experts (Hartman & Baldwin, 1995).

•Dependability: Audit trail

•Confirmability: Evidences linked with theory development

•Transferability: Interview questions on applicability to other settings

Research

Validation

Semi-structured interviews

Intended questions will be sent beforehand

Interview centralized on at least one success story

Questions aim to explore participants’ thoughts in-depth on deployment of training strategies in their context

No mention of any proprietary information (like equipment, organization, technology or customer name) during interview

Convenient time zone, mode and technology

Multiple ways for inteviews (like WebEx, GoToMeeting online portal, Audio-video conference, Skype, Google HangOut etc.)

Face-to-face interviews where possible

Link to interview transcripts will be sent for review at your leisure post-training

2/21/2014 Copyrights © Raman K. Attri

Ethical measures as per university guidelines

Participant information fully protected, private and confidential.

All identifiable information about participant or his organization will be made non-identifiable

Pseudo-names used for participants for interview transcripts storage and data reporting

Participant information will never be shared with any party

Data correlation to be done in aggregate and reported on group level or category level

Collected data encrypted in a separate password protected hard disk accessible to the researcher only

Collected data solely for aforementioned research only

Collected data will not be used for any commercial or business purposes

Collected data to be kept confidential and retained by university for 7 years.

2/21/2014 Copyrights © Raman K. Attri

Interested to be part of this research?

Click on this link to take a short 10 minutes survey to express your interest and consent to participate in the research: https://scuau.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_29T4K885ajoZriR

A follow-up communication will be arranged once you log your interest / consent.

2/21/2014 Copyrights © Raman K. Attri

Researcher: Raman K. Attri

Affiliation: KLA-Tencor Corp USA

Title: Senior Global Technical Training Manager

Affiliation: Doctoral Research Student

University: Southern Cross University, Australia

Degree: Doctorate of Business Administration

Approval Number: ECN-13-261 dated: 16-Oct-2013

E-mail: rkattri@hotmail.com

Time frame for research: 2014-2015

Research Supervisor: Dr. Wing S. Wu (winswu@yahoo.com)

Research outline link: http://www.slideshare.net/researchinvitation

Research finding: Thesis as per university guideline and interim results in conferences or research journals

2/21/2014 Copyrights © Raman K. Attri

Raman K. Attri is an organizational learning specialist and training management professional with

specialization in complex training design, competitive training strategies, and expertise development in the

complex corporate world. He is equipped with over 20 years of technical and training experience.

Keenly interested in advanced research, he is currently pursuing is Doctorate in Business Administration

(DBA) at Southern Cross University, Australia. He is conducting a ground-breaking research in training

strategies to accelerate time-to-proficiency of employees performing complex jobs.

As Senior Global Technical Training manager for KLA-Tencor Corporation, a $11bn semiconductor

equipment manufacturer and Training Magazine’s Top 10 Hall of Fame inductee for training excellence, he

manages global training operations for semiconductor equipment service, maintenance and repair training.

At KLA-Tencor, he has led several initiatives to restructure training programs to meet changing business

needs with complexity of equipments.

In addition to this he serves as training and learning consultant to leading professional bodies engaged in

creating next generation best practices and to transform research into practical training solutions. His

current research is another contribution towards integrating scattered training strategies under a common

industry-wide knowledge base.

Previously he has served as Sr. Scientist for 10 years in the area of research and development of

sophisticated instrumentation and measurement technologies.

He has earned a Professional Doctorate in Management, MBA in Operations Management, EMBA in

Customer Relationships and a Master’s Degree in Applied Electronics among several other international

credentials and certifications.

2/21/2014 Copyrights © Raman K. Attri

E-mail: rkattri@hotmail.com | Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/rkattri | LinkedIn Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3091002 | Twitter: www.twitter.com/rkattri | SlideShare: www.slideshare.net/rkattri | Publications: http://works.bepress.com/rkattri/ | Website: https://sites.google.com/site/ramankumarattri/ | Blogs: http://managingtraining.wordpress.com | Blogs: http://rkattri.wordpress.com

THANKS Appreciate your attention, time and interest to be part of this industry-wide initiative to create a new knowledge base for training and learning professionals

2/21/2014 Copyrights © Raman K. Attri

Researcher will get back to you to take it forward Questions? Contact researcher at rkattri@hotmail.com or research supervisor at winswu@yahoo.com

During the research if you have concerns about the ethical conduct of this research or the researchers, write to the following. University assures keeping all information confidential and handled as soon as possible.

The Ethics Complaints Officer,

Southern Cross University,

PO Box 157, Lismore NSW 2480

Australia

Email: ethics.lismore@scu.edu.au

2/21/2014 Copyrights © Raman K. Attri