Internal quality management instructors' knowledge-training capabilities: an empirical study in Taiwan

摘要

An internal quality management (QM) instructor's capabilities to deliver training obviously influence the performance of an organisation's QM training. However, there is a lack of independent, complete and empirical research on how to assess these. To address this issue, this study surveys internal QM instructors in Taiwan. The exploratory factor analysis of data from 235 usable questionnaires revealed that the internal QM instructors' knowledge-training capabilities are a combination of several sub-capabilities, including knowledge application, knowledge transformation, trainee orientation, self-monitoring, guanxi management, trainee participation and knowledge learning, which can further be divided into 'direct-indirect' and 'hard-soft' capabilities. Whether instructors can integrate and apply these seven sub-capabilities effectively has a signifcit000icant influence on trainees' learning and absorption of the focal knowledge. This study provides a complete framework for assessing internal QM instructors' knowledge-training capabilities. Organisations can apply this framework to select, train and evaluate their internal QM instructors, which can thus enhance the effectiveness of such training. The major limitation of this study is the lack of investigation of the relationship between instructors' knowledge-training capabilities and training effectiveness. Future researchers can examine this to advance the knowledge base of internal QM instructors' knowledge-training capabilities.