Administrators ’ Roles in Training Programs and Their Relationship with Trainees ’ Motivation

This research was conducted to assess the relationship between the role of administrators in training programs and the motivation level of the trainees. The data were collected through a survey method conducted on employees at a government agency in East Malaysia. The outcomes of SmartPLS path model analysis show three important findings. First, administrators’ roles in training programs are significantly related to trainees’ motivation. Second, provision of support is significantly linked to the motivation of the trainees. Third, communication is significantly related to the motivation level of the trainees. Thus, the findings indicate that administrators’ roles, support, and communication act as significant determinants of trainees’ motivation in an organizational sample.

Traditionally, a majority of industries give most focus on implementing in-house training programs to enhance employees' fundamental skills, solve daily work problems, and improve daily work performance.However, many researchers have viewed that training programs are significant and appropriate to the organizations located in domestic, stable, and less competitive environments (Ismail, Hasan, & Sulaiman, 2010;Noe, 2010).The traditional training approach has been changed to strategy-based training when organizations transform their businesses into market winners in an era of globalization and knowledge-based economy (Bauer & Erdogan, 2012;Giran, Amin, & Halim, 2014;Noe, 2010).
Recent literature about strategic based training published in the 21st century shows that employers have proactively focused on increasing human capital asset.This is done through introducing new strengths, altering attitude as well as enhancing knowledge, expertise, and skills based on the needs of the organization.Hence, exposing the members of the organization to more challenges, staying up-to-date with the advancement of technology related to the industry, encouraging continuous improvement, and promoting lifelong learning (Asfaw, Argaw, & Bayissa, 2015;Aziz, 2016;Madagamage, Warnakulasooriya, & Wickramasuriya, 2014;Noe, 2010).This training orientation may strongly prepare the members of the organization to uphold its vision and mission in becoming a market winner in the challenging era of global competition (Giran, Amin, & Halim, 2014;Ismail et al., 2013;Noe, 2010).
Extant researches about strategic based training highlight that competent administration is a critical success factor of effective training programs (Ahmed et al., 2016;Madagamage, Warnakulasooriya, & Wickramasuriya, 2014).In a competent administration perspective, administrators have adequate capabilities to use support and communication in handling training programs.Support is broadly defined as administrators' ability to create objectives, develop effective lesson plans, choose the appropriate coach, define the methods and techniques of the program, provide course materials, and arrange training schedules (Asfaw, Argaw, & Bayissa, 2015;Madagamage, Warnakulasooriya, & Wickramasuriya, 2014).
In carrying out the training programs, administrators will also consult their stakeholders, line managers, and experienced staff to ensure that the training activities can achieve their intended outcomes (Ahmed et al., 2015;Aziz, 2016;Ismail et al., 2013).Besides that, communication is usually defined as a way of administrators in delivering the information about training programs such as trainings' objectives, course contents, and methods through electronic and printed based media to all employees in the organization (Asfaw, Argaw, & Bayissa, 2015;Harris & Kumra, 2000;Ismail et al., 2013).If this communication system is openly and honestly done, it can significantly upgrade employees' understanding of the benefits of the training program.Thus, it can lead to higher commitment to the training programs (Asfaw, Argaw, & Bayissa, 2015;Aziz, 2016;Khan, Mufti, & Nazir, 2015).
Additionally, a thorough review conducted by a successful organization has revealed the administrators' capabilities.It is in providing sufficient support and communicating openly.It can have a big impact on the outcomes, especially on the motivation level of the trainees (Aziz, 2016;Ismail, Hasan, & Sulaiman, 2010;Khan, Mufti, & Nazir, 2015;Noe, 2010).
In the perspective of the organization, trainees' motivation is broadly defined as trainees' intentions to attend, learn, and have involvement in enhancing and updating their knowledge, skills, and abilities.
Apart from that, it is also defined as their fostering of positive attitudes, and continuous upgrading of their capabilities to pursue their goals (Ahmed et al., 2016;Giran, Amin, & Halim, 2014;Khan, Mufti, & Nazir, 2015;Madagamage, Warnakulasooriya, & Wickramasuriya, 2014).In recent training literature, trainees' motivation is widely judged as an important outcome of administrators' role in training programs (Ahmed et al., 2016;Khan, Mufti, & Nazir, 2015;Madagamage, Warnakulasooriya, & Wickramasuriya, 2014) In the training model for an organization, numerous researchers have viewed that support, communication, and the motivation level of the trainees have different meanings.However, those are strongly interconnected.For example, the capability of the administrators to properly provide support and manage communication while handling training activities may enhance trainees' motivation in organizations.The roles of the administrator in conducting training programs are less emphasized in most of the literature about organizational training, even though the relationship is important (Asfaw, Argaw, & Bayissa, 2015;Aziz, 2016;Ismail, Hasan, & Sulaiman, 2010;Noe, 2010).
Many researchers in previous researches argued that the lack of emphasis on administrators' roles was linked to several factors.They included the internal characteristics of administrators' roles in the training program.For example, there were conceptual definitions as well as traditional and contemporary administrators' roles in training programs.Most of the previous researchers adopted simple correlation procedure to evaluate employees' perceptions toward particular training types.They also focused on the degree of association between certain training types and work outcomes.Hence, it gave less emphasis on the roles of the administrators.Additionally, many of the previous researchers failed to assess the impact and characteristics of the relationship between administrators' support and communication with trainees' motivation by using an organizational behavior approach.Subsequently, those researches only indicated general findings.Those were not comprehensive to be adopted as guidelines for others in grasping the convolution of administrators' roles in training programs.Moreover, it was also insufficient to guide the formulation of innovator strategy to uphold the vision and missions of the organization in a global turbulence time (Chaloner, 2006;Aziz, 2016;Khan, Mufti, & Nazir, 2015;Machin & Fogarty, 2004;Noe, 2010;Tsai & Tai, 2003).Hence, this would lead current researchers to quantify the effect of administrators' roles on trainees' motivation in training programs, to fill in the literature gap.
Specifically, this research is done to measure two important relationships.First, it is the relationship between administrators' support and trainees' motivation.Second, it is the relationship between administrators' communication and trainees' motivation.
The finding of the correlation between the administration of training and the motivation of the trainees is aligned with the main concept in theory of motivation.Maslow (1954) in Ramlall (2004) in the hierarchy of needs indicated that physiological and psychological needs could motivate individuals to achieve intended goals.Meanwhile, Adams (1963) explained with equity theory that the perception on fair conduct was an influential aspect to encourage people to execute their daily tasks.Additionally, Locke and Latham (1990) in Ramlall (2004), in their goal-setting theory, they suggested that the capability of people to understand the goals set might assist them to accomplish work targets.
Furthermore, Vroom's expectancy theory described that perceived met expectations could strongly stimulate an individual to implement tasks.The implementation of the main concepts in administrating training programs showed that the essence of physiological and psychological needed fair treatment, goal clarity, and met the expectation.Those were often translated as administrators' support and communication.This is highly supported in literature related to training administration (Chaloner, 2006;Aziz, 2016;Giran, Amin, & Halim, 2014;Ismail et al., 2013;Machin & Fogarty, 2004;Tabassi & Bakar, 2009;Tsai & Tai, 2003;Zahra, Iram, & Naeem, 2014).
A number of studies were conducted by adopting direct effects model to assess the administration of training in a variety of organizational samples, including 123 workers at army health organizations in Peninsular Malaysia (Ismail et al., 2013), 136 workers at a readymade garment shop in Bangladesh (Zahra, Iram, & Naeem, 2014), 100 management employees in an established national bank in Sri Lanka (Madagamage, Warnakulasooriya, & Wickramasuriya, 2014), 120 employees from Kolej Poly-Tech MARA Kuantan (Giran, Amin, & Halim, 2014), and 287 employees at the Malaysian National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (Aziz, 2016).The outcomes of these researches display two major findings.The first finding indicates that the willingness of the training administrators to prepare sufficient material and moral support in planning and administering training programs contributed to the enhancement of trainees' motivation.The second finding indicates that the willingness of the training administrators to convey information pertaining the training program openly, accurately, and honestly have also contributed towards the enhancement of the trainees' motivation (Chaloner, 2006;Aziz, 2016;Giran, Amin, & Halim, 2014;Ismail et al., 2013;Machin & Fogarty, 2004;Tabassi & Bakar, 2009;Tsai & Tai, 2003).The findings as indicated in the literature are used as a foundation to establish a theoretical framework for this research as exhibited in Figure 1.
Based on the framework, it can be hypothesized as follows.

METHODS
This research employs a cross-sectional research design.It permits the researchers to integrate the training administration research literature and the survey method as the main data collection procedure.As recommended by many researchers, the salient benefits of utilizing this procedure may enhance the ability to collect accurate data, decrease bias data, and increase data quality (Creswell, 2014;Ismail & Ibrahim, 2010;Sekaran & Bougie, 2015).
This research is conducted at a government agency in Sarawak, Malaysia.In the initial stage of data collection, a self-report questionnaire is drafted according to the training administration literature.Next, a back-translation method is adapted to translate the questionnaire into English and Malay versions to upgrade the validity and reliability of research findings (Creswell, 2014;Ismail & Ibrahim, 2010;Sekaran & Bougie, 2013).
Purposive sampling is utilized to distribute 200 self-report questionnaires to employees in the organization.The survey questionnaires are answered by participants with their consent.Among the total number, 100 usable survey questionnaires are received from the employees.It has 67% response rate.This sampling technique is employed because the head of the organization cannot release the complete list of registered employees to the researchers for confidential reasons.Thus, it limits the researchers in making a random selection of the participants.
The SmartPLS 3.0 is utilized to analyze the survey questionnaire data because it has the several capabilities.It can deliver latent variable scores, clear the issues related to small sample size, and decipher complex models by listing numbers of obvious and hidden variables.Moreover, it can deal with stringent assumptions related to the distribution of variables and error terms and analyze both reflective and formative measurement models (Henseler & Ringle, 2009).
The data is first analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis.It is used to evaluate the validity and reliability of the instrument.Second, variance inflation factor and descriptive statistics are used to estimate the validity and reliability of constructs.Third, SmartPLS path model analysis is utilized to measure the hypothesized model.The outcomes of the test will show the significance of the relationship between the independent variable and dependent variable if the value of t statistic is larger than 1,96 (Henseler, Ringle, & Sinkovics, 2009).Moreover, the value of R2 is used as an indicator of the overall predictive strength of the model.The value of R2 are considered as follows: 0,19 (weak), 0,33 (moderate), and 0,67 (substantial) (Chin, 1998;Henseler, Ringle, & Sinkovics, 2009).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Table 1 shows that the majority of respondents are males (64%).They are between 30 and 29 years old (33%).Moreover, they are SPM holders (51%), and employees who have worked more than 21 years (32%).Table 1 indicates the item reliability for different constructs.The results find that the value of each factor loading is greater than 0,70.Therefore, it can be implied that this construct has its strength in the model and tremendous power to build its model.
Besides that, the correlation between items and factors has higher loadings than other items in the different constructs (Fornell & Larcker, 1981;Gefen & Straub, 2005).The result of factor loadings for support is 0,786-0,934.Then, the communication is 0,740-0,790 and trainees' motivation is 0,715-0,902.This result indicates that all items have met the acceptable standard of discriminant validity.
The value of composite reliability for all constructs have values greater than 0,8.It indicates that the measurement scale used in this research has high internal consistency (Nunally& Bernstein, 1994).The results are support (0,958), communication (0,893), and trainees' motivation (0,955).These further confirm that the instrument used in this research has met the acceptable standards of validity and reliability analyses.
These results indicate that the findings of this research have met the standard and validity prescribed by the average variance extracted (AVE).It exceeds 0,5 for all constructs (Barclay, Higgins, & Thompson, 1995;Fornell & Larcker, 1981;Henseler & Ringle, 2009).Among the values of the AVE for each construct, support is 0,767.Then, communication is 0,583, and trainees' motivation is 0,660 (Hair Jr. et al., 2014).Moreover, the findings of this research show that all constructs are up to the standard of discriminant validity.It is with greater AVE square root in diagonal than the squared correlation with other constructs in off the diagonal (Henseler & Ringle, 2009).The result can be seen in Table 2. Table 3 shows that the means for the research constructs range from 5,2783 to 6,0250.It shows that the levels of support, communication, and trainees' motivation range from high (4,0) to the highest level (7).The correlation coefficients for the relationship between independent variable (support and communication) and the dependent variable (trainees' motivation) are less than 5,0.This signifies that the data are not affected by a serious collinearity problem (Hair Jr. et al., 2017).Therefore, these statistical results confirm that the instrument fulfills the criteria of validity and reliability analyses.Figure 2 shows that the quality of model predictions in the analysis is demonstrated by the score of R squared.The inclusion of administrators' roles in training programs and employees' motivation in the analysis explains about 41% of the variance in the dependent variable.It implies that the result provides moderate support for the model.Specifically, the results of testing the research hypothesis show that administrators' roles in training programs are significantly correlated with trainees' motivation (β= 0,64; t= 7,53).It supports H1.This result confirms that administrators' roles in training programs are important determinants of trainees' motivation.
Note: Significant at *>1,96 In addition to the size of R2, the predictive sample reuses technique (Q2).It can effectively be used as a criterion for predictive relevance (Chin, 2010;Geisser, 1974).Based on blindfolding procedure, Q2 evaluates the predictive validity of a large complex model using PLS.Furthermore, a blindfolding procedure is applied to assess predictive relevance for the reflective endogenous latent variable.The outcomes of this test show that the value of Q2 for trainees' motivation is greater than zero or 0,247 specifically.This result has predictive relevance (Hair Jr. et al., 2017).
Figure 3 shows that the inclusion of support and communication in the analysis explains 42% of the variance in the dependent variable.It implies that the outcome provides moderate support for the model.Moreover, the outcomes of testing the research hypothesis display two important findings.First, support is significantly related to trainees' motivation (β=0,507; t=3,579).It supports H2.Second, communication is significantly related to trainees' motivation (β=0,210; t=2,135).It means that it supports H3.In sum, the result proves that support and communication are important determinants of trainees' motivation.
Note: Significant at *>1,96 The outcomes of this test show that the value of Q2 for trainees' motivation is 0,208; which means the reflective endogenous latent variable is higher than zero.This result has predictive relevance (Hair Jr. et al., 2017).This research's findings show that administrators have appropriately implemented support and communication styles.It can encourage employees to attend and learn news competencies (e.g., knowledge, skills, abilities, positive attitudes, and other current capabilities) in training programs.Not only that, but administrators have also encouraged them to transfer the competencies gained from training programs in returning to their workplace.According to the majority of the respondents, the levels of support, communication, and trainees' motivation are high.This situation explains the ability of administrators to appropriately implement support and communication in handling training programs.These may lead to an increased level of trainees' motivation in the organization.
This research provides three major implications.Those are theoretical contribution, robustness of research methodology, and practical contribution.Regarding the contribution to theory, this research displays two important outcomes.First, the capability of administrators to sufficiently provide material and moral support (e.g., budget, facilities, and encouragement) in training programs is an important determinant of trainees' motivation.Second, the capability of administrators to openly communicate the information about training (e.g., goals, course content, and procedures) is also an important determinant of trainees' motivation.These findings also have supported and extended previous researches by (Chaloner, 2006;Aziz, 2016;Giran, Amin, & Halim, 2014;Ismail et al., 2013;Machin & Fogarty, 2004;Tabassi & Bakar, 2009;Tsai & Tai, 2003;Zahra, Iram, & Naeem, 2014).
In the robustness of research methodology, the survey questionnaire data used in this research have fulfilled the criteria of validity and reliability analyses.This situation can lead to produce the accurate and reliable research findings.On the other hand, this research's findings can also be a practical contribution in improving the design and administration of organizational training programs.
To achieve the objective, management needs to give more focus on the several issues.First, human-oriented leadership should be promoted in handling training programs.This leadership style will encourage administrators to improve their capabilities in communicating and handling diverse employees' needs and expectations.It will also inspire employees to achieve their organizations' vision and missions.Second, various types of training support should be enhanced for employees.This support may include the increasing time allocation in attending training, financial, and resources assistance.It also can be the opportunities for employees to apply the new competencies from training programs after returning to their workplace.
Third, training assignment should be made appropriately to identify the right employees for attending the right courses and workshops.This selection process will upgrade employee competencies and motivate them in using the competencies to achieve their job targets.Finally, Internet communication technology should be upgraded in office management.This technology will help administrators in increasing their employees' understanding of the importance and advantages of attending training programs to develop their career paths.If these suggestions are given more attention, it may motivate employees to support and accept the training programs' goals.

CONCLUSIONS
This research confirms the administrators' capability to provide support accurately and adequately.It also finds out that communicate is an important factor in training programs.It may contribute in increasing the motivation of the trainees in the organization.Moreover, the findings of this research also support and broaden the scope and view of the matter as compared to the findings of the previous researches mostly published in the western countries.Hence, this research proposes for future research and practices in human resources management in viewing support and communication as the strategic elements of the training administration model.
This research also proposes that the capabilities of the administrators in planning and implementing training programs will give positive impacts on the outcome of the training (e.g., training satisfaction, motivation to perform job, and self-reliance).These behaviors will lead the trainees to uphold and support the strategies and goals of the organization.Thus, the organization remains strong in an era of global competition.
The current research has identified a few methodological and conceptual limitations.Firstly, this research is conducted by focusing on the correlation between latent variables.It does not focus on the correlation between specific indicators for independent and dependent variables.Secondly, the data are collected by using a cross-sectional research method.It does not capture the detailed patterns and changes of the studied sample.Thirdly, this research adopts purposive sampling technique for sample selection in one government organization.Hence, the limitations identified may affect the generalizability of the findings of this research to other organizations.
There are also several suggestions that can be listed based on the findings of this research to improve future researches.First, demographic information of the respondents such as gender, age, and education qualification should be included in testing the theoretical framework.If these characteristics are considered, they will provide meaningful perspectives to understand how these characteristics may affect workplace training program.Second, the longitudinal study may also be used as it has more capabilities than the cross-sectional method in explaining the patterns of change, direction, and magnitude of causal relationships between the variables of interest.Third, more than one government organizations should be used to produce better results.Fourth, other theoretical constructs of training administration such as training delivery mode, budget, and assignment method are also important variables that should be given more attention.These variables are widely acknowledged as the important predictors of trainee outcomes.Last, other trainee outcome constructs such as training satisfaction, motivation to job performance, and employee retention need to be assessed because they are found as important outcomes of the training administration.The importance of these aspects can be explored in future researches.
Figure 1 Theoretical Framework

Figure 2
Figure 2 The Outcomes of SmartPLS for Testing H1

Figure 3
Figure 3 The Outcomes of SmartPLS for Testing H2 and H3

Table 2
The Results of Discriminant Validity Analyses

Table 3
Variance Inflation Factor and Descriptive Statistics