The Influence of Training on Preferences

Abstract

Any organisation or company that want to bring about a change in the process, procedures or internal organisation encounters the issue of training the staff. Training is commonly used to increase dedication in specific issues for example environmental issues, energy saving or enhancing the overall competence of the staff.

When working with environmental- or energy issues, the attitude of the employees is often considered one of the most important factors for the outcome. In this paper two different studies are compared. In both studies training has been included as a background factor in a conjoint analysis study.

The first study concerns preferences for new materials, in this case advanced high strength steel. The respondents were asked to rank eight alternative steel containers and the results, (preferences) were compared to any previous training the individual respondent had. The same procedure was taken in study number two where employees at a paper & pulp industry was asked to rank eight alternative processes with different environmental impacts.

Also here the respondents were asked to state any previous training and the preferences was compared to previous training.

It has not been possible to show any significant connection between preferences in a specific issue and training in the same area. However, it would be interesting to use the method to measure the effect of training on preferences before and after a specific training session.