Thinking about implementing a mobile training program into your company? Consider the importance of maintaining established organizational trust and take actions to preserve it through a well planned training program that is integrated into the functions of the organization as well as providing targeted and relevant information. Have a collaborative mobile team? That same trust must be sustained – members of a team must be able to trust their colleagues and your systems of information sharing to provide them with the information and support they need to do their jobs while mobile.
In 2009, Jeffrey May wrote, “What does organizational trust have to do with training?” an article that presented the importance of not losing the trust of employees through a stagnating and uninspired training program.
Offering the latest and greatest training fad program may be wonderful for morale … for a while, but once the luster has worn off, and the support provided by the organization begins to wane, learners begin asking questions. If the organization isn’t committed to following through with training by implementing changes internally that reflect the principles being trained, then trust can fall by the wayside. If you begin to hear phrases like, “we did that course last year … see, there’s the binder on my shelf”, you can be rest assured that trust and credibility may be an issue in the organization. (Jeffrey May, 2009)
When it comes to mobile learning, Cathrine Filstad and Petter Gottschalk, from the Norwegian School of Management, write: “Trust and knowledge sharing affect collaboration in virtual teams as knowing across boundaries in a mobile organisation.” They suggest ensuring all team members understand the bigger picture and share common goals, that providing resources to everyone involved “to adjust to situations as they arise” and developing a “shared language facilitated by technological visualisation artefacts” are all best practices for establishing and building trust amongst team members and between employee and organization.
Filstad, Cathrine and Petter Gottschalk. Knowing in mobile organizations – trust and knowledge sharing in virtual teams, The International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisations 4(3), June 2010.
May, Jeffrey. What does organizational trust have to do with training? Partner: Discussions About Training and Development. Blog post, November 6, 2009.
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