Training and organisational performance: A meta-analysis of temporal, institutional, and organisational context moderators

Drawing on systems theory, we conducted a moderated meta-analysis of the training and organisational performance relationship using 119 primary studies. We examined the moderating effects of quality versus quantity of training, time, institutional, and organisational context factors in the relationship between training and organisational performance. Our findings reveal that training is positively and directly related to organisational performance with no statistically significant difference between measures of training quality and quantity. We found that the relationship was stronger overtime, and that country performance orientation and country labour cost moderate the training and organisational performance relationship. We found no evidence for the moderating effects of the three organisational context moderators we examined (i.e., industry sector, organisational size, and technology intensity). Finally, our results reveal that training type (i.e., general or firm-specific) does not moderate the training and organisational performance relationship.