National Hsinchu University of EducationGraduate Institute of Human Resource Development

The Challenges and Trends of HRD in High-Tech Industry

Hsiu-Yen Hsu (徐秀燕 )Work and Human Resource Education

University of Minnesota98. 04. 29

Contents

• The Challenges of HRD in Taiwan High-Tech Industry.

• Case Study of Trends- The Impact of Organizational Learning Culture on Job Behaviors among R&D Professionals in Taiwan.

Part I

The Challenges of HRD in Taiwan High-Tech Industry

Taiwan High-Tech Industry

• Definition of High-tech Industry

• History

• Number of Employees in Hsinchu Science Park

• Industry Area

HRD and National HRD

• HRD varies from nation to nation, and the context of HRD is established in part by culture (McLean & McLean, 2001).

• National HRD is to improve national economic development, political and social development by enhancing the learning and performance capabilities of all the national levels (Osman-Gani, 2004).

National HRD in Taiwan

• Closing the gap between the supply of and the demand for skilled manpower.

• Decreasing the unemployment rate.

• Providing the talent and highly skilled manpower for high-tech industry.

• Combining human capital investment and HRD policy.

HRD for Taiwan High-Tech Industry

• Controlling the number of students graduating at high school and university levels.

• Producing the number of trained workers

needed in a particular period of time.

• Recruiting oversea talent.

• Establishing economic infrastructures.

Challenges of HRD at National Level

• Developing effective training programs.• Reducing the shortage of talent and highly

skilled manpower.• Increasing the employment rate of higher

education graduates. • Establishing a mechanism to improve

investments in human capital.

Challenges of HRD at Organizational Level

• Shifting the function of HRD from training to organizational learning and performance.

• Creating better interventions to retain highly skilled manpower.

• Using technology to facilitate the training and learning effectively.

• Engaging HRD in increasing capacities, skills, and knowledge globally.

Part II

Case Study of Trends: The Impact of Organizational Learning Cultures on Job Behaviors among R&D Professionals in

Taiwan.

Problem Statement • A significantly higher turnover rate in high-tech

companies. (Garden, 1990; Lazar, 2001).

• Effective training, recruitment, and retention of R&D professionals is a major issue in developing high-tech industries (Chen, Chang, & Yeh,2003; Tai & Wang, 2006).

• Relatively few empirical studies on the relationship between organizational learning culture and job behaviors.

Researchers per 1000 Employed Persons in Various Countries

Source: National Science Council, 2007

The Importance of Learning Organization for R&D Professionals

• Intellectual and knowledge capital

• Invested heavily in training and knowledge

• Reducing the turnover rate of R&D professionals and increasing organizational performance.

• Learning orientation has a positive impact on organizational innovation and performance.

Characteristics of Organizational Learning Culture

• Creation, acquisition, and transformation of information and knowledge

• Shared vision, value, and goals• Increasing the learning capacity of members of

the organization• Creativity and innovation• Increasing productivity and improving

performance

Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ)

• Individual Level

1. Continuous Learning

2. Inquiry and Dialogue

• Team or Group Level

3. Team Learning

• Organizational Level

4. Empowerment

5. Embedded System

6. System Connection

7. Strategic Leadership

(Marsick & Watkins, 1997)

Job Satisfaction

• Definition: “the pleasurable emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one’s job as achieving or facilitating the achievement of one’s job values” (Locke, 1969, p. 316).

• Intrinsic factors: job-related rewards Extrinsic factors: environment-related rewards

• Antecedents and consequences

Organizational Commitment

• Definition: “the strength of an individual's identification with and involvement in a particular organization” (Porter, Steers, Mowday, & Boulin, 1974, p.604).

• Organizational commitment model: affective commitment, continuance commitment, and normative commitment.

• Antecedents and consequences

Turnover Intention

• Focusing on voluntary turnover.

• Antecedents: demographic variables, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, training opportunity, career orientation.

• Turnover intention has been identified as the most common predictor of turnover.

Hypothesized Structural

Equation Model

H1

H2

H4

H6

H3

Organizational Commitment

Job Satisfaction

Turnover Intention

H5Organizational

Learning Culture

Summary of Construct

Construct Items Source of Instrument

Reliability

Organizational Learning culture (OLC)

35 DLOQ (Watkins & Marsick, 1997)

.72~.89

Job Satisfaction (JS) 9 JSS (Spector, 1997)

.91

Organizational Commitment (OC)

16 ACNCS (Allen & Meyer, 1990)

.73~.82

Turnover Intention (TI) 4 SLI (Bluedorn, 1982a)

.84~.92

Demographic Information 7

Total Number of Items 71

Construct of Reliability and Validity

• The reliability of all the scales ranged from 0.65 to 0.95.

• For the factor loadings of all the items included in the analysis, only the value of continuance commitment was less than 0.5.

• The overall measurement model fit: χ2 (204) =1070.59, p =0.00, χ2/df=5.25,

RMSEA=0.10, CFI=0.96, NFI=0.95, NNFI=0.95, IFI=0.96, RMR=0.084

Population and Sample

• Population: R&D professionals from business enterprises.

• Sample: (a) Industry category: IC, PC and peripherals,

telecommunication, or optoelectronics industries in HSP.

(b) Name list on the website for the Association of Industries in Science Park.

(c) More than 10% of employees in R&D.

Sampling and Response Rate

• Participants: 775 R&D professionals from 75 companies

• Respondents: 418 completed the survey from 65 companies

• Response rate was 53.9 %. 

Data Analysis

• Descriptive statistics, correlations, and structural equation modeling (SEM)

• SPSS 16 and LISREL 8.7 were employed to examine the results.

Final Model

0.93

0.36

0.41

-0.07

Organizational Commitment

Job Satisfaction

Turnover Intention

Organizational Learning Culture

Note: significant path; ---> non-significant; p < 0.05 ( t > 1.96)

-0.38

Summary of Hypotheses and Findings

Hypotheses Direct Effect Indirect Effect Results

H1: OLC JS 0.93 (12.42) Supported

H2: OLC OC 0.36 (2.50) Supported

H3: OLC TI OLCTI

---0.41 (-7.24)

Not SupportedSupported

H4: JS OC 0.41 (2.76) Supported

H5: JS TI OC TI

-0.38 (-4.56)-0.03 (0.98)

SupportedNot Supported

H6: OC TI -0.07 (-1.00) Not Supported

t-value is in parentheses.

Implications on HRD Theory

• Organizational learning culture has a significant relationship to R&D professionals’ job behaviors.

• Broadening the research field in HRD across

different organizational settings in Asian cultures.

• Providing further insights about organizational learning culture on performance.

Implications on HRD Practice

• Playing a significant role by engaging R&D management in building a successful learning environment.

• The unique characteristics of R&D professionals are also factors to have an impact on the relationship among the variables.

• Assessing the dimensions of learning organizations.

Limitations and Directions of

Future Research

• Research method • Generalizability • Common method variance • Survey errors of the instrument • Antecedents of organizational learning culture

Conclusions

• Generating important themes in the fields of HRD.

• Providing guidelines to understand the impact of learning organization.

• Facilitating the development of learning culture in organizations.