Continuing Education, Learning and Innovation (2014)

Investments in further training and personnel development lead to more innovation in companies. The effect can be increased by the right learning behaviour and innovation climate.

Investments in Continuing Education – Content of the Study

The study examined how investments in continuing education and personnel development and the financial support of private continuing education affect innovations in companies. The analysis included learning behaviour and the innovation climate in the company.

In order to increase the data quality of the study, these were queried from different sources. For example, the number of innovations was evaluated by executives and at the same time how many patent applications the company had actually filed.

Investments in further training and personnel development have a positive influence on a company’s innovative strength. This effect can be increased if learning behaviour is promoted that supports interaction between people. The authors argue that individual knowledge can only lead to innovation if it is also shared. A suitable climate for innovation also promotes the connection between investments and innovative strength.

A rather surprising result of the study is that financial support for private continuing education has a negative correlation with innovative strength. This contradicts previous studies. The authors suspect that this could be related to the fact that these advantages are only available to very few and therefore have no impact on the company as a whole and can thus trigger envy at the same time. An alternative approach is that the positive effects from this take much longer to take effect.

Investing in Continuing Education – Practical Advice

• Investments in further training and personnel development have a positive influence on the innovative strength of the company.
• The knowledge learned should be shared within the company and integrated into the company’s processes in order to further promote innovation. This can be done, for example, through knowledge databases, mentoring programs and joint trainings.
• The innovation climate in the company should be improved in order to further promote innovation. This can be done, for example, by introducing a company suggestion scheme and providing financial support for new ideas.
• If private further education (e.g. a course of study) is financed, care must be taken to ensure that this does not have a negative effect on the motivation of employees who do not benefit from it. A long-term commitment of the trainees to the company should also be ensured.

Quick Facts:

Source: Sung, S. Y. & Choi, J. N. (2014). Do organizations spend wisely on employees? Effects of training and development investments on learning and innovation in organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior 35(3), pp. 393-412.

Method: Survey over 2 years and evaluation of patent data

This article comes from the Xing group Science meets HRD