BUKU ABSTRAK - Universiti Putra Malaysia

Training Needs Assessment and Analysis: A Case of Malaysian Manufacturing
Firms
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Haslinda Abdullah
Faculty of Economics and Management, University Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
+603-8946 7638; hba@putra.upm.edu.my
Keywords: HRD, training, needs assessments, manufacturing firms, Malaysia
Holistic Argumentative Writing Scale (HAWS)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jayakaran Mukundan
Vahid Nimehchisalem
Faculty of Educational Studies, University Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
+603-8946 8172; jayakaranmukundan@yahoo.com
Keywords: Assessing ESL writing, writing scales, rubrics, argumentative writing assessment, holistic scoring
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Social Sciences
This paper aims to investigate the extent to which participating organisations have carried out needs analysis
in accordance with their objectives and projected growth. The four areas that will be examined include: 1) the
proportions of organisations that have performed HRD needs analysis and the frequencies at which these needs
analyses were conducted; 2) approaches used in identifying HRD needs; 3) the levels in needs analysis and; 4)
methods used in analysing HRD needs. A combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods was
employed. Survey data was obtained from 365 HRD practitioners and supplemented with interview results from
36 HRD practitioners in manufacturing firms in Malaysia. Training needs assessments in the manufacturing firms
are found to be generally performed informally through observations. Size of firms had an effect on the way
training needs is being assessed and analysed. The absence of needs assessment and analysis is due to lack of
expertise and it is irrespective of the size of firms. This study contributes to HRD practice in several ways. First, it
conforms that HRD practitioners do recognize the importance and power of effective needs assessments in helping
them plan and strategize for effective HRD activities. Second, it observes a lack of effective resources to help
HRD practitioners in conducting needs assessment. Most of the studies on HRD and training are researched in
Western countries. Limited empirical evidence can be obtained in Malaysia, particularly from the manufacturing
industry. This study presents a comprehensive empirical survey and interviews on HRD needs and assessment in
manufacturing firms in Malaysia.
Impressionistic scoring of learners’ written works particularly when carried out by novice raters can lead to
unreliable and even invalid results. Writing scales offer a possible solution to raters’ subjective judgment. The
objective of the project was to develop and evaluate a Holistic Argumentative Writing Scale (HAWS) appropriate
for Malaysian university English as a Second Language (ESL) writing courses. For this purpose, argumentative
tasks were selected. Sample argumentative essays were collected and analysed to provide the researchers
with some tentative evaluative criteria in five different levels performance. These criteria were converted to
a questionnaire. The results of a discussion with four ESL writing lecturers helped the researcher develop a
prototype scale. The focus group was reconvened to refine the scale. Five Raters were trained and anchor papers
were assigned for different levels. The raters used the scale to score a batch of 110 argumentative samples. Tests
of inter/intra-rater reliability both indicated high reliability coefficients. The learners’ MUET bands were tested
for correlation with the scores assigned to their essays using HAWS and the results showed moderate/high and
significant relationships. A questionnaire was administered to the raters to investigate the level of their satisfaction
with the scale. They indicated moderate to very high levels of satisfaction of HAWS. The results also indicated
that on average the raters had spent around five minutes to score each 250-word sample. HAWS can be a useful
tool for judgement (the conventional task of evaluation), demonstration (quality control of educational programs),
understanding (indicating the range and area of knowledge learned by students) and finally improvement (showing
the areas calling for further development) (Norris, 2006).