295 Training System Effectiveness in Australia Christopher T. SELVARAJAH Department of Management Systems, Massey University Albany, Private bag 102 904, North Shore MSC, Auckland, NewZealand Studies have shown that the industry category which an organization is in, influences the type of strategies that the organization in the particular industry will choose [1]. In this article the overall perceptions of 151 Australian managers (all former MBA students of Deakin University, Australia) to train- ing system effectiveness are reported in relation to the type of industry their organizations are in. The proposition that was tested and reported in this article is, that strategies adopted by organizations within a given industry are influenced by the na- ture of the industry. The findings generally support this impera- tive. However, the research findings also suggest that there are conditions in the immediate environment which may have some influence on the structure of the organization which in turn influences strategy. The view that the state of the immedi- ate environment may influence strategy rather than strategy determining structure is also supported by researchers, like Robbins [2]. He, however, cautions against global acceptance of the proposition that structure follows strategy. Keywords: Training, strategy, structure, effectiveness Christopher T. Selvarajah (B.A., Tasmania; M.B.A., Dip. T & D, Massey; Ph.D, Deakin) is a Profes- sor in the Department of Manage- ment Systems at Massey Univer- sity (Albany), New Zealand. He has lectured at Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Trisakti Universitas in Indonesia, Deakin University and Swinburne University of Technol- ogy in Australia, and the Malaysian Institute of Management in Kuala Lumpur. Dr. Selvarajah has pub- lished widely in business and man- agement journals and has contrib- uted numerous case studies to the Melbourne University Case Library. He has authored, co-authored and edited a number of books. His recent book publications include, International Business, Management: A Behavioural Approach and Man- agement Case Studies. All published by Longman Cheshire, Melbourne. lOS Press Human Systems Management 13 (1994) 295-302 0167-2533/94/$5 .00 © 1994, lOS B.V. 1. Introduction It should be noted that the perception of an envi- ronment is basically what an individual sees or per- ceives it to be. Therefore the degree of differentia- tion of the environment depends on the individu- ai's perception of what makes up the specific or general environment and his assessment of the en- vironmental conditions [3]. In this article ten training systems effectiveness criteria are found to have strong correlation to the structural variable, industry type and these are dis- cussed under the headings; written training depart- ment policy, planning, database, adequate funds for training, conflict monitoring mechanism and output. Chi-square tests at 0.05 significance level have been used to determine the correlationships between the training system effectiveness criteria and industry type (Table 1). 2. Training System Effectiveness It is appropriate to consider the training system in an organization as a strategic constituent, since training systems, like other systems in an organiza- tion, contribute to the overall effectiveness of the organization [4, 5]. Mahajan defines the strategic constituency approach to the evaluation of per- formance in an organization as the extent to which all the organization's constituents are minimally satisfied [5]. Strategic constituents in this sense re- fer to any group of individuals who have stake in the organization, such as the members of the train- ing group in an organization. Connolly et al. [6] suggest that merely prescrib- ing effectiveness criteria is not appropriate, whether single or multidimensional criteria are uti- lized. The methodology suggested is to examine effectiveness from the perspective of the organiza- tion's strategic constituents or subunits. They ar- gue that the criteria of effectiveness of the strategic constituent must be satisfied if the organization is to be effective. Connolly et al. draw relationship