The investigation of the effectiveness of employee training on career development: a case study of South African Police Service (SAPS)

Abstract

The stagnation of police members in their current position for many years despite the South African Police Service (SAPS) having numerous higher posts that have been left unoccupied for some years, has prompted renewed attention on career development in the SAPS. The SAPS is susceptible to retarded workforce career growth and poor security service as most members are not skilled and qualified, as well as not exposed to the experience of higher positions. Due to ignorance of continuous employee training most members of the SAPS are stagnant at their current positions for many years. Preliminary indications have shown that the stagnation of police members in their current position may continue to escalate should no proper research be undertaken. For this study, a descriptive research design and quantitative research method were adopted. Three police stations in eThekwini District comprised the population of this study. The target population for this study was all constables, sergeants and warrant officers at the Workshop Satellite Police Station, Umbilo Police Station and Berea Police Station in eThekwini District. The identified target population equated to n = 211. For this study, stratified sampling and random sampling techniques were utilised since it was supported by a sampling frame. Basically, the sample was drawn from the ranks of the population. The sample comprised 139 respondents. A self-administered questionnaire was used to gather the data. The personal method of data collection was used whereby the researcher hand delivered the questionnaire. Both inferential and descriptive analyses were utilised in analysing data. The responses were analysed using the latest version of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 for Windows using the appropriate statistical tests. In accordance with regression equations, the results of this study indicated that employee training has a strong positive relationship with career development. The Chi-square statistical test results revealed a significant relationship between employee training and career development at the workplace. The findings of this study showed that employee training (coaching, mentoring, workshop, discussion, lectures, role-plays and understudy) is necessary to stimulate career development at the SAPS within the eThekwini District. The results indicated that mentoring is the most predicting (influencing) variable that contributes the highest to the variation in career development. Employees at the SAPS were not satisfied with the training that was provided by their organisation, they viewed it as inadequate. The influence of employee training on career development has been established therefore the primary objective of this study was achieved. Therefore, the SAPS in eThekwini District should increase the investment in employee training. The SAPS should ensure that employee training is regularly reviewed to align with emerging technology. Due to differences of situational factors, generalisation of results to other police stations may only be possible to those that share the same setting. For future studies, it would be interesting to study the influence of employee training on career development at the SAPS on other districts outside KwaZulu-Natal province for the sake of establishing the differences and similarities that may exist. This research significantly contributed to the existing body of knowledge in respect of employee training and its impact on career development through revealing new insights.