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Impact of trainer immediacy on employee motivation, satisfaction and learning

Rita Marie Tworek Berthelsen, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a significant relationship between trainer immediacy behaviors and employee motivation, satisfaction, and learning. Employees invited to participate in this study were members of Hospital Support Services departments: Food Service, Environmental Services, Patient Transportation, Laundry and Linen, Maintenance, Sterile Processing, Central Supply and Security. Training sessions with varied levels of verbal and nonverbal trainer immediacy behaviors were provided to 125 participants from three hospitals in Kansas and Nebraska. Participants were randomly assigned to either a high immediacy or moderate/low immediacy sessions. High immediacy behaviors included visiting with participants before and after sessions, calling participants by name, smiling, giving eye contact, providing feedback, minimizing physical distance between trainer and participants, encouraging active participation, and sharing personal anecdotes that relate to the content. Moderate/low immediacy behaviors included: no interactions before and after sessions, no personal acknowledgement of students, minimal smiling, no eye contact, minimal feedback, physical distance between trainer and participants, lecture presentation, no sharing of personal anecdotes. The same trainer conducted all sessions. Participants completed a pretest and posttest to measure short-term cognitive learning. Participants completed survey tools to measure motivation, satisfaction and identification of perceived immediacy behaviors. The Mann-Whitney statistic was used to measure significance. No significant difference in short-term cognitive learning and levels of trainer immediacy was found. No significant difference in stated motivation to change behavior and levels of trainer immediacy was found. No significant difference in stated satisfaction and levels of trainer immediacy was found. There was a statistically significant negative correlation between trainer smiling and stated motivation and trainer smiling and perceived immediacy. There was a statistically significant correlation between trainer-demonstrated tension and perceived immediacy. Recommendations for future study include identifying employee motivators and investigating impact of immediacy on learning using a verbal technique to measure learning.

Subject Area

Adult education|Continuing education|Educational psychology

Recommended Citation

Berthelsen, Rita Marie Tworek, "Impact of trainer immediacy on employee motivation, satisfaction and learning" (2002). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI3074066.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI3074066

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