Date of Award

Fall 2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Public Administration (DPA)

Department

Public Policy and Administration

Committee Chairperson

Mark W. Davis, PhD, MPA

Committee Member

Kristen B. Crossney, PhD

Abstract

Critical positions in state government are oftentimes understaffed. Researches have studied the factors that lead to staff shortage such as low salary, high caseloads, and a stressful environment. Therefore, it is challenging to keep those positions filled at maximum capacity. In state government, employees are the organization’s human capital requiring investment to retain a quality workforce. Investment of training and professional development in addition to training of normal work duties are vital to the endurance of employees. Government seeks for ways to improve its workforce and to obtain long-term quality employees without salaries and other financial incentives that are comparable to those in the private sector. One way is to develop and implement a training and professional development program to help stem the flow of employees leaving the organization, examine its impact on supervisors’ leadership skills, and to shift the culture of the organization to one that is supportive.

This research examined the impact of training and development on Florida State government employees in the Northeast Region (NER) through The Region Professional Development and Training Program. The program implementation influenced all employees; from frontline to executive leadership. The evaluation of the training and development program found that supervisors provided a supportive environment for their direct reports, supervisors displayed the characteristics that they see in their direct supervisors and retained from the trainings, and the offering of professional development trainings had a positive impact on employee retention and their perceptions of the organization.

Keywords: training, professional development, retention, organization culture

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