A research on the efficiency of personal development programs in corporate settings

Starting in the 90's, companies started to invest in its employees by offering them training and development programs due to the external environmental factors such as social, economical and technological changes especially in Western countries and Turkey. Vocational tranings that aim to prepare people for a specific job, trade, or craft, are far less common in businesses these days and replaced by personal development programs which are designed to improve all aspects of life such as career, relationships, health and other personal goals. But the concept is based on the ideology of success, which has lost the authentic meaning of the past. In the past, intelligence is considered as a set of cognitive competences. Nowadays, this concept can be considered as an ability to combine information between life and knowledge therefore, memorization is not seen as an efficient methods as it used to be. Today's environment is rapidly changing and therefore employees must learn to adapt to these new circumstances. With that being said, numerous scientific studies on human brain have shown that the human brain works according to the law of associative memory and except for the intense empathic people, it is observed that the experience is felt when it occurs. This demonstrates the importance of practices in personal development trainings and the supportive process that spreads throughout the organization after the training. In the study, qualitative data were supported by quantitative data which is for the reseasch of the training and development programs in the organizations. After the research process; the importance of enhanced techniques such as drama, gamification, case studies have seen. And not supported by an adequate follow-up system has been determined and found to be insufficient. Strategic recommendations were made to support the period after the training. Besides the effect of the participant's active role in the preparation stage before the training was emphasized. That's why, a new model has been proposed.