IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/brjirl/v64y2026i1p148-167.html

The Impact of Staff and Manager Training on Firm Productivity: Differential and Interaction Effects

Author

Listed:
  • Susan Schwarz
  • Jun Du
  • Uzoamaka Nduka
  • Lin Zhang

Abstract

Productivity is a crucial goal for firms, yet training investments to develop employee skills and enhance productivity face scrutiny. Despite considerable research into training inputs and performance outcomes, several gaps remain. We investigate the differential effects of managerial and staff training on labour productivity, drawing on human capital theory to explain the value of training investment for workforce development. The analysis focuses on 19,289 firm‐year observations from the UK Employer Skills Survey and Investment in Training Survey paired with the Business Structure Database in five waves over a 9‐year period, accounting for potential selection bias. Examining several measures of training for different occupational categories and formal‐informal modes of training, we find that productivity rose with greater training investment for both managers and staff. Among staff occupational categories, training for professionals and associate professionals yielded particular benefits for the firm. The interaction of staff and managerial training generated further gains, illustrating the value of complementary skill development for different employee levels, especially prioritizing intensity of training expenditure over broad coverage.

Suggested Citation

  • Susan Schwarz & Jun Du & Uzoamaka Nduka & Lin Zhang, 2026. "The Impact of Staff and Manager Training on Firm Productivity: Differential and Interaction Effects," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 64(1), pages 148-167, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:64:y:2026:i:1:p:148-167
    DOI: 10.1111/bjir.70020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.70020
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/bjir.70020?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ewart Keep & Ken Mayhew & Jonathan Payne, 2006. "From Skills Revolution to Productivity Miracle--Not as easy as it Sounds?," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 22(4), pages 539-559, Winter.
    2. Emilio Colombo & Luca Stanca, 2014. "The impact of training on productivity: evidence from a panel of Italian firms," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(8), pages 1140-1158, October.
    3. Vasilios D. Kosteas, 2023. "Job satisfaction and employer‐sponsored training," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(4), pages 771-795, December.
    4. Francis Green & Alan Felstead & Duncan Gallie & Hande Inanc & Nick Jewson, 2016. "The Declining Volume of Workers’ Training in Britain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 54(2), pages 422-448, June.
    5. Jos Gamble, 2006. "Multinational Retailers in China: Proliferating ‘McJobs’ or Developing Skills?," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(7), pages 1463-1490, November.
    6. Emilio Colombo & Luca Stanca, 2014. "The impact of training on productivity: evidence from a panel of Italian firms," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(8), pages 1140-1158, October.
    7. Geoff Mason & Mary O'Mahony & Rebecca Riley, 2018. "What is Holding Back UK Productivity? Lessons from Decades of Measurement," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 246(1), pages 24-35, November.
    8. Antonia Madrid‐guijarro & Domingo Garcia & Howard Van auken, 2009. "Barriers to Innovation among Spanish Manufacturing SMEs," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(4), pages 465-488, October.
    9. Jen Nelles & Bertha Rohenkohl & Pei-Yu Yuan & Kevin Walsh & Tim Vorley, 2024. "Seeing beyond silos in labour productivity research and policy," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 51(3), pages 375-392.
    10. John S Heywood & Uwe Jirjahn & Annika Pfister, 2020. "Product market competition and employer provided training in Germany," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 29(2), pages 533-556.
    11. Kamini Gupta & Donal Crilly & Thomas Greckhamer, 2020. "Stakeholder engagement strategies, national institutions, and firm performance: A configurational perspective," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(10), pages 1869-1900, October.
    12. Dolores Añón Higón & Jaime Gómez & Pilar Vargas, 2017. "Complementarities in innovation strategy: do intangibles play a role in enhancing firm performance?," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 26(5), pages 865-886.
    13. Bochra Idris & George Saridakis & Stewart Johnstone, 2023. "Training and performance in SMEs: Empirical evidence from large-scale data from the UK," Journal of Small Business Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 61(2), pages 769-801, March.
    14. Gérard Ballot & Fathi Fakhfakh & Erol Taymaz, 2006. "Who Benefits from Training and R&D, the Firm or the Workers?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 44(3), pages 473-495, September.
    15. Emmanuel O. Ogundimu, 2022. "Regularization and variable selection in Heckman selection model," Statistical Papers, Springer, vol. 63(2), pages 421-439, April.
    16. Alireza Rezaee & Mojtaba Ganjali & Ehsan Bahrami Samani, 2022. "Sample selection bias with multiple dependent selection rules: an application to survey data analysis with multilevel nonresponse," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 158(1), pages 1-15, December.
    17. Alan Felstead & Duncan Gallie & Francis Green & Golo Henseke, 2020. "Getting the Measure of Employee‐Driven Innovation and Its Workplace Correlates," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 58(4), pages 904-935, December.
    18. Nicholas Bloom & John Van Reenen, 2007. "Measuring and Explaining Management Practices Across Firms and Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(4), pages 1351-1408.
    19. Hristos Doucouliagos & Katarina Zigova, 2025. "Minimum Wages and Human Capital Investment: A Meta‐Regression Analysis," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 63(4), pages 567-586, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Elena Feltrinelli & Roberto Gabriele & Sandro Trento, 2017. "The Impact of Middle Manager Training on Productivity: A Test on Italian Companies," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(2), pages 293-318, April.
    2. Elena Feltrinelli & Roberto Gabriele & Sandro Trento, 2013. "Do middle managers matter?," DEM Discussion Papers 2013/11, Department of Economics and Management.
    3. Bilanakos, Christos & Heywood, John S. & Sessions, John & Theodoropoulos, Nikolaos, 2018. "Does demand for product quality increase worker training?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 159-177.
    4. Morikawa, Masayuki, 2021. "Employer-provided training and productivity: Evidence from a panel of Japanese Firms," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    5. Christian Gschwendt & Claudio Schilter, 2026. "Automation in the Wake of GenAI: Implications for Firm Training," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0252, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    6. Bart van Ark, 2021. "Putting Together the Pieces of the Productivity Puzzle: Review Article of Productivity Perspectives and Productivity and the Pandemic," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 40, pages 118-133, Spring.
    7. Schubert, Torben & Jäger, Angela & Türkeli, Serdar & Visentin, Fabiana, 2020. "Addressing the productivity paradox with big data: A literature review and adaptation of the CDM econometric model," MERIT Working Papers 2020-050, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    8. Henrik Hansen & S. Kanay De & John Rand & Neda Trifković, 2023. "Wage returns to workplace training in Myanmar," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 41(2), March.
    9. Anna Lewandowska & Herman Cherniaiev, 2022. "R&D Cooperation and Investments concerning Sustainable Business Innovation: Empirical Evidence from Polish SMEs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-16, August.
    10. Tristan Blick & Ine Paeleman & Eddy Laveren, 2024. "Financing constraints and SME growth: the suppression effect of cost-saving management innovations," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 62(3), pages 961-986, March.
    11. Crass, Dirk & Peters, Bettina, 2014. "Intangible assets and firm-level productivity," ZEW Discussion Papers 14-120, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    12. Timothy Besley & Hannes Mueller, 2018. "Predation, Protection, and Productivity: A Firm-Level Perspective," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 184-221, April.
    13. Martin, Ralf & Muûls, Mirabelle & de Preux, Laure B. & Wagner, Ulrich J., 2012. "Anatomy of a paradox: Management practices, organizational structure and energy efficiency," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 208-223.
    14. Simeon D. Alder, 2016. "In the Wrong Hands: Complementarities, Resource Allocation, and TFP," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 199-241, January.
    15. Nicholas Bloom & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2015. "Do Private Equity Owned Firms Have Better Management Practices?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 442-446, May.
    16. Becker, Sascha O. & Hvide, Hans K., "undated". "Do entrepreneurs matter?," Economic Research Papers 270547, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    17. Alex Hollingsworth & Krzysztof Karbownik & Melissa A. Thomasson & Anthony Wray, 2024. "The Gift of a Lifetime: The Hospital, Modern Medicine, and Mortality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(7), pages 2201-2238, July.
    18. Ilzetzki, Ethan & Simonelli, Saverio, 2017. "Measuring Productivity Dispersion: Lessons From Counting One-Hundred Million Ballots," CEPR Discussion Papers 12273, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    19. Mara P. Squicciarini & Nico Voigtländer, 2015. "Human Capital and Industrialization: Evidence from the Age of Enlightenment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(4), pages 1825-1883.
    20. Oriana Bandiera & Andrea Prat & Stephen Hansen & Raffaella Sadun, 2020. "CEO Behavior and Firm Performance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(4), pages 1325-1369.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:64:y:2026:i:1:p:148-167. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.