TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN CROATIAN ORGANIZATIONS

The purpose of this article was to comprehensively analyze training and development (T&D) practice in Croatian organizations, because the subject till now has received little attention. In order to evaluate the status of training and development in Croatia, 112 organizations were surveyed by means of a questionnaire. The questionnaire resulted in 60 T&D indicators that were grouped into fi ve groups of parameters and used to assess the issue. The data revealed that Croatian organizations improved their training and development
practices during the last fi ve years, but that training and development activities are still not perceived as strategically relevant. The analysis also gave evidence that the relationship
between organizational characteristics (size, ownership, industry, age structure, and qualifi cation structure of employees) and training and development is not signifi cant, meaning that training and development is not given a vital position even in organizations
that were expected to do so. Both theoretical conclusions and empirical fi ndings suggest that Croatian organizations should invest more in training and development of their employees,
not only in order to be successful on domestic market, but to achieve competitive advantages needed for success on increasingly integrated European and world market.