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1. Introduction
Training and learning can enhance employees' knowledge, skills, and abilities to impact their organizational performance (Halawi and Haydar, 2018; Katou, 2009). Nowadays, managers are generally involved in their human capital development, especially in training performance requirements (Hewett et al., 2018), and service organizations also depend on workplace learning and continuous improvement to remain competitive in the industry (Singh and Singh, 2015). Generally, organizations in the service sector provide intangible services through the interaction between their employees and customers (Poor et al., 2013). Therefore, organizations often employ a training program to ensure employees have the necessary knowledge, skills, capabilities, and motivation to provide high-quality services to their customers (Liao and Chuang, 2004; Nielsen et al., 2017). Hence, theoretically, it is particularly critical for service organizations to finetune their systematic training programs to improve and enhance employees' knowledge, skills, methods, attitudes, and values on the job, thereby achieving maximum performance, continued growth, and both individual and organizational development (Alzaydi et al., 2018). However, current literature used various indicators about training and organizational performance like financial (ROI, sales, productivity, profit, market share) or non-financial (turnover, absenteeism, job satisfaction, motivation) is still debatable alongside many factors within or outside organizations (Nguyen et al., 2010). And it also neglects the fact that operational efficiency is the crucial target of training for overall organizational performance (Tharenou et al., 2007). Thus, similar training programs lack a valid theory basis for service performance evaluations on employee training in service sectors. A research gap needs to be filled on how training programs can be designed and evaluated to improve organizational performance for service sections.
In practice, the fact is that most governments and businesses dilute training programs in a chaotic situation and lack clear objectives when focusing on an infrequent training expenditure (Mosley et al., 2019). Several training programs are often underprivileged and only offered as a special package for part of employees. Some programs are also reserved for top managers only to keep up with the latest training trend (Padek et al., 2018). Although resources are generally budgeted for talent training and development, organizations usually choose the number of participants as a successful training criterion and rarely measure the training effectiveness (Hamel, 2012)....