Does Time Management Training Work? An Evaluation

In an increasingly competitive business environment, organisations have sought to increase productivity and reduce costs. The consequences of this for many employees include increased workloads, longer working hours and greater time pressures which, the evidence suggests, are linked to stress, high rates of absence and turnover. At the same time there has been an increasing emphasis on the desirability of achieving work/life balance for individuals. In pursuit of these apparently conflicting demands it has been argued that individuals must work 'smarter' rather than harder and that individuals need to develop the ability to manage their time effectively to achieve this. Yet, previous research on time management training has been limited in scope, open to criticism in terms of research approach and inconclusive in assessing the effectiveness of such training. This paper reports the results of a longitudinal and triangulated evaluation of time management training undertaken in a variety of organisational settings, which sought to establish whether the training was effective, not only from the viewpoint of the participants, but also from the perspective of their managers. The evidence, collected using quantitative and qualitative approaches, suggests that although such training is affected by context and motivation, it does have a positive impact for the majority of participants