Increasing the competitive positions of countries through employee training: The competitiveness motive across 33 countries

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to look at the competitiveness motive and mastery motive across 33 countries. The competitiveness motive is found to be a significant but negative predictor of employee training. Design/methodology/approach: The dataset was collected from two sources. Competitiveness motive and mastery motive scores of countries were collected from Lynn's study (1991); and work relation variables, such as employee training, worker motivation, and the world competitiveness score, were collected from the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2008. Correlations, regression models and Sobel test were applied for analysis. Findings: Although people with a strong competitiveness motive are eager to beat others, the results indicate that they may not see training as an effective method of beating others in terms of the competitiveness positions of their country. Employee training is found to be related to the work motivation of employees, and thus to the competitiveness positions of countries. Some suggestions are made for such outcomes. Practical implications: The paper highlights the importance of employee training in organizations. Originality/value: The paper demonstrates the importance of training with regard to global competitiveness positions. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.