A study of the relationships between manufacturing executives\u27 attitudes and participation in adult continuing education

The major purpose of this study was to examine the influence that attitudes have upon participation in continuing education. The relationship study concentrated upon participation levels of the chief executives in medium sized manufacturing companies and selected factors, such as attitudes toward prior experience in education, incentives for education, the relevance of education, and the skill levels in the company. One goal was to determine whether the Chain of Response Model was valid for determining the level of participation in continuing education;A data collection instrument was designed and mailed to 200 executives in independent manufacturing companies in Iowa. A 56.5 percent response rate provided the information necessary for the statistical analyses that were made to test the various hypotheses;There were several significant relationships. The most important of these were: (1) level of participation and skill levels in the company; (2) participation and the level of technology in the company; (3) prior experiences in education and attitude toward continuing education; (4) the participation and the long term use of information; and (5) participation and the ratings of providers of continuing education. There were no significant findings in participation levels based upon: (1) participation and prior experiences in education; (2) participation and education levels; (3) participation and the overall relevance of education; (4) participation and the rate of change in the company or industry; (5) participation and the cost of continuing education efforts; (6) participation and the immediate use of the information; (7) participation and attitudes toward education; and (8) participation and most incentives offered by the company. The study concluded that executives\u27 attitudes toward education were largely positive and the differences in attitudes did not explain the different levels of participation in continuing education. The recommendations are that: (1) further study is needed in continuing education; (2) the study be expanded to the general population; (3) experimental research is needed to provide data on the impact of current education efforts to industry; and (4) research is needed to isolate factors that relate to success in business