The influence of employee membership on training intensity: The case of Polish co-operative banks

Abstract

• Many of co-operative banks’ employees hold shares of their employer’s bank. • Co-operative banks in Poland differ significantly in training intensity. • Employees who hold shares of their co-operative bank receive more training. • The effect of employee membership is more pronounced in 2017 than in 2015. This study explores the role of employee membership in the training process in Polish co-operative banks. On the basis of human capital theory and social exchange theory two hypotheses were formulated regarding the direct impact of employee membership on the number of training events as well as training days. The research hypotheses were tested on the basis of employee responses from two nationwide research projects about human resources in Polish co-operative banks (N = 2,273 and N = 1,707). The analyses were conducted with several two-level ordered logit models in which the proportional odds assumption was tested. As was expected, employees who hold shares of their co-operative bank receive more training. However, in the first database this result occurs only for employees with a lower level of training intensity, while in the second database it holds for all employees.