General and specific self-efficacy in the context of a training intervention to enhance performance expectancy

A pretest-posttest field study investigated self-efficacy, both general and specific, in an intensive training experience to prepare new recruits for their work assignments. Specific issues addressed include (1) the effects of the training experience on general self-efficacy (GSE), work-specific self-efficacy (SSE), and performance expectancy; (2) the effects of pretraining attitudes and beliefs on posttraining GSE and work SSE; and relations between posttraining self-efficacy beliefs and posttraining performance expectancy. Training increased GSE, SSE, and performance expectancy. Unlike GSE, work SSE was influenced by pretraining motivation, training self-efficacy, and performance expectancy. The implications of the findings for HRD research and practice are discussed from the perspectives of understanding individual characteristics of trainees, choosing methods to enhance self-efficacy, and the appropriateness of measuring general and specific self-efficacy before training (to guide planning) and after training (as an evaluation dimension).