The future of interpersonal skills development: Immersive virtual reality training with virtual humans

• Published date: 01 June 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21307
• Author: Marianne Schmid Mast,Emmanuelle P. Kleinlogel,Manuel Bachmann,Benjamin Tur
• Date: 01 June 2018

CONCEPTUAL PAPER

The future of interpersonal skills development:

Immersive virtual reality training with

virtual humans

Marianne Schmid Mast

1

| Emmanuelle P. Kleinlogel

1

| Benjamin Tur

1

|

Manuel Bachmann

2

1

University of Lausanne, Switzerland

2

University of Applied Sciences, Bern,

Switzerland

Correspondence

Marianne Schmid Mast, Department of

Organizational Behavior, Faculty of Business

and Economics (HEC), University of Lausanne,

Quartier Unil-Chamberonne, CH-1015

Lausanne, Switzerland.

Email: marianne.schmidmast@unil.ch

Funding information

Swiss National Science Foundation, Grant/

Award number: CRSII2-147611/1

We present how immersive virtual reality (IVR) technology can be

used for interpersonal skills training in organizations. We review

the distinguishing features of IVR and its potential strengths and

limitations for interpersonal skills training. There is a pressing need

for more empirical evidence, which is why we propose a research

agenda with the aim of establishing IVR interpersonal skills training

in the domain of human resource development. The proposed

research agenda encompasses a set of 10 hypotheses that cover

two axes: (a) factors that affect training transfer and (b) personality

characteristics. We illustrate how these hypotheses can be tested

empirically and discuss limitations and future roles for HRD

scholars in such research.

KEYWORDS

interpersonal skills training, training transfer, virtual reality

1|INTRODUCTION

Companies spend enormous amounts of their budgets on training. In 2013, corporate training cost over $130 billion

worldwide, with the lion's share (35%) going into management and leadership development training (O'Leonard,

2014). An important element of these trainings is the development of interpersonal skills (Crosbie, 2005; Riggio &

Lee, 2007; Riggio & Reichard, 2008). Klein, DeRouin, and Salas (2006, p. 81) define interpersonal skills as an umbrella

term that refers to “goal directed behaviors, including communication and relationship-building competencies,

employed in interpersonal interaction episodes characterized by complex perceptual and cognitive processes,

dynamic verbal and nonverbal interaction exchanges, diverse roles, motivations, and expectancies.”

Interpersonal skills development in management programs revolves around training of leadership, negotiation,

and communication skills (Hunt & Baruch, 2003). Meta-analyses show that the training effect is most pronounced

for interpersonal skills training (Arthur, Bennett, Edens, & Bell, 2003). Given this success, companies will continue to

invest in interpersonal skills training. But what is the future of interpersonal skills training?

DOI: 10.1002/hrdq.21307

Human Resource Dev Quarterly. 2018;29:125–141. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrdq © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 125

Traditionally, interpersonal skills are trained via role play. Participants experience specific social situations

(e.g., giving a short presentation in front of other trainees) and receive performance feedback (e.g., watching one's

videotape, peer trainee or instructor feedback) (Agboola Sogunro, 2004; Salas, Wildman, & Piccolo, 2009). In this

article, we present a new and innovative approach for interpersonal skills training: the use of immersive virtual real-

ity (IVR) technology with virtual humans as training partners. Virtual reality can be defined as a fully controlled

computer-simulated environment replicating the basic features of a real situation, including its psychological pro-

cesses (Pierce & Aguinis, 1997). We focus on immersive three-dimensional (3D) virtual reality environments for train-

ing (Kapp & O'Driscoll, 2009). Immersion means that the user has a first-person perspective (Salamin, Tadi, Blanke,

Vexo, & Thalmann, 2010) and sees the virtual world through a pair of 3D goggles, called head-mounted display

(HMD). The virtual world completely surrounds the users, allowing them to encounter and interact with virtual

humans (Figure 1).

In clinical psychology, IVR training is already established under the name of virtual reality exposure therapy

(VRET) (Opris¸ et al., 2012; Powers & Emmelkamp, 2008) and is successfully used for the treatment of anxiety

disorders. The use of virtual reality for HRD has been coined as virtual human resource development (VHRD)

(Bennett, 2009; Gorini & Riva, 2008; Harris, Kemmerling, & North, 2002; McWhorter, 2010). Most of VHRD

has focused on so-called screen-based (or desktop) virtual reality in which co mplex virtual env ironments are

displayed on a computer screen, and the user can navigate in these 3D environments and manipulate objects

typically via the computer mouse (Ausburn & Ausburn, 2014; Mancuso, Chlup, & McWhorter, 2010). The vast

majority of these scenarios do not contain virtual humans as social interaction part ners, nor do they include a

full virtual immersion. The goal of the present article is to introduce IVR with virtual humans in the HRD

domain and more speci fically to discuss how it can be used for interp ersonal skills tra ining. We aim at provid-

ing an understandi ng for what is possible t o date with virtual re ality in terms of soci al skills training a nd what

is not (yet) possible. Such an understanding is important for evaluating the benefits a nd drawbacks of the tech-

nology and for askin g the right research q uestions. We sugge st a research agenda t hat builds on the anal ysis

of the particularities of IVR training in relation to existing learning and training models stemming from the

HRD field.

FIGURE 1 Participant wearing an HMD and giving a presentation in front of an audience of virtual humans in a

conference room (the participant, depicted on the left upper corner, is completely immersed in the conference room

environment)

126 MAST ET AL.