Chapter 11

Question 1

What is Organizational training and development is intended to do?

Answer 1

Organizational training and development is intended to:

• improve technical competencies (eg: learning new software)
• to modify attitudes (eg: preparing a manager for an international assignment),
• and or to modify behaviours.

Question 2

What is training evaluation?

Answer 2

is a process designed to assess the value- the worthlessness- of training programs to employees and to organizations.

Question 3

What does training evaluation assesses?

Answer 3

Training evaluation assesses this value by analyzing data collected from trainees, supervisors, or others familiar with the trainees and with the job context

Question 4

What is training evaluation converned with?

Answer 4

Training evaluation is concerned with whether or not these expected outcomes materialize as a result of training

Question 5

How is the value of a training program determined?

Answer 5

Using a variety of techniques, objective and subjective information is gathered before, during, and after training to provide the data required to estimate the value of a training program

Question 6

What is the lenght of a training evaluation?

Answer 6

Training evaluation is not a single procedure. Rather, it is a continuum of techniques, methods, and measures.

Question 7

What consists of training evaluation continuum?

Answer 7

• At one end of the continuum are simple evaluations that focus on trainee satisfaction: Trainees indicate on a brief questionnaire if they liked the course. Certainly simple and easy to implement, they regrettably yield minimal information
• At thither end of the training evaluation continuum lie more elaborate procedures and more complete questionnaires and interview that provide managers with more information of a richer quality about the value of a training program

Question 8

What trade-offs are there with training evaluation choices?

Answer 8

• Training evaluation choices are a trade-off, balancing between quality and complexity/costs, between the informational needs of decisions makers and the difficulty and resources required to obtain that information.

Question 9

Why conduct training evaluations?

Answer 9

• Organizations invest in the training of employees and managers as it is a necessity for competitiveness in the current global environment.
• With chronic understaffing (one result of cost-cutting layoffs), the amount of time available for training has become smaller and must be used more wisely.

Question 10

Traiving evaluations adds value to:

Answer 10

• Help fulfill the managerial responsibility to improve training
• Assist managers in identifying the training programs most useful to employees and to assist management in the determination of who should be trained
• Determine the cost benefits of a program and to help ascertain which program or training techniques is most cost effective.
• Determine whether the training program has achieved the expected results or solved the problem for which training was the anticipated solutions
• Diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of a program and pinpoint needed improvements
• Use the evaluation to justify and reinforce, if merited, the value and credibility of the training function to the organization

Question 11

Do organizations conduct training evaluations?

Answer 11

• There has been a gradual decline in the evaluation activities of organizations.
• The (ASTD) survey of the American Society for Training and Development and the latest Conference Board of Canada survey of organizations confirm this result.
   Most evaluations are reaction based.

Question 12

What is the new finidng regarding conducting training evaluations confirm about that organizations are doing?

Answer 12

The new finding, however, is the confirmation that organizations are not simply abandoning reaction measures: they are abandoning evaluation altogether.
- Perhaps dissatisfied with reaction based evaluations, and unable or willing to consider the use to better approaches, many organizations have chosen to forgo training evaluation.

Question 13

Why are employers not conducting training evaluatoins?

Answer 13

Employers do not conduct training evaluations because they are perceived to be too complicated to implement, too time consuming and too expensive.

Question 14

Why don’t the training managers conduct evaluations?

Answer 14

• Training managers do not conduct evaluations because top management does not demand them, while others do not because they may not wish to know.

Question 15

The barriers of training evaluation fll into categories: ____
____

Answer 15

pragmatic and political.

Question 16

What are pragmatic barriers to training evaluation?

Answer 16

Training departments, as with all other departments, are expected to demonstrate their usefulness, their contribution to job performance improvements, and ultimately to the company’s bottom line.
 Based on ASTF and the Conference` Board of the Canada reports, the training departments in most companies are finding it a challenge to fulfill this obligation.

Question 17

What does evaluation requires by trainees, their supervisors and over others such as peers(subordinates/ clients)

Answer 17

Evaluation requires that perceptual and or objective information furnished by trainees, by trainees, their supervisors, and even others- such as peers, subordinates, and or clients- be gathered before, during and or after training sessions.

Question 18

Why are employers not conducting training evaluations?

Answer 18

Employers do not conduct training evaluations because they are perceived to be too complicated to implement, too time consuming and too expensive.

Question 19

What are pragmatic barriers to training evaluation?

Answer 19

• -> Training evaluation task requires knowledge about evaluation models, research design, measurement, questionnaire construction, and data analysis. (for some intimidating prospect)
• ->Evaluation cost money, as the effectiveness of a training department is often defined by the number of classes offered or the number of participants, siphoning budgets from this main task to the evaluation of the remaining training programs may prove unpalatable.

Question 20

What are political barriers to training evaluation?

Answer 20

Evaluations are conducted when there is pressure from management to do so.
 In absence of such pressures, many training managers would rather forgo the exercise. Clearly, management needs to stress evaluation.

Question 21

without evaluations managers can’t do what?

Answer 21

Without evaluations, managers are unable to demonstrate their value to the organization, which may be inherently more risky than launching an evaluation system that can improve training and its effectiveness.

Question 22

Most training evaluations focus on :

Answer 22

the impact of training program on trainee’s perceptions and too much lesser degree, behaviours.

Question 23

How are evaluations distinguished from each other?

Answer 23

Evaluations may be distinguished from one another with respect to the data gathered and analyzed, and the fundamental purpose for which the evaluation is being conducted:

Question 24

Type of Training Evaluation:

What is data collected?

Answer 24

evaluations differ with respect to the type of information that is gathered and how that is gathered and how that is accomplished.

Question 25

What are the 3 type of data collected. Discuss

Answer 25

a. The most common training evaluations rely on trainee perceptions at the conclusion of training (did the participants like it?) while more sophisticated evaluations go further to analyze the extent of trainee learning and the post-training behaviour of trainees.
b. More recently, there has been a growing emphasis on evaluation studies that also assess the psychological forces that operate during training programs and that impact outcome measures such as learning and behaviour change ( research in this area helped with psychological states [ affective, cognitive, and skills based].
c. Finally, information about the work environment to which the trainee returns can be useful in evaluation. For example, measures of training transfer climate and learning culture have been developed. Understanding the organization’s culture and climate as well as its policies can strongly affect training choices and effectiveness.

Question 26

Types of Training:

What is the purpose of the evalation?

Answer 26

Evaluations also differ with respect to their purpose.
–>Worthen and Sanders distinguished between formative evaluation and summative evaluation. Descriptive and Casual evaliations

Question 27

What is Formative evaluation?

Answer 27

are designed to help evaluation assess the value of the training materials and processes with the key goal of identifying improvements to the instructional experience (the clarity, complexity, and relevance of the training contents, how they are presented, and the training context).

Question 28

What is Summative evaluation

Answer 28

designed to provide data about a training program’s worthlessness or effectiveness: has the training program resulted in payoffs for the organization?

Question 29

What is an example of summative evalation and define it?

Answer 29

Cost benefit analyses are usually summative. Economic indices are often an integral and important part of these types of evaluations; consequently, organizational managers show great interest in these results.

Question 30

What is descriptinve evaluation

Answer 30

provide information describing trainees once they have completed the program.

Question 31

What is casual evaluaton?

Answer 31

are used to determine whether the training caused the post-training behaviours.

Question 32

What is being asked with casual evaluation?

Answer 32

Was the performance improvement caused by the training program?

Question 33

What is required more from casual evaluation?

Answer 33

Causal evaluations require more sophisticated experimental and statistical procedures.

Question 34

what is Models of training evaluation?

Answer 34

Models of training evaluation specify the information (the variables) that is to be measured in training evaluations and their interrelationships.