Trainee Satisfaction and Training Impact: Issues in Training Evaluation

An Integrated Product and Process Development Program and Related Training Requirements: Formative Evaluation and Definition for Air Force Laboratory Science and Engineering Personnel

“…Similarly, Newstrom (1986) argues that too much money and attention are spent on the design and delivery of programs and not enough on efforts to increase the transfer of training to the work environment. Over the past two decades organizations in both the government and private sectors have been asked to become more accountable and to justify the existence of programs in terms of cost and performance factors (Faerman & Ban, 1993). This has led to increased interest in the evaluation of training programs.…”

“…Wooldridge, Baldwin, and Ford (as cited in Faerman & Ban, 1993) estimate that the federal government alone spends at least $6,333 million each year and that American industries spend up to $100 billion on training and development activities. Figures like these inevitably lead some to question whether this money is being well spent.…”

The evaluation of training activities: A complex issue involving different stakes

“…But the issue is complex. The research in this area describes return on investment in training (Faerman and Ban, 1993;Tannenbaum and Woods, 1992;Verlander, 1992). Yet while managers want simple and inexpensive evaluation methods, we remain a long way from being able to assess the impact of one or more training activities on organizational performance with a great enough degree of certainty to produce a cost-benefit ratio (Plant and Ryan, 1992).…”

“…The dilemma created by several dichotomies: between empiricism and feasibility, constructivism and positivism, and the divergent interests of the players involved. Again, these players are the managers (geared toward decisions and action), the researchers (concerned with methodology and validity), and the trainers (who want to earn a living) (Faerman and Ban, 1993;Fishman, 1992;Guba and Lincoln, 1989;Noe and Ford, 1992;Roberts, 1990;Tannenbaum and Woods, 1992).…”

“…They especially want to know what benefits they can expect to gain from it (Faerman and Ban, 1993;Plant and Ryan, 1992). But the issue is complex.…”