SU 10 Training and Development - ESSAY QUESTIONS
1. If you were a newly hired T&D director for a medium-sized
manufacturing company of 750 employees, how would you
communicate the importance of T&D to top management? Could you
prove the value of T&D programmes in objective terms if necessary?
Answer: Management is often focused upon value and meeting requirements.
Certain Employment Equity plans and government requirements specify that certain
training take place. Further, since management wants the best return on its
expenditures, the importance of the transfer climate should be emphasised. A
dysfunctional organisational climate will lessen the possible return on training
expenditures.
Yes, a cost-benefit analysis (or a more sophisticated utility analysis) will generally
show great returns (or protection against losses) for each Rand spent on effective
T&D programmes. However, the benefit from a fad programme (with high costs) may
be hard to compute if the three phases of T&D are not followed - needs assessment,
design and delivering, and evaluation.
2. It is often very hard to assess the value of T&D programmes. What are
the problems in evaluating the effects of training?
Answer: A training intervention should address objectives that are aligned with
organisational objectives. Therefore it is often difficult, especially in management
development, to identify short-term benefits. It is also hard to pinpoint a training
programme as the cause of effective performance, since there are so many other
possible explanations. However, many T&D programmes are aimed at short-term
results (like learning a word processing programme) and are easier to evaluate. The
four levels of evaluation are:
A. How did trainees react? This can be gauged with reaction surveys/forms.
The results are subjective and offer more opinions than facts.
B. What did trainees learn? Trainees can be pre- and/or post-tested for
competency, or can be observed.
C. How did behaviour change? Direct observation of behaviour, or indirect
observation can be used, such as tracking the number of complaints.
D. What organisational goals were affected? Organisation-wide data - e.g., on
accidents or grievances - can be examined to see if current performance
aligns with current organisational goals and objectives. This is a very indirect
comparison and creates the problem of blaming or crediting training when
other variables may better explain any change.
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1. If you were a newly hired T&D director for a medium-sized
manufacturing company of 750 employees, how would you
communicate the importance of T&D to top management? Could you
prove the value of T&D programmes in objective terms if necessary?
Answer: Management is often focused upon value and meeting requirements.
Certain Employment Equity plans and government requirements specify that certain
training take place. Further, since management wants the best return on its
expenditures, the importance of the transfer climate should be emphasised. A
dysfunctional organisational climate will lessen the possible return on training
expenditures.
Yes, a cost-benefit analysis (or a more sophisticated utility analysis) will generally
show great returns (or protection against losses) for each Rand spent on effective
T&D programmes. However, the benefit from a fad programme (with high costs) may
be hard to compute if the three phases of T&D are not followed - needs assessment,
design and delivering, and evaluation.
2. It is often very hard to assess the value of T&D programmes. What are
the problems in evaluating the effects of training?
Answer: A training intervention should address objectives that are aligned with
organisational objectives. Therefore it is often difficult, especially in management
development, to identify short-term benefits. It is also hard to pinpoint a training
programme as the cause of effective performance, since there are so many other
possible explanations. However, many T&D programmes are aimed at short-term
results (like learning a word processing programme) and are easier to evaluate. The
four levels of evaluation are:
A. How did trainees react? This can be gauged with reaction surveys/forms.
The results are subjective and offer more opinions than facts.
B. What did trainees learn? Trainees can be pre- and/or post-tested for
competency, or can be observed.
C. How did behaviour change? Direct observation of behaviour, or indirect
observation can be used, such as tracking the number of complaints.
D. What organisational goals were affected? Organisation-wide data - e.g., on
accidents or grievances - can be examined to see if current performance
aligns with current organisational goals and objectives. This is a very indirect
comparison and creates the problem of blaming or crediting training when
other variables may better explain any change.
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