The divide between academic and business practice: Exploring training evaluation practices and their perceived value in corporate South Africa

• Main Author: Duffy, Carren Gail
• Other Authors: Goodman, Suki
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Cape Town 2019
• Subjects: Organisational Psychology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29610

While theorists and evaluation experts argue about the importance of evaluating training as a key business and training function, the practice around the globe has for many years been limited to the collection of reaction-level data (trainee satisfaction). Despite this trend, a chapter on training evaluation is still included in the most recent training and human resource development textbooks. Additionally, the practice of training evaluation still forms part of undergraduate and postgraduate human resource curricula. Yet we know little about the state of training evaluation in the South African context and its practical relevance in modern day corporate environments. This research therefore aimed to investigate a) the extent to which South African corporates are engaging in systematic training evaluation and what these practices are; and b) the extent to which South African corporates recognise the importance of, and use, training evaluation as a vehicle for organisational learning and change. Results indicate a disconnect between theory and practice in this area. South African corporates are highly committed to training due to their legal obligations and incentives to upskill employees but the same commitment for training evaluation does not exist. The corporates sampled are not interested or willing to perform training evaluations to determine the effectiveness of their training and development investments. These results raise the question of whether or not training evaluation, in its theoretically positioned conceptualisation, is still relevant in the highly demanding corporate environment. Based on the empirical findings, this thesis proposes a substantial shift in how training evaluation is conceived and conducted in order for organisations to engage meaningfully with the effectiveness of their training interventions and not waste opportunities for organisational learning and change.