Evaluating management training and development: revisiting the basic issues

Stresses the need for evaluation of management training and development. Distinguishes between single‐loop learning (monitoring) and double‐loop learning (evaluation). Suggests that evaluation throws up certain “quandaries”. Why do most management development programmes espouse a philosophy that is rarely practised in the workplace? Why is management development placed so far from the organizational power base? Why is so little thought given to who provides programmes? Why does top management rarely partake of training and development? Why do managers want to learn new things by talking about old things? Should training and development critically consider organizational strategy? Why are programmes rarely evaluated? Such questions take us back to basic objectives and the fundamental differences between training and development.