Chapter 06 – Training Evaluation
© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
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Discussion Questions
1. What can be done to motivate companies to evaluate training programs?
Answer: The company’s management would need to be made aware of the investment made
by the company for the training and the need for its summative evaluation to determine if the
2. What do threats to validity have to do with training evaluation? Identify internal and external
threats to validity. Are internal and external threats similar? Explain.
Answer: If threats to validity exist, the evaluator may question whether a training program
was really effective or if possible benefits were the result of other factors. Internal threats to
validity affect the believability of the study, while threats to the external validity affect the
3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each of the following designs: posttest-only,
pretest/posttest with comparison group, and pretest/posttest only?
Answer: A post-test-only design requires less time and effort than the other, but fails to
recognize factors such as initial differences between the control group and the group that
4. What are results outcomes? Why do you think that most organizations don’t use results
outcomes for evaluating their training programs?
Answer: Results outcomes are level 4 criteria in Kirkpatrick’s framework. They are the
benefits of the training program for the company. These types of payoffs could be difficult to
Chapter 06 – Training Evaluation
© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
6-2
5. This chapter discussed several factors that influence the choice of evaluation design. Which
of these factors would have the greatest influence on your choice of and evaluation design?
Which would have the least influence? Explain your choices.
Answer: Student answers would vary. The factors that influence the choice of evaluation
design are:
Change potential-which determines whether the program can be modified
Importance-which determines whether ineffective training affects customer service,
product development, or relationships among employees
6. How might you estimate the benefits of a training program designed to teach employees how
to use the Internet to monitor stock prices?
Answer: Test could be performed to see if the employees are capable of monitoring the stock
prices; surveys could be used to see how frequently they monitor stock in a given day to
Technical, academic, and practitioner literature summarizes the benefits that have been
Observance of successful job performers helps a company determine what successful job
7. A group of managers (N=25) participated in the problem-solving module of a leadership
development program two weeks ago. The module consisted of two days in which the group
focused on the correct process to use in problem solving. Each manager supervises fifteen to
twenty employees. The company is willing to change the program, and there is an increasing
emphasis in the company to show that training expenses are justifiable. You are asked to
evaluate this program. Your boss would like the results of the evaluation no later than six
weeks from now. Discuss the outcomes you would collect and the design you would use.
How might your answer change if the managers have not yet attended the program?
Answer: If the evaluation is done after the program is completed, a posttest only design could
Chapter 06 – Training Evaluation
© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in
any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
6-3
If the managers had not yet attended the program, they can be used as a comparison group or
8. What practical considerations need to be taken into account when calculating a training
program’s ROI?
Answer: The costs and benefits of a training program must all be considered. The costs are
usually calculated using accounting, while the benefits are not always as clearly defined.
9. What metrics might be useful for evaluating the effectiveness of a company’s training
function? Discuss and rate their importance.
Answer: Student’s answers will vary. The metrics are valuable for benchmarking purposes,
for understanding the current amount of training activity in a company, and for tracking
10. What is return on expectations (ROE)? How can it be used to show the costs and benefits of
training without collecting statistics and conducting analyses? Explain its strengths and
weaknesses compared to a cost-benefit analysis.
Answer: One way to establish the value of training and overcome the difficulty of evaluating
training using a design that can rule out and isolate its effects on results is to rely on return on