Section Six
Although training should normally be expected to
contribute to increased productivity, reduced expenses,
reduced turnover, improved morale, and so on, training is also
conducted for other reasons that may be difficult to quantify.
For example, training is sometimes conducted in attractive off-
site locations to reward performance and to communicate to
those being trained that they are important to the organization.
It may also be conducted to allow employees to build informal
relationships and to develop personal networks that facilitate
communication and coordination. Training also may be
conducted for the purpose of allowing a managerial coalition to
propagate its views at the expense of another or for other
political purposes that cannot be acknowledged in assessment
measures.^47 Further, some companies’ cultures may require
objective data before an evaluation will have any credibility,
while in others, elaborate evaluations of training employing
objective measures may be rejected because they are
incompatible with the company’s culture.^48
Nonetheless, in spite of such difficulties, training can
normally be evaluated with relevant, acknowledgeable criteria.
Traditional levels of evaluative criteria are (1) reaction,
(2) learning, (3) behavior, and (4) results. In addition, some
researchers consider attitude change as another category of
evaluative criteria.^49