Abstract
D.Phil.
In spite of developments in the field of Human Resource Development (HRD field) with regard to the development of human resources, the HRD field has no universally accepted evaluation paradigm that could be utilised for evaluating the impact of HRD interventions. This unsatisfactory state of evaluation was brought about, firstly, by the prevailing dominance of the Kirkpatrick approach (1994) towards evaluation and, secondly, by the absence of empirically-tested evaluation models. Although the Kirkpatrick
approach to evaluation establishes a logical frame of reference for evaluation, this approach could be considered controversial and restrictive. Furthermore, the taxonomic nature of the Kirkpatrick approach provides limited prospects for explaining the contribution and impact HRD interventions could have on enhanced organisational effectiveness. Consequently, a need exists for an innovative HRD evaluation paradigm that offers satisfactory exposition possibilities with regard to the effectiveness of interventions. Furthermore, the Human Resource Development field is characterised by a
lack of terminological congruence particularly with regard to such concepts as evaluation, Human Resource Development and organisational effectiveness. In order to overcome the problem, concepts that are applicable to the study in question, were defined and a few objectives that could be achieved by means of evaluation were explained/highlighted. From further analysis of a variety of evaluation approaches propounded in literature it appears that the conceptualisation of evaluation areas such as reaction, learning and
performance could be considered problematic. Furthermore, these evaluation approaches focus mainly on evaluating the impact of a few interventions without determining the contribution of most interventions for enhanced organisational effectiveness. Bearing relation to the aforementioned, important variables that occur on individual, group and organisational levels, and that influence the effectiveness of an intervention, are not considered. The aforementioned, therefore, does not indicate that the evaluation
approaches followed could be considered as faulty, but instead that these approaches could be regarded as incomplete. Against the above background, an Evaluation Model has been formulated that could overcome evaluation problems. The model includes five major factors, namely individual, group and organisational factors, the learning environment and the components of the training cycle. It has been hypothesised that
these factors mutually interact with each other and transform HRD inputs into specific outputs. These elements also serve as outputs of the HRD function and it has been argued that the factors could be considered as indicative of effective HRD iniatives. The elements of the transformational process serve as one of three key evaluation areas, of which the other two evaluation areas are organisational effectiveness and external factors. The proposed evaluation approach thus pays attention to the impact and interaction between the different elements, the point of departure being that effective
transformation (that is, processing HRD inputs to outputs) would only be possible if full functional discharge occurs in all the elements.