The European Educational Researcher

Interrogating the Efficacy of Public Service Personnel Training at the Kenya School of Government

The European Educational Researcher, Volume 2, Issue 2, 2019, pp. 97-110
OPEN ACCESS VIEWS: 937 DOWNLOADS: 709 Publication date: 15 Jun 2019
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of senior management training on transfer of learning among public officers trained by Kenya school of Government by establishing whether training interventions yield corresponding increase in the level of trainees’ knowledge, skills and attitude. F-test was used to find out whether there was any variance within the pretest and posttest samples, paired sample t- test and analysis of variance was used to statistically determine significant difference between posttest and pretest mean scores of 197 trainees who attended senior management course offered at Kenya School of Government in Kenya sampled through single stage cluster sampling technique. The study concluded that mean scores of the posttest trainee’s knowledge level and application/use were different from the mean scores of the trainee pretest scores suggesting a change in the trainees’ level of knowledge and applicability of the training to trainees’ work following the training intervention. Furthermore, the scores showed a positive change from the pretest to posttest. Nonetheless, it was noted that trainee’s perception of how important it is to learn a specific set of skills (attitude) does not change even after training intervention is administered. The study provides training effectiveness roadmap for Kenya school of Government to address assessment gap noted and provides an empirical rationale for Governments and corporate organizations to commit and make major investments on training of their employees as a useful way of staff capacity building towards enhanced employee performance.
KEYWORDS
Capacity Building, Learning Domains, Management Training
CITATION (APA)
Kimeli, C. M. (2019). Interrogating the Efficacy of Public Service Personnel Training at the Kenya School of Government. The European Educational Researcher, 2(2), 97-110. https://doi.org/10.31757/euer.222
REFERENCES
  1. American Society for Training and Development. (2005). State of the Industry Report 2005 Executive Summary. Alexandria, VA.
  2. Anesee, I. (2008). Evaluating Training Effectiveness in the Malaysian Public Service. Durham theses, Durham University, Durham E-Theses.
  3. Bersin, J. (2008). The Training Measurement Book. San Francisco, Pfeiffer, John Wiley & Sons.
  4. Blume, B. D., Ford, J. K., Baldwin, T. T. & Huang, J. L. (2010). Transfer of Training: A Meta-Analytic Review. Journal of Management, 1(39), 1065–1105.
  5. Burke, L. & Hutchins, H. (2008). A Study of Best Practices in Training Transfer and Proposed Model of Transfer. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 1(1), 107–28.
  6. Carpenter, S. K. & DeLosh, E. L. (2006). Impoverished Cue Support Enhances Subsequent Retention: Support for the Elaborative Retrieval Explanation of Testing Effect. Memory & Cognition, 34(2), 268-276.
  7. Carpenter, S. K. & DeLosh, E. L. (2005). Application of the testing and spacing effects to name learning. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 19(1), 619-636. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/acp.1101.
  8. Dahiya, S. & Jha, A. (2011). Review of Training Evaluation. International Journal of Computer Science and Communication, 2(1), 11-16.
  9. Davi, R. & Shaik, N. (2012). Evaluating Training & Development Effectiveness - A Measurement Model. Asian Journal of Management Research, 2(1), 722-735.
  10. Dhal, M. (2014). A Qualitative Study of Training Effectiveness. Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode working paper series, IIMK/WPS/149/OBHR/2014/07.
  11. Government of Kenya. (2005). Recruitment and Training Policy. Directorate of Personnel Management, Nairobi: Government Printer.
  12. Johnston, J., Leung, G., Fielding, R., Tin, K. & Ho, L. (2003). The development and validation of a knowledge, attitude and behaviour questionnaire to assess undergraduate evidence-based practice teaching and learning. Medical Education, 37(1), 992–1000.
  13. Kirkpatrick, D. (1996). Great Ideas Revisited: Revisiting Kirkpatrick's Four-Level Model. Training and Development, 1(50), 54-57.
  14. Kirkpatrick, D. L. (1998). Evaluating Training Programs: The Four Levels (2nd ed., San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler.
  15. Kirkpatrick, J. (2008). Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training. Kirkpatrick Partners, LLC.
  16. Leach, M. & Liu, A. (2003). Investigating Interrelationships among Sales Training Evaluation Methods. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 23(4), 327-339.
  17. Mat, K., Omar, M. Z., Osman, S.A., Kofli, N. T., Rahman. M. N. Abd, J. M. & Jamaluddin, N. (2011). The Effectiveness of Industrial Training on UKM Engineering Students. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 1(18), 656– 665.
  18. PSI Research Division (2010, September). Peer Education of Young Bar/Restaurant/Hotel/Domestic Workers. Pre- and Post-Test Knowledge on HIV, Reproductive Health, Condom use and Peer Education & Life Skills. PSI Social Marketing Series.
  19. Rehmat, W., Aaltio, I., Agha, M., & Khan, H. (2015). Is Training Effective? Evaluating Training Effectiveness in Call Centers. Electronic Journal of Business Ethics and Organization Studies, 20(1), 4-13.
  20. Public Service Commission of South Africa. (2014). Assessing the Effectiveness of Training Provided by PALAMA in Improving Skills and Competencies of Public Service Leadership with a View to Inform Curriculum Development by the National School of Government. Government Reports, September 2014.
  21. Saks, A., & Haccoun, R. (2007). Managing Performance through Training and Development. Toronto: Nelson and Thompson Ltd.
  22. Samrejrongroj, P., Krikongjit, A., Sungsirin, N. & Vanapruks, V. (2013). Computer learning evaluation with pre-test and post-test in preclinical education. South East Asia Regional Association for Medical Education, 7(1), 61-66.
  23. Schwartz, D. (2006). Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management. IGI, Global.
  24. Switzer, K., Nagy, M., & Mullins, M. (2005). The Influence of Training Reputation, Managerial Support, and Self-Efficacy on Pre-Training Motivation and Perceived Training Transfer. Journal of Applied H.R.M. Research, 10(1), 21-34.
  25. Van, R., Jansen, J. P. & Lyles, M. A. (2008). Inter- and intra-organizational knowledge transfer: a meta-analytic review and assessment of its antecedents and consequences. Journal of Management Studies, 45(4), 815–838.
  26. Velada, R., Caetano, A., Michel, J., Lyons, B. & Kavanagh, M. (2007). The Effects of Training Design, Individual Characteristics and Work Environment on Transfer of Training. International Journal of Training and Development, 11(4), 282-294.
  27. World Bank (2016). World Strengthening Public Services in the Context of Fragility. A review of four public sector training institutions in Africa Report No: ACS17796.
LICENSE
Creative Commons License