Report of the Training Evaluation Demonstration Project. Case Study 1: An Evaluation of the Executive Development Program of the Science and Education Administration, United States Department of Agriculture

摘要

During 1978-1979, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management undertook a training evaluation demonstration project in order to show how evaluation techniques could be applied to different types of training courses and in different organizational settings. Six Federal agency training efforts were the subjects of the demonstration study. Case Study 1 looked at the executive development program of the Department of Agriculture's Science and Education Administration (SEA), specifically the Agriculture Research unit. In order to prepare potential executives to manage this function, an executive development program was designed for SEA and implemented in June of 1977. The objectives of the evaluation were to determine: (1) the extent to which potential executives have developed professionally during the executive development program; (2) the role of the mentor-understudy relationship in the development of the potential executives; and (3) the ways in which the program could be improved. Methods used to gather data included having participants and mentors write narrative reports of their experiences, and having participants and two comparison groups fill out questionnaires on professional growth. The case study includes descriptions of the evaluation design, results, and conclusions, along with copies of instruments used and an explanation of the cost-value analysis for the program.