Stakeholder approach to training program evaluation: a study of Kenya Bureau of Standards

Abstract

Stakeholder-based evaluation is useful to conceptually frame the general program evaluation problem (AIkin, Hofstetter & Ai, 1998). But most training evaluation approaches continue to ignore, diminish, or make broad and untested assumptions about the implications of stakeholder participation in the design, execution, and consequences of training programs evaluation. The stakeholder approach represents an appreciation that each program aspects contributes in different ways and to groups that have divergent and even incompatible concerns by realizing and making legitimate the diversity of interests at play. Although stakeholder-based evaluation has been fairly well developed in the general program evaluation literature, it remains barely recognized in training evaluation practice. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of multiple stakeholder perceptions about training evaluation in an organizational context. Extending prior empirical work that described differences in stakeholder perceptions about valued training outcomes, the current case study examines multiple stakeholder perspectives of the involvement, benefits, and limitations of stakeholder approach to training programs evaluation. 72 out of the targeted 79 respondents were evaluated for their perception regarding stakeholder approach to KEBS' training programs evaluation. Generally, the respondents felt that KEBS stakeholders should be involved in its training programs evaluation. They also noted that numerous benefits not withstanding, stakeholder approach to training programs evaluation also has limitations such as 'different understandings of the purpose of evaluation', 'competing organizational goals' and 'organizational culture', among others.