Solution Manual for Employee Training and Development 6th Edition by Noe ISBN 007802921X
9780078029219
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Chapter 6
Multiple Choice
1. _____ refers to the process of collecting the outcomes needed to determine whether training is effective.
a. Training evaluation
b. Program design
c. Performance appraisal
d. Needs assessment
Answer: A
Difficulty Level: Easy
2. Which of the following statements best differentiates formative evaluation from summative evaluation?
a. Formative evaluation mainly involves collecting quantitative data, whereas summative evaluation involves collecting qualitative data.
b. Formative evaluation takes place on the completion of training, whereas summative evaluation takes place during program design and development.
c. Formative evaluation focuses on how to make a training program better, whereas summative evaluation helps to determine the extent to which trainees have changed after training.
d. Formative evaluation includes measuring the monetary benefits that a company receives from a training program, whereas summative evaluation measures beliefs and opinions of the trainees
Answer: C
Difficulty Level: Medium
3. Formative evaluation involves collecting qualitative data about a training program from trainees mainly through:
a. their opinions and feelings about the program.
b. measures of performance such as volume of sales.
c. tests and ratings of their behavior.
d. the return on investment method.
Answer: A
Difficulty Level: Medium
4 The evaluation process ideally begins with:
a. developing outcome measures.
b. choosing an evaluation strategy.
c. developing measurable learning objectives.
d. conducting a needs analysis.
Answer: D
Difficulty Level: Easy
5 The _____ training outcome is collected to determine whether trainees are using training content back on the job.
a. reaction
b. learning
c. cognitive
d. result
Answer: D
Difficulty Level: Easy
6. According to Kirkpatrick’s framework for categorizing training outcomes, _____ outcomes are level 1 criteria that are often called class or instructor evaluations.
a learning
b. reaction
c. skill-based
d. affective
Answer: B
Difficulty Level: Easy
7. Which of the following types of training outcomes are collected when trainees are asked to rate their level of satisfaction with the trainer at the end of a training program?
a. Result
b. Cognitive
c. Reaction
d. Behavior-based
Answer: C
Difficulty Level: Easy
8. Typically, _____ are used to assess cognitive outcomes.
a. attitude surveys
b. observations
c. focus groups
d. pencil-and-paper tests
Answer: D
Difficulty Level: Easy
9. Which of the following is an affective outcome collected in a training evaluation?
a. Learners’ satisfaction with training
b. Customer service orientation
c. Increased production
d. Reduced costs of production
Answer: B
Difficulty Level: Medium
10. If a firm measures its sales volume before and after a training program, it is typically assessing the _____ outcome
a. reaction
b. behavior-based
c. learning
d. results
Answer: D
Difficulty Level: Medium
11. Which of the following is true of return on investment (ROI)?
a. It is referred to as level 3 evaluation in Kirkpatrick’s framework for categorizing training outcomes
b. It refers to comparing sales activity before and after a training program.
c. Dollar value of productivity divided by training costs reflects return on investment.
d. The method of measurement for return on investment typically involves tests, surveys, and interviews.
Answer: C
Difficulty Level: Medium
12. Behavior or skill-based outcomes are best measured by _____.
a. surveys
b. interviews
c. focus groups
d. observations
Answer: D
Difficulty Level: Easy
13. If a manager believes that a training program is valuable and hence provides higher ratings of job performance to those trainees who attended the training program, then the training outcomes will lack relevance due to _____.
a. criterion contamination
b. criterion deficiency
c. criterion irreducibility
d. criterion maturation
Answer: A
Difficulty Level: Medium
14. _____ refers to the ease with which training outcome measures can be collected.
a. Reliability
b. Practicality
c. Acceptability
d. Relevance
Answer: B
Difficulty Level: Easy
15. Appropriate training outcomes need to be discriminative which implies that:
a. tests given to employees before and after a training program should differ.
b. trainees should be asked to take a reliable test that includes items for which the meaning or interpretation change over time.
c. trainees’ performance on the outcome should actually reflect true differences in performance.
d. different employees should be given different tests for measuring their performance on the same outcome.
Answer: C
Difficulty Level: Medium
16. If trainers are interested in the generalizability of a study’s results to other groups and situations, then they are said to be interested in the of the study.
a. outcome practicality
b. criterion relevance
c. external validity
d. outcome believability
Answer: C
Difficulty Level: Easy
17. Which of the following is a threat to internal validity?
a. Characteristics of trainees influence program effectiveness.
b. Being evaluated causes participants to try harder in training program
c. Trainees pay extra attention to material on a test before training.
d. Training group differs from comparison group on individual differences that influence outcomes.
Answer: D
Difficulty Level: Medium
18. Which of the following statements is true of comparison groups?
a. The use of a comparison group poses a threat to internal validity.
b. Comparison group consists of a group of employees who do not attend the training program.
c. Employees in a comparison group have personal characteristics that are different from other trainees.
d. Use of a comparison group in training evaluation increases the possibility that changes found in the outcome measures are due to factors other than training.
Answer: B
Difficulty Level: Medium
19. Which of the following statements is true of random assignment?
a. It assigns employees to a training program without considering their individual differences.
b. It results in an unequal distribution of individual characteristics such as age, gender, and motivation in the comparison group and the training group.
c. It increases the effects of employees dropping out of the study (mortality).
d. It increases the differences between the training group and comparison group in ability, knowledge, skill, or other personal characteristics.
Answer: A
Difficulty Level: Medium
20. A firm that aims at improving readily observable outcomes such as productivity by collecting related data at periodic intervals both before and after training is typically applying the _____ evaluation design.
a. Solomon four-group
b. pretest/post-test
c. return on investment
d. time series
Answer: D
Difficulty Level: Medium
21. is a time period in which participants no longer receive training intervention.
a. Regression
b. Mortality
c. Reversal
d. Maturation
Answer: C
Difficulty: Easy
22. Which of the following statements is true of Solomon four-group evaluation design?
a. It is mainly used by companies that are uncomfortable with excluding certain employees or that intend to train only a small group of employees.
b. It is an evaluation design in which pre-training outcomes are completely ignored.
c. It combines both pretest/post-test comparison group and post-test-only control group design.
d. Relative to the other evaluation designs it is more economical and takes lesser time to conduct.
Answer: C
Difficulty Level: Medium
23. Evaluation designs without pretest or comparison groups are most appropriate when:
a. information regarding training effectiveness is not needed immediately.
b. companies are interest in determining how much change has occurred.
c. a company has a strong orientation toward evaluation.
d. a company is only interested in whether trainees have achieved a certain proficiency level.
Answer: D
Difficulty Level: Medium
24 ROI analysis is best suited for training programs that are:
a. attended by few employees.
b. inexpensive and have limited visibility.
c. focused on an operational issue.
d. one-time events.
Answer: C
Difficulty Level: Easy
25 refers to concrete examples of the impact of training that show how learning has led to results that a company finds worthwhile and managers find credible.
a. Utility analysis
b. Success case
c. Return on expectation
d. Outcome practicality
Answer: B
Difficulty Level: Easy
True/ False
1. The influence of training is largest for organizational performance outcomes and weakest for financial outcomes.
a. True
b. False
Answer: A
Difficulty Level: Easy
2. Pilot testing refers to the process of previewing the training program with potential trainees and managers or with other customers.
a. True
b. False
Answer: A
Difficulty Level: Easy
3 Formative evaluation usually involves collecting quantitative data through tests or objective measures of performance.
a. True
b. False
Answer: B
Difficulty Level: Easy
4. In Kirkpatrick’s five-level framework for categorizing training outcomes, the levels indicate the importance of the outcomes
a. True
b. False
Answer: B
Difficulty Level: Easy
5 Results belong to the level 1 criteria in Kirkpatrick’s framework for categorizing training outcomes.
a. True
b. False
Answer: B
Difficulty Level: Easy
6. A pencil-and-paper test is ideal for measuring skill-based outcomes.
a. True
b. False
Answer: B
Difficulty Level: Easy
7. A reliable test includes items for which the meaning or interpretation does not change over time.
a. True
b. False
Answer: A
Difficulty Level: Easy
8 Outcome measures are perfectly related to each other.
a. True
b. False
Answer: B
Difficulty Level: Easy
9 If instructional objectives identify business-related outcomes such as increased customer service, then reaction outcomes should be used in the evaluation.
a. True
b. False
Answer: B
Difficulty Level: Medium
10. Reaction and cognitive outcomes do not help determine how much trainees actually use training content in their jobs.
a. True
b. False
Answer: A
Difficulty Level: Easy
11 No evaluation design can ensure that the results of the evaluation are completely due to training.
a. True
b. False
Answer: A
Difficulty Level: Easy
12. The believability of study results refers to external validity.
a. True
b. False
Answer: B
Difficulty Level: Easy
13. A comparison group refers to a group of employees who participate in the evaluation study but do not attend the training program.
a. True
b. False
Answer: A
Difficulty Level: Easy
14 The Hawthorne effect refers to employees in an evaluation study performing at a low level because of the attention they receive.
a. True
b. False
Answer: B
Difficulty Level: Medium
15. Evaluation designs without pretest or comparison groups are most appropriate when companies are interested in determining how much change has occurred in trainees
a. True
b. False
Answer: B
Difficulty Level: Medium
16. The Solomon four-group design combines the pretest/post-test comparison group and the post-test-only control group design.
a. True
b. False
Answer: A
Difficulty Level: Easy
17. Return on investment (ROI) is used to show a training program’s cost effectiveness before it has been delivered.
a. True
b. False
Answer: B
Difficulty Level: Easy
18. It is necessary to limit return on investment analysis only to certain training programs as it can be costly.
a. True
b. False
Answer: A
Difficulty Level: Easy
19. Once the costs and benefits of the training program are determined, ROI is calculated by dividing return or benefits by costs.
a. True
b. False
Answer: A
Difficulty Level: Easy
20. A training activity dashboard does not provide a perspective of future learning.
a. True
b. False
Answer: B
Difficulty Level: Easy
Short Answer/Essay
1. Why is it important to evaluate a training program?
Answer:
It is important to evaluate a training program for the following reasons:
• To identify the program's strengths and weaknesses; to determine if objectives are being met, to examine the quality of the learning environment, and whether transfer of training to the job is occurring.
• To assess whether the training content, organization, and administration of the program including the schedule, facilities, trainers, and materials contribute to learning and transfer.
• To identify which trainees benefited and which did not.
• To collect information to use in marketing training programs.
• To determine the financial benefits and costs of the program.
• To compare the costs and benefits of training versus nontraining investments
• To compare the costs and benefits of different training programs.
Difficulty Level: Easy
2. Describe the evaluation process for training
Answer:
The evaluation process should begin with determining training needs. The next step in the process is to identify specific, measurable training objectives to guide the program. The more specific and measurable these objectives are, the easier it is to identify relevant
outcomes for the evaluation. Based on the learning objectives and analysis of transfer of training, outcome measures are designed to assess the extent to which learning and transfer have occurred. Once the outcomes have been identified, the next step is to determine an evaluation strategy. The results of the evaluation are used to modify, market, or gain additional support for the program. The results of the evaluation should also be used to encourage all stakeholders in the training process including managers, employees, and trainers to design or choose training that helps the company meet its business strategy and helps managers and employees meet their goals.
Difficulty Level: Medium
3. Identify the ways to minimize threats to validity.
Answer:
There are three ways to minimize threats to validity: the use of pretests and post-tests in evaluation designs, comparison groups, and random assignment.
• Pretests and Post-tests
One way to improve the internal validity of the study results is to first establish a baseline or pretraining measure of the outcome. Another measure of the outcomes can be taken after training. This is referred to as a post-training measure. A comparison of the post-training and pretraining measures can indicate the degree to which trainees have changed as a result of training.
• Use of comparison groups
Internal validity can be improved by using a control or comparison group. A comparison group refers to a group of employees who participate in the evaluation study but do not attend the training program.
• Random assignment
Random assignment refers to assigning employees to the training or comparison group on the basis of chance alone. That is, employees are assigned to the training program without consideration of individual differences (ability or motivation) or prior experiences.
Difficulty Level: Medium
4. What conditions require a company to consider a rigorous evaluation design (pretest/posttest with comparison group)?
Answer:
A more rigorous evaluation design (pretest/post-test with comparison group) should be considered if any of the following conditions is true:
• The evaluation results can be used to change the program.
• The training program is ongoing and has the potential to have an important influence on employees or customers.
• The training program involves multiple classes and a large number of trainees.
• Cost justification for training is based on numerical indicators. (Here, the company has a strong orientation toward evaluation.)
• Trainers or others in the company have the expertise (or the budget to purchase expertise from outside the company) to design and evaluate the data collected from an evaluation study.
• The cost of the training creates a need to show that it works.
• There is sufficient time for conducting an evaluation. Here, information regarding training effectiveness is not needed immediately.
• There is interest in measuring change (in knowledge, behavior, skill, etc.) from pretraining levels or in comparing two or more different programs.
Difficulty Level: Medium
5. How does workforce-analytics help determine the value of learning activities?
Answer:
The value of learning activities is best determined through the use of workforce analytics. Workforce analytics refers to the practice of using quantitative methods and scientific methods to analyze data from human resource databases, corporate financial statements, employee surveys, and other datasources to make evidence-based decisions and show that human resource practices (including training, development, and learning) influence important company metrics. Each company needs to use data and metrics that are related to its business strategy or goals.
Difficulty Level: Medium