Determinants of Effectiveness of Staff Training Programmes - evidence from Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration

This study attempts to examine the determinants of effectiveness of staff training programmes conducted by SLIDA through analyzing the data derived from evaluation sheets administered among participants at the end of each training programme. Effective and efficient public sector is the foundation for a modern developed state which stimulates private sector to achieve productivity enhancement and to maximize welfare. Continuous quality improvement in public sector is imperative in producing effective and efficient service to the people. On the other hand is evident that as a percentage of the population Sri Lankan public sector is one of the largest in the world and service of the public sector is indispensible to steer the privet sector to achieve the development goals. With that in mind, Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration (SLIDA), the premier institute established to conduct training of the Sri Lankan public sector, conducts around 150 training programmes annually to enhance the skills of the public sector employees covering both managerial level as well as non-managerial level officers. It is required to measure the effectiveness of such trainings in achieving better results at the end as well as to develop successful training programs in the future. A rigorous regression framework is employed to isolate the impact of each aspects relating to two main areas examined by the evaluation forms, namely, resource person evaluation and the course arrangement evaluation. For this purpose, evaluation records maintained for141 courses and resource persons during the year of 2013 have been taken into account. Findings show that there are few factors that contribute to the effectiveness of a training programme, while many of the items do not have anticipated impact on the effectiveness of the training programme. This research will facilitate the decision makers for developing successful training programmes and for the resource persons to have self examinations on the standards that they should maintain.

Sri Lanka Journal of Development Administration, Vol. 5, pp. 58-78, 2015