Leadership Learning and Development: A Framework for Evaluation

This chapter promotes the effective evaluation of leadership learning and development interventions. An evaluation is the ‘systematic collection of information about the activities, characteristics, and outcomes of programs in order to make judgements about the program, to improve program effectiveness, and/or to inform decisions about future programming’ (Patton, 1997, p. 23). It is a fundamental step in the learning and development process. Evaluation should not be confused with assessment, which typically involves the measurement of how an individual learner performed on a learning task. In contrast, evaluation aims to improve (formative) or prove the worth and efficacy (summative) of programmes (Scriven, 1991). Many commentators have celebrated the importance of evaluation describing is as the ‘backbone of the learning and change process’ (Pym, 1968) since it ‘provides information for action’ (Weiss, 1972, p. 318). Companies, professional management associations, business schools and consultants assume that leadership development interventions will result in improved leadership (Collins and Holton, 2004, p. 218). However, on the whole organisations do not properly evaluate the impact of leadership learning and development — they fail to budget for it financially, make time available for a proper evaluation or employ the most effective evaluation practices.