Effects of a Municipal Training Program on Employee Behavior and Attitude

Millions of dollars a year are spent on the training of employees in the public sector, yet effective and empirically sound evaluation procedures are not found in the literature and are not being practiced in the field. This study used a “true” experimental design (pretest/posttest and control group), to evaluate the attitudinal and behavior changes of randomly selected municipal employees after a two-day human relations training seminar. Posttests for attitudinal change were done immediately after the training sessions. Posttests for behavior changes were done six months after the training sessions were completed. In addition to the testing of employees, supervisors were also asked to participate in a pretest/posttest evaluation of their subordinates' job behavior. The results of the “t” tests performed on the group means (X) indicated no statistically significant attitudinal or behavioral changes on the part of the experiment group. However, significant discussion as to why this occurred follows the results.