An Assessment of the Effectiveness of Training and Development

An Assessment of the Effectiveness of Training and Development Function in Public Service Management Office in Tanzania

Theresia Dominic, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania tdominic@fcm.udsm.ac.tz Severine Kessy, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

severinesk@udsm.ac.tz

The purpose of this paper is to present finding on assessment of effectiveness of training and development function carried out in President’s Office, Public Service Management (PO-PSM) in Tanzania. Data were collected through structured questionnaires, unstructured checklists and review of organisational documents within the Office. Despite a well designed training programme, the findings established that inadequate and poor allocation of training funds, unclear criteria for trainees’ selection, and inability to determine type of training needed by trainee’s were considered as problems of implementing training programme within the Public Service Management Office. Furthermore the results show that training and development is not frequently evaluated in order to determine what benefits it brings to the organisation. From these findings it is recommended that current training programme needs to be re-analysed and improved in order to promote transparency as well as practical implementation of training plans.

INTRODUCTION Since independence, a number of organizational changes and/reforms have been instituted at the national and regional levels, and business enterprises in Tanzania. These changes were brought out to promote efficient socio-economic development of the country. Among these changes or reforms include; Africanization or localization of the civil service and public enterprises (in the early 1960’s); nationalization of major business enterprises (in 1967) and decentralization of government administration to the regions (1972) (Abdi, 2005). Also in 1980s the country experienced economic liberalisation which was brought by different programmes including Structural Adjustment...