The training of civil servants in the Slovene state administration: issues in introducing training evaluation
| Date | 01 December 2008 |
| Author | Goran Vukovic,Blaz Rodic,Bruno Zavrsnik,Gozdana Miglic |
| Published date | 01 December 2008 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020852308098473 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
The training of civil servants in the Slovene state
administration: issues in introducing training evaluation
Goran Vukovic, Bruno Zavrsnik, Blaz Rodic and Gozdana Miglic
Abstract
The state administration in Slovenia is undergoing its biggest reform since the
country’s secession from Yugoslavia in 1991. The civil servants need to adjust to a
large number of changes in a very short time. They face a continually changing
regulatory framework that they need to implement and enforce, as well as new
demands from the growing private sector and citizens at large. These challenges
can only be met by highly qualified civil servants who are constantly updating their
qualifications. Therefore systematic in-service training is crucial to keep the civil
servants competent in a rapidly changing environment.
This article examines the practices of training evaluation in a branch of Slovene
state administration. The article compares the attitudes of employees towards
evaluation with the assumption that significant differences may exist among the
attitudes of employees of different demographic characteristics.
After having identified a conceptual framework that examines the notion of
training evaluation among civil servants, the research questions related to deter-
minants and consequences of evaluation were explored. Research assessing the
influence of respondents’ demographic characteristics was conducted among a
population of civil servants, and 414 responses were gathered. The results
obtained indicate that the influence of hierarchical position prevailed, although the
managers (leading civil servants) are less involved in evaluation than expected.
Empirical data also demonstrate that the majority of employees are willing to
participate in permanent and transparent training evaluation.
Goran Vukovic is at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Maribor, Slovenia. Bruno
Zavrsnik is Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Maribor, Slovenia. Blaz
Rodic is at theUniversity and Research Centre Novo Mesto, Slovenia. Gozdana Miglic is Assistant
Professor, Ministry of Public Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, Slovenia.
Copyright © 2008 IIAS, SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore)
Vol 74(4):653–676 [DOI:10.1177/0020852308098473]
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
Points for practitioners
This article may be of interest to researchers and managers involved in the plan-
ning and evaluation of civil servant training. Evaluation of the results of training
presents feedback information to the training managers and is a key component
in the systematic approach to training. The article sheds light on the relationship
between demographic characteristics of training participants and their attitude
towards training evaluation, and may help managers develop a systematic train-
ing model that will be better tailored to the demographic characteristics of their
target group.
Keywords: civil servants, evaluation, state administration, training, training effec-
tiveness
Introduction
Until the secession from the former Yugoslavia in 1991, the state administration of
the Republic of Slovenia was shaped according to the needs of the socialist regime,
so the subsequent democratization and westernization of the country required a
major reform of the state administration. The government has made great efforts to
transform the centrally planned economy into a market economy. This process was
significantly influenced by a rapid and dynamic development of a modern social sys-
tem which simultaneously required an appropriate adjustment and development of
the administrative system. Also, the modernization of the state administration was a
prerequisite for accession to the European Union (EU).
The Slovene state administration had to adapt itself to an enormous number of
changes in a very short time. The change process focused on adjusting and modern-
izing the legislation and regulations, the introduction of new concepts and policies
and initiating new organizational and managerial skills and techniques within state
institutions.
Building a modern and advanced administrative system and establishing a profes-
sional civil service requires continuous training of public servants to develop appro-
priate capacity, and a new administrative culture and professional ethics. Therefore,
developing and implementing an effective training system has become one of the
priorities for state administration. Slovenia’s state administration under the govern-
ment of 2004 in particular seems very eager to climb aboard the New Public
Management wagon, in contrast with bigger Continental European countries, as
described in Pollitt (2007: 20).
This article and the research behind it are a response to the requirements of the
Slovene Civil Servants Act, which is one of the most important parts of the new
legislation reforming the state administration. The law states that the quality and
effectiveness of civil servants’ training for the previous period should be evaluated
and the findings reported to the Government within three months after adopting the
training programme for the next year.
654 International Review of Administrative Sciences 74(4)
To continue reading
Request your trial