The evaluation of management development using a choice-based consultancy tool : exploring the relevance of the learning organisation model.

This Doctor of Education thesis uses Action Research to address the means
which organisations can use to evaluate the impact of management
development on their organisations. The author has devised a choice-based
consultancy tool, the Yates Options Model for Evaluation which, amongst
other things, incorporates the concept of the learning organisation as a key
element and, using action research procedures, the thesis explores and
confirms the value of this concept in the process of evaluating organisational
effectiveness. By using the consultancy tool to carry out evaluation in two
organisations, one public and one private, insights are drawn into the
consultancy process itself, the value of the Model and the way in which action
research serves to illuminate both. Each organisation made its choices within
the Model and studies of staff opinion were carried out to establish where the
organisation lay in terms of the development of the learning organisation. All of
the experiences of carrying out those studies formed the research data along
with interviews with key participants to establish the value of the Model. The
thesis finds that choice-based models of consulting empower client
organisations to evaluate their management development in line with their own
objectives and through means of their choosing. This process brings clients to
the heart of the consulting exercise and increases their sense of ownership of
the results of the organisational evaluation and management development.