NCJ Number
74515
Date Published
1980
Length
34 pages
Annotation
This monograph summarizes the most current thinking regarding training needs assessment to assist criminal justice administrators in their analysis of how to justify training expenditures and obtain organizational improvements from measures other than training programs.
Abstract
The need for this manual has arisen from training experiences of agencies where a discrepancy was perceived between the desired and actual performance following a training program. The basic premise of the approach presented here is that if an organization does not benefit directly or indirectly from a training program, the organization suffers by subscribing to it. The four chapters of this monograph represent steps to be taken in assessing an organization's true needs for training. First, the purposes of needs assessment are analyzed in terms of short and long range perspectives. Job analysis is covered because of its implications for training as well as for performance evaluation, compensation, job design, and selection. Performance problems are the focus of chapter two, where alternative suggestions to training include reassignment and improved goal definition. The third chapter briefly describes several different needs assessment methods, identifying the advantages and disadvantages of each. The conclusion emphasizes the need for criminal justice administrators to be fully conversant with the concepts of needs analysis, data analysis, and cost/benefit analysis and to use these techniques for the benefit of the organization. A thorough needs assessment may well reveal shortcomings to be corrected through improved selection procedures, organizational design, and better management practices rather than through training. Charts and a six-item bibliography are included.