Improving the Evidence Base for Career Development Programs: Making Use of the Evaluation Profession and Positive Psychology Movement

Authors

Hallie Preskill, Claremont Graduate University
Stewart I. Donaldson, Claremont Graduate UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Department

Behavioral and Organizational Sciences (CGU), Community and Global Health (CGU)

Publication Date

2-2008

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

Though much has been written on the topic of career development, the human resource development field has paid little attention to the ways in which career development programs are evaluated.The lack of sound evidence for the effectiveness of career development interventions may be because of the over reliance on Kirkpatrick's ubiquitous evaluation approach or that traditional research methods such as experimental and quasi-experimental designs are not appropriate or feasible in many organizational settings. In this article, we describe the growing profession and practice of evaluation and discuss how the positive psychology movement provides new insights into how career development programs may be evaluated.

Rights Information

© 2008 SAGE Publications

DOI

10.1177/1523422307310117

Recommended Citation

Preskill, H., & Donaldson, S.I. (2008). Improving the evidence base for career development programs: Making use of the evaluation profession and positive psychology movement. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 10(1), 104-121. doi: 10.1177/1523422307310117