Because 'happy sheets' are not enough – a meta-analytical evaluation of a personnel development program in academia.

Although the high costs of implementing personnel development programs in enterprises and increasingly in universities as well are commonly accepted, the scientifically-grounded evaluation of a program's effectiveness is often neglected. The aim of this paper was to evaluate a personnel development program for academics at a German university (N=1426). We investigated the program's effectiveness on Kirkpatrick's four levels. We examined short- and long-term effects with a repeated measurements design. In sum, 123 training programs were clustered into 26 primary studies. We conducted t-tests and aggregated the effect sizes (d) using meta-analytical techniques. We found a high short-term effect and a moderate to high long-term effect for the learning level, and a small to moderate long-term effect for the behavior level. Participants' organizational commitment did not increase. Our results have appealing practical implications for university HR managers, trainers, and evaluators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]