JOURNAL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS EDUCATION - Naspaa

Knowledge Transfer of Educational Programs in Public Management:3. In its role as accountable to the political world, the publicsector always is connected to those specificities. This meansthat a governmental shift could cause changes within the publicsector. From a normative point of view, it stands to reason thateducational investments made in the past would continue togenerate positive effects for the future, even in a changed politicalclimate. Similarly, every developed competency should have apositive impact on an organization, despite political contexts.Finally, two questions remain: What can other countries learn from this?And how can this knowledge improve the teaching of programs in publicmanagement? It is crucial to be aware that the effectiveness of educationalprograms can be partly foreseen. Indeed, what happens before the program takesplace is of high importance for what will happen after its completion. In otherwords, the conceptualization and implementation of a program have a transferpredictivenature, and may be even more important than the actual transferphase. Organizations — whether in Belgium or elsewhere — should take intoaccount that, if the involved parties (the participants, the organization, andthe training institute) clearly discuss (a) preparedness, (b) the link between theprogram and its benefit to the organization, (c) program goals, (d) supervisorsupport, and (e) participants’ expectations about the program and about theirjobs afterwards, then different transfer inhibiting factors already will have beenencountered. In sum, organizations should discuss the knowledge transfer issuebefore sending an employee to a program. And the discussion must not remainas a bilateral debate between supervisors and participants. It instead should bea joint effort with the personnel unit of the organization, the training institute,and in some cases the participants’ colleagues.Public management programs automatically will be improved if sufficienteffort is put into the conceptualization phase. It absolutely is necessary thatthese kinds of programs be aware of the educational needs of organizations, andintegrate enough realistic case-material for participants to easily link theory withpractice. Educational goals also must clearly be defined for organizations, so thatthey know what can be expected. As such, goals and needs can meet, and create aprogram with a high utility rate.ReferencesAlliger, G., Tannenbaum, S., Bennett, W., Traver, H., & Shotland, A. (1997). A meta-analysis of therelations among training criteria. Personnel Psychology, 50, 341- 358.Awoniyi, E., Griego, O., & Morgan, G. (2002). Person-environment fit and transfer of training.International Journal of Training And Development, 6(1), 25-35.250 Journal of Public Affairs Education