ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an overview of the role of personnel policies as they relate to the activities of program evaluation in a number of European countries, in the United States and in Canada. Shared expectations regarding the need for and utility of evaluations triggers the institutionalization of the evaluation function. Human Resource Management’s cultural functions can enlarge the organization’s commitment to the idea of evaluation and confirm its role in the administrative process. In-service training and development figure prominently in modern philosophies of “management of human resources,” organizational goals once again forming the ultimate point of reference. Apart from experience and coaching by superiors, personnel development takes place via training programs. The policy sciences emanated from the applied social sciences, economics, political science, and public administration. Policy training of public officials takes place in the context of university-based graduate programs, usually leading to either a Master’s degree in Public Policy or Public Administration.
