Who's Accountable for that?

Like most business practices, it is no longer enough to say you are doing a good job. Maybe you are doing job. Maybe you aren’t. Either way talking about it seems pointless. Today’s culture is all about performance and the bottom line. Sadly enough that seems to have been replaced with things like honesty and integrity. Now we need things like accountability, a way to prove we are actually doing what we have said. We have to provide hard data and metrics to ensure that we aren’t liars. While that seems a bit sad to me, could I work at a university with 3000 other staff and no accountability? I would like to yes. Do I want to test that? Maybe not.
Accountability within HR has become a more pressing issue in recent years. One of the most well-known and least used (go figure that out) is the 1998 Kirkpatrick Model of training evaluation. It states that training should be evaluated at four levels:
1. Participant reactions
2. Learning
3. On the job behaviors
4. Results from behavior change
That sounds lovely, but the reality of the situation is most businesses only measure level one, or perhaps level two. Rarely does anyone measure three and four, which seems odd to be because that is the most important and powerful parts. While everything else in HRD is measured by performance, professionals are going measure training by whether people liked it (participant reactions)? This is silly because I could REALLY like something and not learn anything or dislike the training in general but learn enough to completely enhance my skills/work.
So if everybody knows about this model, why isn’t it used? There are several criticisms of the model. First, the model is not supported by research. (Gosh, why would an accountability model need to be supported by research?). Second the main emphasis is mostly on reaction measures, which have demonstrated a zero correlation with learning and/or performance. So basically you are measuring something which has no relation to what you are trying to do. Third, despite the vast changes in the business world, and there have been numerous major changes in the last few decades, the model itself hasn’t been updated. Then there is the fact that people don’t actually use the model, which is problematic. Lastly, the model can lead to incorrect decisions because it leaves out many variables of training. Wow, and people don’t want to use that model?