Evaluating Executive Leadership Programs: A Theory of Change Approach

As executive leadership development programs become more informal and experiential, traditional evaluation models of learning transfer based on fixed objectives do not capture emerging program outcomes. What is needed is a more robust approach for increasingly complex environments that looks at open objectives and changes that have occurred that affect both the individual and the organization. This article presents an evaluation model based on a Theory of Change approach that identifies critical incidents of new behavior and explores changes at individual and organizational levels. This evaluation model relies on repositioning management learning in leadership development programs and incorporates theories of action, workplace, and organizational learning. Two case studies of executive leadership development in the United States and Europe demonstrate the model's usefulness. Both studies explore emerging program outcomes using in-depth interviews with participants in the leadership programs. Key stakeholders include individuals who design and deliver leadership development programs as well as the leaders who must make difficult decision regarding where to invest limited development dollars. In addition, evaluators of those programs as well as scholars of both evaluation and of leadership development will find this approach of interest. The approach is useful both for guiding practice and for developing knowledge about what types of learning occur in these programs and what persists.