Training of civil servants in the Slovene state administration — issues in introducing training evaluation Goran Vukovic, Bruno Zavrsnik, Blaz Rodic and Gozdana Miglic Abstract The state administration in Slovenia is undergoing its biggest reform since the country’s secession from Yugoslavia in 1991. The civil servants need to adjust to a large number of changes in a very short time. They face a continually changing regulatory framework that they need to implement and enforce, as well as new demands from the growing private sector and citizens at large. These challenges can only be met by highly qualified civil servants who are constantly updating their qualifications. Therefore systematic in-service training is crucial to keep the civil servants competent in a rapidly changing environment. This article examines the practices of training evaluation in a branch of Slovene state administration. The article compares the attitudes of employees towards evaluation with the assumption that significant differences may exist among the attitudes of employees of different demographic characteristics. After having identified a conceptual framework that examines the notion of training evaluation among civil servants, the research questions related to deter- minants and consequences of evaluation were explored. Research assessing the influence of respondents’ demographic characteristics was conducted among a population of civil servants, and 414 responses were gathered. The results obtained indicate that the influence of hierarchical position prevailed, although the managers (leading civil servants) are less involved in evaluation than expected. Empirical data also demonstrate that the majority of employees are willing to participate in permanent and transparent training evaluation. Goran Vukovic is at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Maribor, Slovenia. Bruno Zavrsnik is Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Maribor, Slovenia. Blaz Rodic is at theUniversity and Research Centre Novo mesto,Slovenia. Gozdana Miglic is Assistant Professor, Ministry of Public Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, Slovenia. Copyright © 2008 IIAS, SAGE Publications (Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore) Vol 74(4):653–676 [DOI:10.1177/0020852308098473] International Review of Administrative Sciences 01_RAS 74_4 11/7/08 2:19 PM Page 653