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Evaluation and public management - Approaches in Evaluation

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What is evaluation again according to Vedung (1997)?

Evaluation is a systematic or careful ASSESSMENT of the merit (verdienste), worth, and value of administration, output, and outcome of government interventions which is intended to play a role in future, practical action situations.

How are the 4 dimensions of evaluation useful?

Along these 4 dimensions evaluators take different standpoints in different situations, but not every time from scratch. Their typical standpoints tend to coalesce with a numer of schools of thought, models, or approaches. In the next sub sections these approaches will be presented.

What is theory-based evaluation?

Theory-based evaluation views a particular activity under evaluation as rooted in a more general set of assumptions.
These assumptions, often called 'program theory' explain why activities like these at hand can plausibly lead to a stipulated outcome and what else is likely to happen.
Theory-based approaches include Chen's (1990) theory-driven evaluation, Pawson and Tilley's (1997) realistic evaluation and a number of practical ways to systematically connect means-ends relationships in program activities.

Is it prohibitive for evaluation if no program theory is made explicit by the policy architect?

Very often it is not prohibitive for evaluation if no program theory is made explicit by the policy architect. The evaluator can reconstruct the program theory as part of the evaluation.
In doing so, some evaluators use official documents, or field observations, while Patton (1997) focuses on a dialogue with the intended users of the evaluation and Chen (1990) prefers linking evaluation with social science theory. Each of these ways leads to different types of theory and to different characteristics of the feedback provided by evaluation.

What methodology of research do the responsive and participatory approaches favor?

Responsive evaluation favors the CASE STUDY as an appropriate methodolgical way into the uniqueness of a local setting. 'Issues' are not selected in advance, but as a result of preliminary study, interviews and observation.

The primary concern in responsive evaluation is the understanding of goodness in relation to the issues, not to produce goodness of to advocate any paricular position on how to resolve the issues (Stake 2004; 89).

What is the difference between responsive and participatory evaluation?

Responsive evaluation is not participatory evaluation, but participatory evaluation often involves some degree of responsiveness (Stake 2004; 101).

In participatory evaluation various participants are invited to share responsibility for the evaluation process.

According to Greene (1997; 174) 'participatory evaluation intentionally involves alle legitimate stakeholders interests in collaborative dialogic inquiry process, that enables the construction of contextually meaningful knowledge that engenders the personal and structural capacity to act on that knowledge and that seeks action that contributes to democratizing social change.'

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Evaluation and public management

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