Evaluating a management and organization development effort in mental health agencies.

Although the use of management and organization development techniques in health and human service settings is increasing, there are few systematic studies of their effects. Those which do exist are problematic in many respects. An 18-month program incorporating both management and organization development is described along with the results of its evaluation, which were positive and well-utilized. A discussion of the methods employed, the problems encountered, and the outcomes obtained illustrates that these evaluation efforts are needed and can be useful to program evaluators involved in planned-change efforts.     

Organizing evaluation to serve the needs of program planners and managers

Evaluation is often both conceptually and functionally separate from program planning and operations management. Though program managers may not see themselves as served well by the work of evaluation staffs, there are a number of potentially beneficial side effects to be realized from close collaboration between program administrators and evaluators. These flow only when the evaluation task is broadly defined and when both administrators and evaluators recognize their interdependence. Particular functional benefits to management from evaluation are described. Characteristics of interorganizational relations which might increase the probability of their attainment are then outlined and discussed.     

The case study evaluation: A means for managing organizational and political tensions

This study of evaluation utilization identified organizational, political, and practical arrangements which facilitated wide use of The Interim Report Evaluation in policy making for California's Early Childhood Education program. In a program fraught by tensions, where evaluations had been political tools, this evaluation was special. The research used a field study approach. Analysis was guided by literature on organizations, policymaking, and evaluation utilization. It identified techniques for maintaining political support, marshalling organizational resources, and designing and disseminating an evaluation that used an ethnographic approach and that was directly applied to policy deliberations. Such techniques have significance when evaluators and researchers need to convince policymakers of their worth. This case study adds to knowledge of the research/policy intersect, on ethnographic evaluation, and on state education policymaking.     

Relational responsibilities in responsive evaluation

This article explores how we can enhance our understanding of the moral responsibilities in daily, plural practices of responsive evaluation. It introduces an interpretive framework for understanding the moral aspects of evaluation practice. The framework supports responsive evaluators to better understand and handle their moral responsibilities. A case is introduced to illustrate our argument.Responsive evaluation contributes to the design and implementation of policy by working with stakeholders and coordinating the evaluation process as a relationally responsible practice. Responsive evaluation entails a democratic process in which the evaluator fosters and enters a partnership with stakeholders. The responsibilities of an evaluator generally involve issues such as ‘confidentiality’, ‘accountability’ and ‘privacy’. The responsive evaluator has specific responsibilities, for example to include stakeholders and vulnerable groups and to foster an ongoing dialogue. In addition, responsive evaluation involves a relational responsibility, which becomes present in daily situations in which stakeholders express expectations and voice demands. In our everyday work as evaluators, it is difficult to respond to all these demands at the same time. In addition, this article demonstrates that novice evaluators experience challenges concerning over- and underidenfitication with stakeholders. Guidelines and quality criteria on how to act are helpful, but need interpretation and application to the unique situation at hand.     

Techniques for the analysis of geographic data in evaluation

Although geographic relationships are often an important aspect of a program or system under evaluation, these relationships have frequently been ignored by evaluators. Standard techniques do exist, however, for the analysis of geographic data. This paper presents three such techniques, Geocode Analysis, Trend Surface Analysis, and Social Area Analysis, and discusses their use in evaluation. With these techniques, evaluators can more adequately deal with the questions of geographic relationships which arise in many studies.     

The value of experiential approaches to evaluation training

The training of evaluators is an important task—important because of the good that well trained evaluators can do and because of the mischief that poorly trained evaluators can cause. There is broad agreement on the importance of producing evaluators who are methodologically versatile and organizationally savvy. To accomplish these educational ends it is necessary to supplement classroom based instruction with experiential approaches. This paper describes a theoretical model of an effective experiential educational program for training evaluators, assesses two operating programs against the requirements of the model, and reports the results of a quasi-experimental evaluation of the effectiveness of the programs in producing important educational outcomes.     

Ethical problems in program evaluation: Advice for trapped evaluators

This paper argues that ethical problems in program evaluation are increased when conflicting or incompatible evaluation models are applied concurrently. Three models are illustrated: an Amelioration Model, generating better information for a program's own decision makers; an Accountability Model, focusing on public data disclosure and citizen participation in evaluation; and an Advocacy Model, in which the evaluation is designed to advance the program's interests in the competition for resources. Ethical problems inherent in each model, and arising from combining models are presented, along with case examples and discussion. The authors suggest several directions that program evaluators can consider to reduce their vulnerability to ethical problems.     

Mental health program evaluation: Where you start?

Seduced by the elegance, sophistication and jargon characteristic of new developments in applied research, practicing evaluators are in danger of becoming distracted from achievement of their evaluative goal: that of providing timely, reliable and useful data to program management to facilitate rational data-based decision-making. To avoid such seduction, the author advocates adaptation of simple, inexpensive and efficient evaluative methods tailored to organizational needs and presentation of findings in language readily understood by constituent groups. Likewise, insistance by evaluators upon maintenance of a strict role boundary — that is, limiting role functioning exclusively to those tasks considered evaluation — may be dysfunctional. Rather than detract from accomplishment of his goals, the author maintains that such participation allows development of skills, insights and staff relationships which enhance the evaluator's effective functioning within the organizational context and contribute to organizational acceptance and use of his evaluative results.     

Demands of the joint committee's standards for educational evaluation

The study examines demands placed on evaluators by the the Joint Committee on Educational Evaluation's standards. Twenty-two experts in evaluation rated the compatibility of implementing pairs of standards or rated individual standards on a series of scales. Multidimensional scaling of the compatibility judgments revealed five demands of ethical practice: evaluators must attend to the contextual and political circumstances of the evaluation; they must exhibit professionalism in their work; they must conduct the evaluation openly and consult widely; evaluators must meet canons of social science practice; and finally, evaluators' research activities must attend to the specific evaluation setting. The demand to attend to the contextual and political circumstances of the evaluation presents the greatest potential for conflict with other demands and is in greatest need of development.     

Analyzing mental health evaluation: moral and ethical dimensions

Now that evaluators have been sensitized to the importance of moral and ethical issues in their work, it is time to move beyond generalities and examine the moral and ethical implications of specific evaluation models in specific settings. This paper proposes a framework that can be used to examine moral and ethical dimensions of evaluation and illustrates it by analyzing a selected model of mental health evaluation. Such a systematic identification of moral issues can improve evaluation practice both proactively, by shaping the training of evaluators, and retrospectively, by contributing to meta-evaluation.     

Using hybrid models to support the development of organizational evaluation capacity: a case narrative

The ongoing need for public sector organizations to enhance their internal evaluation capacity is increasingly resulting in the use of hybrid evaluation project models, where internal evaluators work with external contracted evaluators to complete evaluative work. This paper first seeks to identify what is currently known about internal evaluation through a synthesis of the literature in this area. It then presents a case narrative illustrating how internal and external evaluation approaches may be used together to strengthen an evaluation project and to develop the evaluation capacity of the organization. Lessons learned include the need to integrate internal and external resources throughout the evaluation and to clarify expectations at the outset of the project.     

Expanding evaluator competency research: Exploring competencies for program evaluation using the context of non-formal education

The overlap of competencies between general program evaluation and specific contexts or content will always be reality because evaluators may need unique competencies to answer evaluation questions for particular contexts or content areas. Limited research exists that explores the essential competencies required by professionals who use evaluation as one part of their job portfolio, which leaves unanswered questions regarding the applicability of current evaluator competency models in such settings. We used a modified three-round Delphi technique to identify evaluator competencies for non-formal educators in Cooperative Extension (CE). Our panelists identified 36 competencies in the non-formal educational programming context for CE educators that they considered important to be included in evaluation capacity building efforts. We categorized our 36 identified competencies from the Delphi study into the five competency domains proposed by the American Evaluation Association. Our findings provide information to help guide professional development among non-formal educators related to program evaluation.     

Aligning collaborative and culturally responsive evaluation approaches

The authors, three African-American women trained as collaborative evaluators, offer a comparative analysis of collaborative evaluation (O'Sullivan, 2004) and culturally responsive evaluation approaches (Frierson, Hood, & Hughes, 2002; Kirkhart & Hopson, 2010). Collaborative evaluation techniques immerse evaluators in the cultural milieu of the program, systematically engage stakeholders and integrate their program expertise throughout the evaluation, build evaluation capacity, and facilitate the co-creation of a more complex understanding of programs. However, the authors note that without explicit attention to considerations raised in culturally responsive evaluation approaches (for example, issues of race, power, and privilege), the voices and concerns of marginalized and underserved populations may be acknowledged, but not explicitly or adequately addressed. The intentional application of collaborative evaluation techniques coupled with a culturally responsive stance enhances the responsiveness, validity and utility of evaluations, as well as the cultural competence of evaluators.     

Aligning collaborative and culturally responsive evaluation approaches

The authors, three African-American women trained as collaborative evaluators, offer a comparative analysis of collaborative evaluation (O'Sullivan, 2004) and culturally responsive evaluation approaches (Frierson et al., 2002, Kirkhart and Hopson, 2010). Collaborative evaluation techniques immerse evaluators in the cultural milieu of the program, systematically engage stakeholders and integrate their program expertise throughout the evaluation, build evaluation capacity, and facilitate the co-creation of a more complex understanding of programs. However, the authors note that without explicit attention to considerations raised in culturally responsive evaluation approaches (for example, issues of race, power, and privilege), the voices and concerns of marginalized and underserved populations may be acknowledged, but not explicitly or adequately addressed. The intentional application of collaborative evaluation techniques coupled with a culturally responsive stance enhances the responsiveness, validity and utility of evaluations, as well as the cultural competence of evaluators.     

Comparative influence of political, cost/benefit, and statistical information on administrative decision making.

The influence of three types of evaluation information was studied in simulated decisionmaking situations within a community mental health center setting. Twelve administrators reviewed one of two decision problems (direct services or indirect services funding) and were then presented political, cost/benefit and statistical information. After each presentation, the administrators rated the importance of each type of information for decision making. Only the cost/benefit data were rated as significantly influencing their decisions. The influence of each type was not dependent upon the decision problem, nor to length of time in administrative positions. The results were interpreted in terms of “who says what, how, and to whom. ” If evaluators desire a greater impact on the decision making behavior of community health administrators, they should consider employing a pay off-based evaluation strategy and providing cost/benefit information.     

A remedial strategy for data analysis

Professional evaluators are often called upon to analyze data produced by a catastrophically inadequate evaluation design. This problem is occurring more frequently as accountability pressures force program experts into evaluation activities for which they are not trained. A remedial strategy involving diagnosis of error, application of a corrective procedure and sensitization of program personnel of the need for a more sophisticated stance, is proposed as a solution. A case study is described and the contribution of a remedial strategy to improved evaluation is outlined.     

Mixed-methods library evaluation integrating the patron,library, and external perspectives: The case of Namibia regional libraries

The article presents a mixed-methods evaluation of regional libraries in Namibia, which incorporates three perspectives: the patron perspective (library users), the library perspective (library staff, management, and related officials), and the external perspective (including evaluators and monitoring data). Seven data collection methods were used: patron surveys, patron panel studies, focus group discussions, key informant and staff interviews, secondary data analysis, media analysis, and observations. The goal of the evaluation was to assess library performance for both formative and summative purposes by addressing evaluation questions on areas such as library services, use, and operations. Building upon the literature review of how mixed-methods approaches can contribute to library evaluation, the aim of this article is to show how a mixed-methods evaluation can be designed to examine multi-faceted library performance and to illustrate how the evaluation design allows information complementarity and can be utilized to present diverse viewpoints of the above three perspectives. The evaluation design, analysis process, and lessons learned from this study may be useful to evaluators engaged in evaluation of public services or programs (including public libraries) that examine multiple aspects of service performance and involve a variety of stakeholders.     

Private thoughts and public actions:: A commentary on articles dealing with ethical issues in evaluation

This commentary represents a personal reaction to seven articles on ethical issues in evaluation. The author of the commentary begins with two assumptions: (1) Professional evaluators might not have the vocabulary and constructs to analyze their thoughts and actions in ethical terms, and (2) professional evaluators have often confronted troubling situations that probably contain ethical issues embedded within them. Consequently, she queries the seven articles individually and collectively in terms of the following questions: 1. What is the range of ethical problems I might encounter as an evaluator; and how do I recognize the ethical characteristics of professional dilemmas? 2. How do I describe troubling evaluation problems I have encountered that seem to have an ethical component? 3. What are some approaches I have used or might use in thinking about a proper course of action? 4. How do I know if, in a given situation, I have behaved ethically? 5. Where do we go from here?     

Developmental trends in program evaluation

It is suggested that the ontogeny of program evaluators replicates the phytogeny of the profession of program evaluation. A trend across the purposes of program evaluation from program amelioration to program advocacy and ultimately to program accountability is projected.