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The relationship among process use, findings use, and stakeholder involvement in evaluation

University of British Columbia

The evaluation use literature agrees that there is a set of consequences that result from involvement in the evaluation, namely use of process and findings. Recently, research is focusing more on the relationships between use of findings and process. The relationship between process and findings use has been examined in relation to involvement in the evaluation process. Empirical research shows that involvement plays a large role in enhancing use of findings and process, and the effects of process use on the use of evaluation findings. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship among process use, use of findings, and stakeholder involvement in an evaluation and the effects of factors identified in the literature on use. The study considers use in the context of the evaluation of the “Working on Walls” (WOW) project. Through a Delphi technique with three rounds, perceptions of the ongoing evaluation of the project were elicited from WOW participants. This research investigated process and findings use individually and the relationship between them and it provides an example of using the Delphi method in evaluation research. The Delphi technique that was used had many limitations in this context. The most important were attrition rate, biased results, and misinformed participants. The Delphi survey results provided an accurate but incomplete view of the factors that were available in the evaluation. However, it failed to correctly identify uses of the evaluation. Although this study had some limitations, it provides an example that emphasizes the importance of the personal factor on process and findings use of an evaluation. It also emphasizes the importance of decision-makers’ attitudes towards evaluation on stakeholder’s perceptions of an evaluation. Lastly, the survey created for this study is one of a kind that can be useful for future research on evaluation use.

Text

2012-10-22

Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/43516

Education

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/