Developing Evaluation Cultures in Human Service Organisations
| Published date | 01 March 2013 |
| Author | Marie Connolly,David Rose,Alicia McCoy |
| Date | 01 March 2013 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1035719X1301300103 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
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McCoy, Rose and Connolly—Developing evaluation cultures in human service organisations
Developing evaluation cultures in
human service organisations
Evaluation is currently receiving signicant attention in the not-
for-prot sector in Australia as a changing external environment
augments its role in human service organisations. These bodies
typically make use of three models to carry out evaluation
activities to meet funding and organisational requirements:
the use of external evaluators to carry out specic projects;
creating internal evaluation functions to manage evaluation
needs independently; or a combination of the two. This article
outlines the characteristics of an internal evaluation culture
in the context of a learning organisation, and describes the
increasingly common approach of evaluation capacity building.
In conclusion, the relevance of utilising an organisational change
process to create sustainable and valued cultural change is
discussed.
Background
The external environment surrounding human service organisations in the not-
for-profit sector in Australia is currently in a state of flux. Over the past 20 years,
organisations have faced increased pressure from government, funding bodies and
the public to demonstrate, and document, the dierences their services are making
for individuals, families and communities (Carman & Fredericks 2008; Naccarella
et al. 2007). Whilst human service organisations had previously experienced a
special and often unquestioned status in society arising from their benevolent work
with the most vulnerable, this has changed over time and there is now a growing call
for the eectiveness of their work to be shown (Hoole & Patterson 2008). A recent
focus on the contribution of the not-for-profit sector in Australia has been driven
by a greater recognition of the sector’s role in achieving national socioeconomic
objectives and an increased demand from governments and funding bodies for
organisational accountability and performance measurement (Productivity
Commission 2010). These external factors have resulted in an interesting role for
evaluation as Australian human service organisations contend with how to meet
this rising demand with the limited resources generally available to them.
Traditionally, three key models of evaluation are available to human service
organisations: first, organisations engage an external evaluator such as a
university academic or evaluation consultant to carr y out specific evaluation
projects; second, organisations develop their internal capacity and capability
to coordinate and manage evaluation projects; and third, organisations use a
combination of both internal and external evaluation to fulfil organisational
needs and funding requirements in a hybrid model (Carman & Fredericks 2008;
Fine, Thayer & Coghlan 2000; Hoefer 2000; Naccarella et al. 2007). Depending
on an organisation’s context, capacity and capability, there are advantages
and disadvantages of each approach that warrant careful consideration. A key
advantage of using external consultants and academics is that evaluations are often
Alicia McCoy
David Rose
Marie Connolly
Alicia McCoy (top left) is a PhD candidate
at the University of Melbourne.
Email: <mccoya@student.unimelb.edu.au>
David Rose (top right) is a Lecturer in Social
Work at the University of Melbourne.
Email: <drose@unimelb.edu.au>
Marie Connolly (bottom) is Chair and
Head of Social Work at the University of
Melbourne.
Email: <marie.connolly@unimelb.edu.au>
Evaluation Journal of Australasia, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2013, pp. 15–20
REFEREED ARTICLE
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