Establishing and Embedding Evaluation as a Central Landmark on the Organisational Horizon
| Author | Joanne Sheffield |
| Published date | 01 March 2017 |
| Date | 01 March 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1035719X1701700103 |
| Subject Matter | Academic Article |
12
Evaluation Journal of Australasia Vol 17 | No 1 | 2017
ACADEMIC ARTICLE Evaluation Journal of Australasia Vol 17 | No 1 | 2017 | pp. 12–18
JOANNE SHEFFIELD
Establishing and embedding evaluation as
a central landmark on the organisational
horizon
This paper explores the cultural and organisational
conditions required to drive evaluation capacity building
(ECB). It shares the principles used to measure current
organisational readiness for evaluation, in order to inform
the ongoing development of realistic ECB initiatives.
The project is driven by the need to improve evaluation
literacy and awareness across New Zealand Defence Force
(NZDF) Learning Providers and the New Zealand Defence
College (the College). Current evaluation ‘readiness’ will be
assessed through a diagnostic instrument which focuses
on six domains. The results of the organisational readiness
assessment will feed into an organisational maturity
matrix to provide a benchmark from which to measure
future progress, and prescribe a systematic range of
ECB initiatives which align with organisational readiness
and understanding. The NZDF is a unique organisation,
combining three distinct individual service cultures—
Army, Navy and Air—together with a growing contingent
of civilian sta. It is against this landscape that the NZDF
College Performance and Evaluation Team works to
embed its core learning evaluation framework. This
paper shares a starting point, discusses some challenges
encountered along the way and oers potential to
provide a foundation for other organisations starting on
their own unique ECB journey.
The NZDF cultural landscape in relation to ECB
ECB is defined by Stockdill, Baizerman and Compton (2002), as
‘intentional work to continuously create and sustain overall organizational
processes that make quality evaluation and its uses routine’ (p. 14).
Joanne Sheeld is a Senior Advisor,
Performance and Evaluation at the New
Zealand Defence College.
Email: joanne.sheffield@nzdf.mil.nz
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