On the Importance of Revisiting the Study of Ethics in Evaluation

Abstract

Traditionally, the kinds of ethical inquiry that one encounters in program and policy evaluation involve two broad matters: Evaluator (mis)conduct – that is, concerns such as conflict of interest, contractual obligations, competence, integrity and honesty, and so forth – and protection of evaluation participants’ rights to autonomy, privacy, informed consent, and so on. Ethical inquiry in both cases is typically guided by a set of ethical theories, standards, guidelines, or principles that an evaluator must interpret and apply in the situation at hand (Newman & Brown, 1996). For example, the Joint Committee's (1994) Propriety Standards speak to matters of both evaluator conduct – with respect to formal agreements/contracting, conflict of interest, and fiscal responsibility – and to matters of participants’ rights. Similarly, the Guiding Principles for Evaluators, endorsed by the American Evaluation Association (see www.eval.org), address these two ethical concerns stressing the evaluator's duty or obligation with respect to methodological competence, integrity and honesty, and respecting people. These are important matters in professional ethics in evaluation, situated largely within the discussion of the ethics of principles or rules. However, this view of ethical inquiry in evaluation is not my concern here.

Citation

Schwandt, T.A. (2007), "On the Importance of Revisiting the Study of Ethics in Evaluation", Kushner, S. and Norris, N. (Ed.) Dilemmas of Engagement: Evaluation and the New Public Management (Advances in Program Evaluation, Vol. 10), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 117-127. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1474-7863(07)10008-9