Search results

The starting point of this article is the problem facing the evaluator of how to make the research findings useful to those involved in the process being evaluated. Underlying this problem is the basic assumption that, as Carol Weiss says, “Basically evaluation research is concerned with finding out how well action programmes work”, and that this is related to a second assumption that such findings should be of use to those involved in making decisions about the programme.

Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) are defined as non-required workplace behaviors that have potential positive organizational impact. This study examined gender roles and differences in employee evaluations based on OCB participation. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

College students (n=160) rated male and female managers, who did or did not participate in OCBs, on the evaluation of behaviors and possessed gendered traits (agentic and communal). Additionally, participants rated the gendered nature of OCBs.

OCB participation had a direct effect on managerial ratings and OCBs were perceived to be more feminine than masculine. Gender did not predict differences in ratings; however, women were seen as more likely to participate in OCBs compared to men. Additionally, the gender roles associated with OCBs were measured and OCBs were perceived to be mostly feminine in nature.

The results indicated the importance of OCBs in managerial ratings and established that OCB behaviors are more aligned with stereotypes of women than men. Gendered expectations regarding OCB behaviors may further bias subjective workplace evaluations.

This is the first study to establish the perception that OCBs as commonly categorized in research studies are perceived to be associated with feminine behaviors. OCBs had a strong effect on evaluations of managers and OCBs are more associated with feminine gender roles.

This paper aims to briefly outline the seamless evaluation approach and its application during an evaluation of ORIENT, a serious game aimed at young adults.

In this paper, the authors detail a unobtrusive, embedded evaluation approach that occurs within the game context, adding value and entertainment to the player experience whilst accumulating useful data for the development team.

The key result from this study was that during the “seamless evaluation” approach, users were unaware that they had been participating in an evaluation, with instruments enhancing rather than detracting from the in‐role game experience.

This approach, seamless evaluation, was devised in response to player expectations, perspectives and requirements, recognising that in the evaluation of games the whole process of interaction including its evaluation must be enjoyable and fun for the user.

Through using seamless evaluation, the authors created an evaluation completely embedded within the “magic circle” of an in‐game experience that added value to the user experience whilst also yielding relevant results for the development team.

Many development interventions fail to report results that are important to local people (intended beneficiaries of the intervention) but not of strategic importance to the donors funding the work. Failure to report unexpected results, or those not linked to strategic goals, contributes to an overly negative view from external evaluations by donors and agencies. The causes of the mismatch between actual and demonstrated results failure were studied through stakeholder interests. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Nine project and programme managers of similar but unrelated projects were interviewed. From the interviews, previous studies and project publications, the challenges posed by differing interests and different perceptions in reporting stakeholder activities, outputs and outcomes, were identified. The complex environment of many development interventions was analysed and the work was contextualised with a peacebuilding project in Sri Lanka, which the author has previously studied. A stakeholder role and perception analysis was used to map the challenges at four times in the project cycle, producing a dynamic stakeholder analysis.

The failure to fully report intervention results was linked to the changing role of competing stakeholder interests as a project proceeds, the conflicting perceptions of stakeholders, the structural over-simplification of a complex environment and power differentials that allow donors to misappropriate the role of clients.

Current practice in designing and evaluating projects needs to improve reporting of beneficiary interests.

To the author’s knowledge there are no prior publications in this area of research (under-reporting of development intervention results); the paper is considered highly original.

This paper aims to examine the effects of purchase environment, product type and need for touch (NFT) on cognitive response, affective response and overall product evaluation in the USA and India.

Two experiments were conducted in two different consumer markets. In Study 1, participants evaluated haptic and non-haptic products and gave responses on cognitive response, affective response and overall product evaluation measures in the US market. In Study 2, the authors replicate Study 1 in a culturally different market of India and extend Study 1 by examining the moderating role of instrumental and autotelic dimensions of NFT on the effect of purchase environment on cognitive and affective responses.

Research findings suggest that cognitive and affective responses are the underlying mechanism between the purchase environment and overall response only for haptic product among Indian consumers. In contrast, affective response is the underlying mechanism explaining this relationship among US consumers. Furthermore, the instrumental dimension of NFT moderates the impact of purchase environment on cognitive but the autotelic NFT moderates the effect of purchase environment on affective response only for the haptic product but not for the non-haptic product.

The study uses a relatively homogenous sample in the Indian market in contrast to the US market.

Results advance the understanding of the importance of haptic information processing in consumer decision-making across different purchase environments, product types and NFT using psychological distance (proximity) as a theoretical underpinning. With non-haptic shopping environments (i.e. online and mobile) growing rapidly, the results have critical implications for development of marketing strategies in Asian and US markets.

Empirical research examining the underlying mechanism by which purchase environment influences overall evaluation for haptic product is scarce. Additionally, understanding of the differential roles of instrumental and autotelic dimensions of NFT on cognitive and affective responses is very limited. This research fills this void and provides an understanding of the specific environment in evaluating haptic and non-haptic products in two distinct markets.

Proposes that by redirection performance appraisal can become a pivotal force for translating, articulating and instilling commitment to an organization′s strategy. Presents a framework for assessing the success and failure of performance appraisal systems in achieving their evaluation and development role on several dimensions. Resolves the limitations of conventional systems by transcending the dysfunctional conflict between evaluation and development. The transformational performance appraisal system is consistent with the new ways of managing and with new organizational forms.

This paper focuses on a shared learning module on collaborative practice for graduate primary care mental health workers as a case study in formative evaluation that combines qualitative and quantitative methods. Evaluation data are collected across four levels in an attempt to explore issues relating to:• curriculum content• training methods and design• PCMHWs' experiences of the training• outcomes in respect of attitude change and self‐reported changes in knowledge, skills and practice.The paper draws on a review of inter‐professional education undertaken by the British Education Research Association (BERA) to explore what interactive methods of learning are employed in the delivery of the module as a means of fostering improved collaborative practice that can be transferred from the learning environment to the primary care mental health setting. According to Barr et al (2005, p31) inter‐professional education takes place on ‘occasions when two or more professions learn with, from and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of care’.The paper concludes that although limited in its generalisability and the extent to which changes in attitudes and practice can be attributed to the training intervention, there are some useful lessons to be learned for planning and delivering training to promote collaborative working within primary care mental health.

There is a strong body of research that indicates that teacher quality has a stronger effect on student learning than any other school-based factor. At the same time, most teacher evaluation systems have traditionally failed to distinguish among different levels of teacher effectiveness or to link evaluation results to professional development in meaningful ways. In this chapter, we compare teacher responses in S. Korea and the United States to evaluation policies. We provide initial evidence that teachers and principals in Seoul defined “effective teachers” as those who helped manage their schools in areas such as affairs/planning, curriculum/instruction, science and technology, discipline, and extra-curricular activities. In contrast, the Michigan teachers and principals in the study were more likely to view effective teachers as those who planned instruction to meet student needs and provided evidence of student engagement and learning. In addition, educators’ notions of effective teachers seemed related to their responses to new teacher evaluation policies. In particular, the teachers in Seoul strongly resisted the new teacher evaluation policies while their counterparts in Michigan either supported the new evaluation policies or at least did not actively resist them. These differences seemed related to regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive elements associated with the teacher evaluation policies in the jurisdictions where the teachers and principals worked.

This chapter examines the nature and role of theory in criminal justice evaluation. A distinction between theories of and theories for evaluation is offered to clarify what is meant by ‘theory’ in the context of contemporary evaluation practice. Theories of evaluation provide a set of prescriptions and principles that can be used to guide the design, conduct and use of evaluation. Theories for evaluation include programme theory and the application of social science theory to understand how and why criminal justice interventions work to generate desired outcomes. The fundamental features of these three types of theory are discussed in detail, with a particular focus on demonstrating their combined value and utility for informing and improving the practice of criminal justice evaluation.

Numerous information system evaluation methodologies have been proposed in the literature. However, most of them suffer from a number of inherited disabilities originating in the nature of their fundamental principles as well as the nature of information systems evaluation. Uses evidence from the evaluation literature and two case studies to address the multiple dimensions for evaluation practices. We focus on the context, content and process of information systems evaluation as a source of organisational change. We found a noticeable gap between the recent theoretical work on IS evaluation and the practices within the case study organisations. This was not due to any lack of knowledge but was attributed to contextual variables such as the organisational culture and the power of important stakeholder groups.