Evidence-based organizational change and development: organizational understanding, analysis, and evaluation

The chapter first provides an overview of “best practice” and conventional “received wisdom” relating to OCD and emphasizes the importance of adopting more evidence-based approaches to develop in-depth understanding of the organization prior to planning and instigating an OCD initiative. The authors then discuss a range of historical and contemporary theoretical perspectives for analyzing and making sense of the interacting relationships between an organization’s structure, function, and culture, and of the complexities, contradictions, and paradoxes of organizational life. Additionally, they identify various approaches, tools, techniques, and desirable attributes, competencies, and political skills for developing and evaluating the effectiveness of EBOCD strategies and change agency practice.Chapter

Academic Dishonesty: A Mixed-method Study of Rational Choice among Students at the College of Basic Education in Kuwait

The research herein used a sequential mixed methods design to investigate why academic dishonesty is widespread among the students at the College of Basic Education in Kuwait. Qualitative interviews were conducted to generate research hypotheses. Then, using questionnaire survey, the research hypotheses were quantitatively tested. The findings suggested that academic dishonesty is widespread among the students at the College of Basic Education because the benefits of academic dishonesty are high, whereas the certainty of detection and severity of the sanctions are relatively low. Keywords: academic dishonesty, rational choice theory, sequential mixed methods desig

A Learning Approach to Monitoring and Evaluation

This article draws on literature from both monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and organisational learning to explore synergies between these two fields in support of organisational performance. Two insights from the organisational learning literature are that organisations learn through ‘double?loop’ learning: reflecting on experience and using this to question critically underlying assumptions; and that power relations within an organisation will influence what and whose learning is valued and shared. This article identifies four incentives that can help link M&E with organisational learning: the incentive to learn why; the incentive to learn from below; the incentive to learn collaboratively; and the incentive to take risks. Two key elements are required to support these incentives: (1) establishing and promoting an ‘evaluative culture’ within an organisation; and (2) having accountability relationships where value is placed on learning ‘why’, as well as on learning from mistakes, which requires trust

The new scalar politics of evaluation: An emerging governance role for evaluation

In this article we analyze how roles for evaluation are described and argued for in key texts produced and/or promoted by three influential international networks: the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness; the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Assistance Committee’s Network on Development Evaluation; and the Network of Networks for Impact Evaluation. We contend that these complex multilateral networks are working supranationally through soft power to promote: common standards of evaluation practice; a dominant model of evaluation (impact evaluation); and new evaluation roles, relationships and practices for the field of development. Moreover, we argue that this emerging complex multilateral agenda for evaluation may position evaluation and evaluators within a global governance strategy allowing greater influence to international development organizations. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of the analysis for evaluators working in the field of international development