Ethics and Evaluation

Greg Smith brought to our attention some of the findings published by the Canadian Evaluation Society, the results of survey conducted of 455 professional evaluation consultants across the county. It's not quite a Letterman list, but here are the five top challenges evaluators experience.

1. Conflicting stakeholder expectations
2. Stakeholder pressures evaluator to alter presentation
3. Evaluation findings are suppressed or ignored
4. Stakeholder declares relevant questions 'off limits'
5. Stakeholder had decided what findings should be in advance

If you're commissioning an evaluation, think about the impact those factors on the value of your findings. If you're truly interested in an accurate profile of your program or service, be prepared to let the evaluators do their work, and remember that ultimately your organization and your clients are best served by objectivity and honestly - even if the findings aren't all sunshine, lollipops and rainbow.

And to our brothers and sisters evaluating out there in the field - especially Wayne MacDonald, Kelly Babcock and Heather Buchanan, who wrote the article - sigh. We hear ya.