The contribution of evaluation to organizational learning
pp. 221-226
in: Frank A. Stowell, Ray Ison, Rosalind Armson, Jacky Holloway, Sue Jackson (eds), Systems for sustainability, Berlin, Springer, 1997Abstract
The notion of organizational learning is a popular theme in the evaluation literature (Van der Knaap, 1995; Owen and Lambert, 1995). Whilst, traditionally, this work has been based on a rational-objectivist view, Van der Knaap has recently documented a paradigm shift in evaluation to argumentative-subjectivism. In the light of a discussion of self-producing systems, the argument will be advanced that the shift to argumentative-subjectivism will not promote the effectiveness of evaluation practice. Following a summary review of Stacey's (1992, 1996) work on chaos and creativity, it will be proposed that the roles of "evaluator as judge", as per rational-objectivism, and "evaluator as critic", as per argumentative-subjectivism, are redundant.