Why All This Evaluation? Theoretical Notes and Empirical Observations on the Functions and Growth of Evaluation, with Denmark as an Illustrative Case

Abstract

This article demonstrates that theoretical debates and developments in the area of organizational analysis can be a fruitful source of inspiration for evaluation utilization research. The article considers two sets of questions. One concerns the societal function of evaluation, the other its historical development. Three sets of well-established lenses, ground by competing views of organizations and organizational behavior, are used to address these concerns. The theories in question see organizations as rational systems, political systems, or cultural systems. The utilization of policy evaluation in Danish political-administrative practice is used as an illustrative empirical case. The article further demonstrates that inspiration from organizational analysis will bring us no closer to a unified understanding of what evaluation utilization is. On the contrary, it shows that debates on and controversies over evaluation utilization belong to the order of things, and that this order entails multiple realities depending on one’s theoretical point of departure.