Beyond Use: Understanding Evaluation’s Influence on Attitudes and Actions

Although use is a core construct in the field of evaluation, neither the change processes through which evaluation affects attitudes, beliefs, and actions, nor the interim outcomes that lie between the evaluation and its ultimate goal—social betterment—have been sufficiently developed. We draw a number of these change mechanisms, such as justification, persuasion, and policy diffusion, from the social science research literature, and organize them into a framework that has three levels: individual, interpersonal, and collective. We illustrate how these change processes can be linked together to form “pathways” or working hypotheses that link evaluation processes to outcomes that move us along the road toward the goal of social betterment. In addition, we join with Kirkhart (2000) in moving beyond use, to focus our thinking on evaluation influence. Influence, combined with the set of mechanisms and interim outcomes presented here, offers a better way for thinking about, communicating, and adding to the evidence base about the consequences of evaluation and the relationship of evaluation to social betterment. Use is a core construct in the field of evaluation.1 Most if not all evaluators strive to have their evaluations used. Many if not most evaluators accept the idea that, at least in part, the merit of their work—the success or failure of their evaluation efforts—can be judged in terms of Gary Henry • Professor, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 4039, Atlanta, GA 30302-4039, USA; Tel: (1) 404-651-2343; E-mail: [email protected]. American Journal of Evaluation, Vol. 24, No. 3, 2003, pp. 293–314. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. ISSN: 1098-2140 © 2003 by American Evaluation Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.