7Evaluation of Organizational Change in the Dutch Armed Forces

This article addresses the evaluation of organizational changes in the Dutch armed forces. Increasingly, megatrends in the risk society affect the organization of all armed forces. To cope with these trends, new strategic ideas are being developed that will change organizations fundamentally. The question, however, is the way these ideas are dealt with at the operational level. From this perspective, evaluation is needed. Evaluation of changes in large-scale, specific organizational settings is discussed here as an integrated approach using summative, formative, normative and constructivist elements. Pitfalls and challenges of this approach are discussed. As a result of changes in the international political situation, the need to reorganize the armed forces in advanced societies becomes more urgent by the day (e.g. Shaw, 1991; Dandeker, 1994; Soeters and Richardson, 1996). As of the beginning of this decade, armed forces in the western hemisphere have been confronted with a decreasing threat of worldwide conflict, and hence with reconsiderations of strategy and tasks, budget cuts and a downsizing of their personnel. Some western European nations, such a