ARTICLES Unintended Effects of Program Evaluation

Introductory research methods texts regularly include a discussion of the Hawthorne Effect. Students are presented with the story of how unintended effects created by the presence of researchers overshadowed the manipulations controlled by the researchers. However, this discussion is largely absent in the textbooks dealing with program evaluation. Considerable attention is given to controlling the process of generating evaluation results,yet, it seems unlikely that the only effects of evaluation upon a system would result from actions initiated by, and subject to, the direct control of an evaluator. The entrance of outsiders into the Hawthorne Western Electric plant was, in and of itself, an important change in a preexisting system. In much the same way, it seems likely that the presence or existence of program evaluation would exert influence upon a system even if an evaluation report was never prepared. Kirkhart et al. (1979) discuss evaluation in conjunction with a cybernetic or systems orientation toward organizations. They emphasize that evaluation does not take place in a static organizational environment. Instead, organizations are fluid, self-regulatory systems that react to changes. Since the initiation of an evaluation is clearl