From Measurement and Control to Learning and Redirection: Using ‘SOFT’ Systems Thinking in the Evaluation of Human Action

Abstract

Social action programmes remain an important area of social concern and national expenditure, but their evaluation remains problematical. It is argued that the predominant, systematic approaches to evaluation are based upon a rational-technical view of evaluation and its relationship to organisational decision making, which is not well suited to the complex, social processes of human activity systems such as social action programmes. Action research within the Department of Systems and Information Management at the University of Lancaster has led to a systemic view of evaluation, based upon ’soft’ systems thinking, which emphasises organisational decision making as a social process, within which evaluation acts as a mechanism for organisational self-examination and learning, rather than for mechanistic control in relation to pre-defined programme objectives. This view recognises alternative stakeholders’ perceptions of purpose as an important feature of such programmes and distinguishes between the processes of judgement making and enabling judgement making through the provision of evaluative data. This leads to the suggestion that the design of an appropriate and effective information system, through which evaluative data may aid those involved in the situation to form evaluative judgements, is an important, though often neglected, component of evaluation.