Introduction
Evaluation information is one of the main factors in decision-making in various spheres of public life. The data containing results of evaluation procedures gives a specific characteristic of the advantages and disadvantages of various processes, working performance of employees, the effectiveness of production, and more. Therefore, the requirements for the evaluation methods are high as they should be reliable to serve as the basis for introducing changes, revealing weaknesses, and constructing new strategies for the development of different life spheres. Although evaluation information may be subjective or non-representative, it is an essential source of concentrated facts, which is crucial for people of different professions to make quick decisions when it is necessary.
Evaluation Process from the Integrated Theory of Influence Perspective
Evaluation as human activity has several factors that influence it and have affected its forming in the past. Firstly, it is a language used for evaluation, which affects the perception of all the judgments and interpretations and thus predetermines the effect of such evaluation (Kirkhart, 2000). Concerning the unique elements of the language that allow evaluators to express their opinion in a certain way, suspending goals regarding people’s opinion on the information, they can even be invisible (Hopson, 2000). Therefore, the process of evaluation itself can be affected negatively by the evaluators who use it unfairly.
Concerning the development of the evaluation as a process that triggers essential consequences, the main point in its evolution is the following. An integrated theory of influence was designed to create a new framework for evaluation processes and make them more profound (Kirkhart, 2000). The theory regards three aspects – “source of influence, intention, and time frame” (Kirkhart, 2000, p. 8). An integrated theory of influence considers both the process of evaluating its repercussions or using the evaluation information.
Evaluation information is helpful in numerous situations as assessment of any kind always leads to consequences such as making decisions and triggering changes. Concerning the theory of influence, this type of information has a wide range of implementation opportunities. Kirkhart (2000) mentions two types of influence of the evaluation information on all the connected spheres – process-based and results-based. Hence, although the interpretation of evaluation results is a separate process, evaluation information determines the directions of future development of both the processes (operational performance) and goals (strategic performance).
Moreover, evaluation information can affect different processes through another aspect related to it – intention. This means that the intentions of the primary evaluation process are not less important than the process itself because they partly reflect the purposes of the evaluator (Hopson, 2000). In other words, the evaluation intentionally depends on the purposes of the person who performs it (Kirkhart, 2000). Thus, stakeholders of the evaluation process may affect its result by placing the particular request.
On the other hand, the influence of the intention of the evaluation process is not limited by the case described above. According to Kirkhart (2000), the intention of affecting the processes connected to the object of evaluation may be unintended. More specifically, this kind of influence is even more influential and may cause more powerful and profound changes than the intended evaluation. Therefore, stakeholders of the evaluation process may be affected in a completely unexpected way, meaning that evaluation is a phenomenon that evaluators cannot fully control although they initiate it.
Additionally, the influence of evaluation may differ depending on the time. To be more exact, evaluation consequences may vary in a short-term and long-term perspective and diverge drastically (Kirkhart, 2000). However, this fact only highlights the significance of evaluation information and its functionality for the party that uses it. Hence, management of the business, members of state structures, and ordinary people may experience the effect of the assessment in a wide range of ways, unexpectedly, at any time, because it cannot be controlled.
The usefulness of evaluation is best expressed by the fact that it is widely utilized by the business. Pinch (2009) claims it is hard to think of an organization that does not use evaluation. However, regarding business, evaluation processes often become overused, making evaluation information not a valuable tool of performance assessment but a negatively perceived obligatory routine (Pinch, 2009). At the same time, if the evaluation takes place regularly and the gathered information is systematized, the evaluation turns into research that can be helpful for business or any other interested party (Pinch, 2009). Hence, the factor is substantial for the effectiveness of the evaluation procedure and its positive impact on the assessed unit because it reflects the level of devotion of people to their sphere of activity. Moreover, the higher is the level of professionality of the person who interprets the evaluation data, and the better are the perspectives of the assessed object. In other words, people affect the evaluation outcomes more powerfully than they assume in both positive and negative ways.
Evaluation is an essential instrument in research and drawing conclusions. Therefore the evaluation of informational research systems may have broader consequences than commonly thought, as we live in the era of information (Saracevic, 1995). Due to the inability of some systems to ensure their safety and reliability, the evaluation immediately showed its importance for the early information research systems (Saracevic, 1995). Then, under the influence of evaluation information, the information research systems were developed to better suit the users’ needs (Saracevic, 1995). Moreover, the standards regarding the level of reliability of particular sources of information and their relevance have been developed due to the increase of the information flow (‘Information literacy ~ IEM’, 2021). Nowadays, IR systems have proved their functionality and tremendous capacity to help researchers find the necessary information – and this has happened because the evaluation processes were appropriately used, aiming at positive changes.
The variety of opportunities to implement evaluation to reach particular goals is almost unlimited because every human-related process can be standardized and classified. For example, evaluation can be used in higher education to calculate and compare the effectiveness of different types of testing of the students’ knowledge (Jonson et al., 2014). Despite the sphere of use, evaluation has experienced drastic changes during its development and has been reconceptualized and challenged to better understand its effects (Cummings, 2002). Thus, with the use of the integrated theory of influence, evaluation processes are one of the primary sources of information for decision-making.
Conclusion
Overall, the integrated theory of influence portrays the system of evaluation disregarding the sphere of its implementation, the number of people involved, and the special conditions of the situation. This theory reflects the interconnection of the possible effects of evaluation processes in general and the utilization of the information gathered as a result of the evaluation process. The number of opportunities to affect the object of evaluation, employees of the company, citizens of the state, or any other group, subject, or process intentionally or unintentionally reveals the functionality of the evaluation process. Therefore, evaluation information can be helpful in many business cases for developing solutions to problems at the governmental level or just assessing the students’ level of competence in a subject.
References
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Hopson, R. (2000). How and why language matters in evaluation. New Directions for Evaluation, 86, 1–3. Web.
Information literacy ~ IEM: Evaluation criteria: Relevance and reliability. (2021). University of Groningen. Web.
Johnson, J. L., Guetterman, T., & Thompson Jr., R. J. (2014). An integrated model of influence: Use of assessment data in higher education. Research & Practice in Assessment, 9, 18–30. Web.
Kirkhart, K. E. (2000). Reconceptualizing evaluation use: An integrated theory of influence. New Directions for Evaluation, 2000(88), 5–23. Web.
Pinch, K. J. (2009). The importance of evaluation research. Journal of Experiential Education, 31(3), 390–394. Web.
Saracevic, T. (1995). Proceedings of the 18th Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval. Special Issue of the SIGIR Forum.