Organizational consequences of evaluation as a function of strategic planning.

Abstract

Many organizations in both the public and private sector are turning to evaluation and strategic planning activities in order to generate systematic evaluative information about the, organization. It is often hoped that this process will help build a 'learning organization'. However, the relationship between evaluation/strategic planning activities and their organizational consequences have not been wail documented and empirical studies are needed to further explore this relationship. The present study examines within-organization perceptions of organizational teaming capacity (OLC) and the extent to which they are influenced by the strategic planning/evaluation (SP/E) process. These relationships are explored within the context of an organizational teaming conceptual framework. The framework is based on the results of over two decades of research in the areas of evaluation utilization, strategic planning and organizational teaming. Participation by organization members in the SP/E process and SP/E Utilization are cast as predictors of perceived OLC. These relationships are tested using retrospective survey data collected from 46 staff members at an Ontario children's treatment centre. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)