Evaluative Inquiry for Learning in Organizations

By Hallie S. Preskill and Rosalie T. Torres

Book Overview

How does evaluative inquiry contribute to your organizational learning? How do you practice evaluative inquiry to maximize individual and team learning? Offering you a way of thinking about and conducting evaluative inquiry in every kind of organization, Evaluative Inquiry for Learning in Organizations provides a data-based approach to organizational learning and change. By focusing on the use of evaluative inquiry processes within organizations rather than across large-scale, multisite programs, authors Hallie Preskill and Rosalie T. Torres are able to bridge the gap between what research "says" about individual, team, and organizational learning and what it "says" about evaluation. The authors lay the foundation and context for evaluative inquiry by including:

- How organizations are changing.

- What it means to learn at the individual, team, and organizational levels.

- The four learning processes that facilitate evaluative inquiry.

Through the use of an illustrative case, the authors guide you through the three phases of evaluative inquiry - from focusing the inquiry to developing action plans. Also included are interviews from four different organizations: Land O′Lakes, Colorado Department of Education, Ford Motor Company, and Presbyterian Hospital and Healthcare Services. These interviews allow you to "hear" how participants perceived and experienced these procedures. This exciting volume concludes with additional considerations when practicing evaluative inquiry, including an exploration of the evaluator′s role and challenges to implementing evaluative inquiry in today′s organizations.

Written for evaluators, managers, consultants, and trainers, Evaluative Inquiry for Learning in Organizations shows you how to integrate evaluative inquiry into your organization′s work processes so that its members are better able to make their organizations successful.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0761904549
• ISBN13: 9780761904540
• Release Date: October 1998
• Publisher: Sage Publications
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Evaluation from a new, more powerful perspective!

This book presents a convincing case for changing the purpose and methodology of organizational evaluation. The old 4-stage Kirkpatrick model may have been fine for the industrial age, but in the era of knowledge, globalization and learning organizations, it is no longer valid or valuable. Evaluative inquiry is the road to the 21st century.

Outstanding! The place to start in creating a learning org.

The first book to link evaluation practice with the notion of organizational learning. This book provides both a theoretical and practical approach to addressing compelling evaluation issues.