Digital-era evaluation
Automating and reconfiguring evaluation in the social service sector
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6423922 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Elizabeth-Rose Ahearn (0000-0002-5739-3269, The University of Queensland), Cameron Parsell (0000-0002-7289-896X, The University of Queensland) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 185-202 |
| Publication date | 2025-03-20 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Evaluation (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1356-3890 • E-ISSN: 1461-7153 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/13563890251313804 |
| OpenAlex | W4408683928 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 42 |
Evaluation has become an institutionalised feature of public and social sector administration. With the advent of digital-era governance it is evident that further changes to the evaluation landscape are imminent. This study seeks to identify how evaluation practices will change, evolve or persist with advancing technologies. Drawing on discursive institutionalisation’s conceptualisation of change, we conducted discourse analysis of 25 qualitative interview transcripts, focusing on objects, legitimacy frames and values. Our findings indicate a significant shift towards digital-era evaluation through the automation of data collection, analysis and reporting, shifting control from external evaluators to in-house functions. Despite these shifts, traditional evaluation features remain entrenched, potentially limiting the future scope and utility of evaluation for social sector organisations
Business · Data science · Engineering management · Political science · Process management · Service (business · Accounting and Organizational Management · Computer Science · Engineering · Evaluation and Performance Assessment · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research · Marketing
Evaluation Roots
Constitutive Effects of Performance Indicators
Discourse and Institutions
Understanding Radical Organizational Change
Evaluating With Sense
Institutional Complexity and Organizational Responses
Managing Legitimacy
Discourse and social change
Accountability Myopia
The Active Interview
Understanding evaluation use from an organisational perspective
Digital innovation and transformation
Accountability versus learning in aid evaluation
Imprinting and the evolution of evaluation
The power and dysfunctions of evaluation systems in international organizations
Four Waves of Evaluation Diffusion
Power in and of evaluation
The role of new information and communication technologies in equity-focused evaluation
Standardization or Discretionary Space? A Mixed-Method Study on Government-Imposed Performance Measurement Instruments in Social Services
Measuring Social Change
The social construction of reality
New Public Management Is Dead--Long Live Digital-Era Governance
The Iron Cage Revisited
On the Concept of Value-Commitments
Institutionalized Organizations
Digital Social Policy
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |