Chapter 4: Evaluation Use and the Internal Evaluator: A Balancing Act

Since the 1960s, internal evaluation has increased as organizations learned more about the field. While there is a paucity of empirical studies reporting on the magnitude of internal evaluation, informal estimates place internal evaluation work on a nationwide basis at anywhere from 50% to 80% in the developed world (Mathison, 2011). Given that so much evaluation may be conducted by those internal to organizations, literature about the practice of internal evaluation is surprisingly sparse. Over the years, evaluation scholars have called for more internal evaluators to document their experiences as a means of developing a literature base of internal evaluation practice (Christie, 2008; Sonnichsen, 2000; Volkov & Baron, 2011). To the internal evaluator, this lack of documented practice is probably expected. It would be helpful for the internal evaluator to have time to reflect on her work, but that is likely not a key aspect of her responsibilities. Rather, internal evaluators are expected to evaluate and may well be too busy doing their jobs to take time to reflect on and document the doing of their jobs. This is a challenge many internal evaluators must face every day.