Chapter 11: Quieting reform: When Evaluative Research Can Be Dangerous

This chapter is about ‘danger’ in evaluation, and this first part deals with the danger we represent to others—to those we research and evaluate. But the second part of the chapter deals with a different kind of danger—the danger within—what Lee-Treweek (2000) calls ‘emotional danger.’ The two are connected, not just by artifice. As we conduct evaluative research in and with an organization we should be mindful of the danger we represent. But we should also be mindful that an organization can ‘bite back’ and that the act of researching it may hold hidden dangers for us.

Evaluative enquiry done internally, as part of professional action, is always a risky business. What happens when those police recruits come back to the training classroom with stories of questionable practices they have observed? What if they take advantage of the requirement to be reflective and exercise independent judgment and develop a critique of the policing organization? These are, of course, greatly to the benefit of the organization—but they carry significant risk. In my experience, police services are unwilling to continue with such levels of risk. Control is a safer bet than critical reflection.