Evaluation in Organizations: A Systematic Approach To Enhancing Learning, Performance, and Change 2nd Edition, (Ebook PDF

Evaluation in Organizations: A
Systematic Approach to Enhancing

Learning, Performance, and Change
2nd Edition, (Ebook PDF)
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Evaluation in
Organizations
A Systematic Approach to
Enhancing Learning,
Performance, and Change
2nd Edition
Darlene Russ-Eft
Hallie Preskill
A Member of the Perseus Books Group

New York
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viii Preface
use of web-based surveys. Chapter 11 on interviewing and Chapter 12

on sampling remain similar to the earlier edition. Chapter 13 includes
more information about the uses of descriptive statistics and approaches
to qualitative data analysis.
The remaining four chapters (Chapters 14–17) address how to com-
municate and report the evaluation’s activities and findings; how to plan,
budget, and manage an evaluation; how to evaluate an evaluation; and
finally how to integrate evaluation into the organization. These chapters
describe issues that are present throughout an evaluation and should be
considered from the very beginning of an evaluation effort. Chapter 14
now includes recent technological advances that can be used for commu-
nicating and reporting. Chapter 15 has been updated with a discussion on
risk management. While Chapter 16 remains similar to the first edition,
Chapter 17 includes additional strategies for implementing evaluation;
evaluation capacity building is also addressed.
Evaluation can be viewed as a catalyst and an opportunity for learning
what works and doesn’t work, learning about ourselves and the organiza-
tion, and learning about how to improve what we do in the workplace. It
can provide new understandings and insights into our programs,
processes, products, and systems. Furthermore, evaluation can provide us
with the confidence we need to make decisions and take actions that ulti-
mately help employees and organizations succeed in meeting their goals.
We wish you much success as you go forth and evaluate!
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Acknowledgments
Preparing this book has been a learning, performance, and change experi-
ence for both of us. We would like to thank the many clients who have
participated in specific evaluation projects, as well as those who attended
various seminars on evaluation. We are also grateful to the scores of stu-
dents in the Adult Education Program at Oregon State University who
have taken Darlene’s evaluation courses and those at Claremont Graduate
University and the University of New Mexico who have taken Hallie’s
evaluation courses over the last several years. Their thoughtful, provoca-
tive questions and feedback have contributed greatly to our thinking,
writing, and evaluation practice. We are grateful for the contributions of
Rosalie T. Torres. Because of her long-term work and expertise in the
area of evaluation communicating and reporting, she graciously agreed
to revise her earlier chapter on this topic.
In addition to her students, colleagues, and clients, Darlene wants to
give special thanks to her husband, Jack, who endured countless late din-
ners and working weekends, and his understanding and encouragement,
which made this work possible. She also wants to acknowledge her
daughter, Natalie, who offered words of support throughout the many
months.
Hallie would like to thank her students, colleagues, and clients, who
every day try to put these principles, approaches, and ideas into practice
to make a difference through evaluation. She is grateful to have such
good company on this journey.
ix
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chapter 1
Defining Evaluation
• What Evaluation Is and Isn’t

• The Relationship Between Evaluation and Research
• What Can Be Evaluated?
• Why Evaluate?
• Top Ten Reasons Evaluation Is Neglected
• Kinds of Evaluations
• The Logic of Evaluation
• Evaluation Use
• Internal and External Evaluation
The word evaluation means many things to many people. For some it
means viewing a phenomenon more clearly to gain a better understanding
of its properties. Images such as a pair of glasses, a microscope, binoculars,
a lightbulb, and a magnifying glass come to mind for those who see evalu-
ation with this lens. Others think of evaluation in terms of testing and
assessment. Images of exams, report cards, checklists, and people standing
around with clipboards are often associated with this view. Pictures of a
scale, ruler, or thermometer often reflect evaluation’s relationship to mea-
surement. Evaluation also reminds people of audits or statistics. In many
cases, evaluation is associated with performance appraisal or performance
management and, more often than not, perceived to be a dreaded and
sometimes threatening activity.
One of our goals in this book is to demystify and clarify what evalua-
tion is and isn’t, and explain how evaluation can be conducted in ways
that provide useful information within any organizational context. For
too long, organizations have neglected integrating evaluation into their
1
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2 EVALUATION IN ORGANIZATIONS
work processes and activities. We believe this is due, in part, to a lack of

understanding of the full range of possibilities that evaluation can offer
an organization and what skills and knowledge are necessary for doing
quality evaluation work. When evaluation is viewed as a form of inquiry
that seeks to improve organizational decision making, learning, and ac-
tion, images such as a puzzle with interlocking pieces, employees working
together, a spider’s web, or a question mark may evoke more useful and
meaningful images of evaluation’s potential.
What Evaluation Is and Isn’t
A myriad of evaluation definitions have been offered over the past thirty
years. One of the earliest was offered by Michael Scriven:
Evaluation refers to the process of determining the merit, worth, or value of

something, or the product of that process. Terms used to refer to this process
or part of it include: appraise, analyze, assess, critique, examine, grade, in-
spect, judge, rate, rank review, study, test. . . . The evaluation process normally
involves some identification of relevant standards of merit, worth, or value;
some investigation of the performance of evaluands on these standards; and
some integration or synthesis of the results to achieve an overall evaluation
or set of associated evaluations. (1991, p. 139)
The “something” Scriven refers to is called the evaluand—the object

of the evaluation—that which is being evaluated. In judging “the
merit of something, one is judging its inherent value, but when one
judges the worth of something, one is judging its value within a
particular context, and the two judgments might be quite differ-
ent” (Mathison 1994, p. 469). For example, an organization may create
a career development system considered “cutting edge” and meritori-
ous for its intent. But if the organization is experiencing significant
financial challenges, the cost to implement such a program may be
prohibitive.
Another definition, which stems from evaluation’s long history with
social programs and takes on a social science research perspective, comes
from Rossi, Freeman, and Lipsey (2004):
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Defining Evaluation 3
Program evaluation is the use of social research procedures to systematically

investigate the effectiveness of social intervention programs to improve social
conditions. (p. 18)
Also viewing evaluation from a social betterment lens, Mark, Henry, and
Julnes (2000) see evaluation as “assisted sensemaking” and suggest that
The primary role of evaluation is to enhance and supplement the natural

sensemaking efforts of democratic actors as they seek social betterment.
In other words, evaluation consists of a set of activities developed to help
correct, support, and extend the way that people, individually and collec-
tively, naturally make sense of policies and programs implemented to
meet human needs. Evaluation aids sensemaking by providing systematic
information about such things as the outcomes or valued effects of a
social program, the causes of program success or failure, and the degree to
which policy directives are being followed. (p. vii)
A fourth definition used by many today is from Patton (2008), who

emphasizes the use of evaluation findings:
Program evaluation is the systematic collection of information about the

activities, characteristics, and results of programs to make judgments about
the program, improve or further develop program effectiveness, inform de-
cisions about future programming, and/or increase understanding. (p. 38)
Preskill and Torres (1999a) offer still another definition, but theirs
focuses on evaluative activities specifically conducted within organiza-
tions for the purpose of organizational learning and change:
We envision evaluative inquiry as an ongoing process for investigating and

understanding critical organization issues. It is an approach to learning that
is fully integrated with an organization’s work practices, and as such, it
engenders (a) organization members’ interest and ability in exploring criti-
cal issues using evaluation logic, (b) organization members’ involvement in
evaluative processes, and (c) the personal and professional growth of indi-
viduals within the organization. (pp. 1–2)
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In an effort to distinguish evaluation from other forms of inquiry,

Fournier (2005) offers the following definition:
Evaluation is an applied inquiry process for collecting and synthesizing evi-

dence that culminates in conclusions about the state of affairs, value, merit,
worth, significance, or quality of a program, product, person, policy, proposal,
or plan. Conclusions made in evaluations encompass both an empirical aspect
(that something is the case) and a normative aspect (judgment about the value
of something). It is the value feature that distinguishes evaluation from other
types of inquiry, such as basic science research, clinical epidemiology, inves-
tigative journalism, or public polling. (pp. 139–140)
Although each definition takes a slightly different view of evaluation,

there are important commonalties among them. First, evaluation is
viewed as a systematic process. It should not be conducted as an after-
thought; rather, it is a planned and purposeful activity. Second, evaluation
involves collecting data regarding questions or issues about society in
general and organizations and programs in particular. Third, evaluation is
seen as a process for enhancing knowledge and decision making, whether
the decisions are related to improving or refining a program, process,
product, system, or organization, or determining whether to continue or
expand a program. In each of these decisions, there is some aspect of
judgment about the evaluand’s merit, worth, or value. Finally, the notion
of evaluation use is either implicit or explicit in each of the above defini-
tions. The importance of using what was learned from the evaluation is
critical. Insofar as evaluation constitutes a significant allocation of time
and resources, organizations cannot afford to engage in evaluation activi-
ties unless the findings are used in some way. Ultimately, evaluation con-
cerns asking questions about issues that arise out of everyday practice. It
is a means for gaining better understanding of what we do and the effects
of our actions in the context of society and the work environment. A dis-
tinguishing characteristic of evaluation is that unlike traditional forms of
academic research, it is grounded in the everyday realities of organiza-
tions and society at large.
Evaluation’s origins, methods, theories, and context are related to many
different disciplines and thus has been called a “transdiscipline” (Scriven
1991). Scriven explains, “Transdisciplines such as statistics, logic, or evalu-
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ation, are disciplines whose subject matter is the study and improvement
of certain tools for other disciplines. . . . Transdisciplines often have several
semiautonomous fields of study connected with them (for example, bio-
statistics, formal logic)” (p. 364). Scriven uses the analogy of an estate to
explain: “Transdisciplines are the utilities—electricity, water, gas, sewers,
telephone, data lines or microwave systems, cable or satellite televisions,
radio, roads, and public transportation. . . . Transdisciplines thus exist to
serve . . . ” (pp. 15, 17). Thus evaluation as a transdiscipline serves many
fields and is a tool of learning and decision making for many kinds of
organizations.
Because there is often confusion between the terms data, information,
and knowledge, we think it is important to clarify what these terms im-
ply, especially as they relate to evaluation. Data can be thought of as
facts and figures, or feedback. Data may be in the form of sales figures,
ratings on a post course training evaluation survey, or the comments
made during an interview. Information has its root in Latin and means
“to give form to, to form an idea” (Allee 1997, p. 42) or to find patterns
in the data (O’Dell and Grayson 1998). Turning data into information
requires a process of interpretation that gives meaning to the data.
Knowledge, however, occurs when information intersects with a user. As
O’Dell and Grayson point out, “We are awash in information, but until
people use it, it isn’t knowledge” (1998, p. 4). Consequently information
becomes knowledge when it focuses on actions or decisions that imply
change. Though organizations have reams of information documented
on paper or in their information systems, until someone uses that infor-
mation, it cannot become part of a knowledge base. Knowledge exists
within the context of the individual and results from cognitive processes
that convert that data into information, which, when acted upon, be-
comes knowledge. Evaluation, therefore, collects data, which is turned
into information that, when used, becomes knowledge at the individual
level. If shared with others in the organization, that knowledge may
then lead to organization-level learning.
So, what isn’t evaluation? Well, evaluation isn’t merely a survey
designed the night before a training workshop. Nor is it catching a few
people in the hallway to see what they think about the new process or
system. And, to the surprise of many, evaluation is not the same as
research.
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The Relationship Between Evaluation

and Research
The terms evaluation and research are used interchangeably in many orga-
nizations. As described in the previous section, evaluation is a form of
inquiry that seeks to address critical questions concerning how well a pro-
gram, process, product, system, or organization is working. It is typically
undertaken for decision-making purposes, and should lead to a use of
findings by a variety of stakeholders. Research, on the other hand, is often
seen as “a truth-seeking activity which contributes to knowledge, aimed at
describing or explaining the world, conducted and governed by those with
a high level of proficiency or expertise” (Coryn 2006, p. 1). The question,
What is the difference between evaluation and research? has been posed
periodically on the American Evaluation Association’s listserv,
EVALTALK, throughout the last decade. For example, in her review,
Mathison (2008) found 178 messages in response to this question in 1998
alone. She suggests that this question continues to be asked since evalua-
tion is “a discipline [which] draws on other disciplines for its foundations,
and especially the social sciences for its methods” (p. 183). Although there
are some clear similarities between the two forms of inquiry, we believe it’s
important to consider the ways in which evaluation differs from research.
FIGURE 1.1 Relationship between Evaluation and Research

Evaluation Research
Purpose Provides information for decision Develops new knowledge
making and learning (intention Seeks conclusions
is use) Seeks new laws,
Seeks to describe particular new theories
phenomena Topic is determined
Is undertaken at the behest of by researcher
a client: is service oriented
Audience Clients (internal and external) Other researchers
Focusing Identifies background of evaluand, Develops a problem
the study evaluation rationale, and purpose statement
Identifies evaluation stakeholders Reviews the literature
Develops key evaluation on the topic
questions
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Evaluation Research
Focusing Develops theory-based
the study hypotheses and/or
research questions
Identifies terms
and definitions
Identifies variables to
be studied
Designing Naturalistic/qualitative Naturalistic/qualitative
the study Experimental/quantitative Experimental/quantitative
Often bounded by organization’s Is based on researcher’s time
time frame requirements line and available funding
Collecting Tests, surveys, observation, Tests, surveys, observation,
data interviews, records, documents, interviews, records,
unobtrusive measures documents, unobtrusive
measures
Ensuring Pilot testing, member checks, Pilot testing, member
reliability controlling variables through checks, controlling variables
and validity design, triangulation, test/ through designs,
retest reliability measures triangulation, test/retest
Is rooted in values and politics reliability measures
Generalizability of findings Attempts to be objective
not a major goal or concern and value free
Seeks to establish
generalizable findings
Analyzing Inferential and descriptive statistics Inferential and descriptive
data Content analysis/grounded statistics
theory Content analysis/
grounded theory
Reporting Makes evaluative conclusions Makes empirical conclusions
results Reports results to evaluation Reports results to other
clients researchers and practitioners
Makes recommendations Makes suggestions for
relevant to evaluation future research
questions Often publishes study’s
Rarely publishes the results findings
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As can be seen in Figure 1.1, although the two forms of inquiry employ
the same data collection and analysis methods, they differ significantly in
at least three ways:
1. They are often initiated for different purposes.

2. They involve and respond to different kinds of audience or client
questions and needs.
3. They communicate and report their findings in different ways
and to different groups.
So, even though evaluation and research both provide information

about questions of interest, they are typically undertaken for different
reasons. Summarizing these distinctions, Mathison (2008) writes,
Evaluation and research are different—different in degree along the dimen-

sions of particularization-generalization and decision-oriented-conclusion-
oriented, the most common dimensions for making distinctions. But,
evaluation and research are substantively different in terms of their meth-
ods; evaluation includes the methods of data collection and analysis of the
social sciences, but as a discipline has developed evaluation-specific meth-
ods. And, they are substantially different in how judgments of their quality
are made. Accuracy is important in both cases, but the evaluation discipline
uses the unique criteria of utility, feasibility, propriety, and inclusion of
stakeholders. (p. 195)
Although it is important to understand the difference between these

two forms of inquiry, we hesitate to debate these terms with our clients
who are used to referring to evaluation as “research.” What matters most
is that when we engage in evaluation work, we strive for conducting our
work in ethical and professional ways that produce high-quality processes
and findings that are used by the organization and its members.
What Can Be Evaluated?
In this book, we will talk about how evaluation can be applied to many
aspects of organizational work, with specific emphasis on learning, per-
formance, and change initiatives. Programs, for example, can be evaluated.
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A program can be thought of as a “set of planned activities directed to-

ward bringing about specified change(s) in an identified and identifiable
audience” (Smith 1989). In the learning and performance arena, programs
may be thought of as courses, seminars, or modules (either face-to-face or
online) that make up a content area (e.g., a twelve-week customer service
training program or an e-learning course on safety procedures).
Evaluation can also focus on specific initiatives, processes, strategies,
products, and systems within organizations. For example, organization
members may have questions about the ease of use of an online training
registration system, or the effectiveness of the process for hiring outside
consultants, or employees’ satisfaction with the new flex-time work plan,
or the extent to which a new marketing approach is achieving its objec-
tives. When we choose a restaurant, buy a car or computer, or determine
which movie to see, we are doing a product evaluation. Scriven suggests
that product evaluation is “probably the best-developed and oldest prac-
tice within evaluation” (1994, p. 46). The data that result from any of
these evaluations should provide organization members with information
needed to make minor adjustments or totally revise them if necessary.
This book does not address employee performance evaluation. In every
organization, the means to evaluate employee performance range from
the simple to the complex. A plethora of books have been written on how
to develop employee performance appraisal and management systems.
However, when we evaluate programs, processes, systems, products, or
services within organizations, it is impossible and irresponsible to ignore
the human element. Therefore, in this book we treat the individual as one
component or characteristic of any program’s success, but we do not focus
on how to develop performance appraisal systems per se.
Why Evaluate?
Evaluation is not arcane or inaccessible. Actually, we continuously engage

in evaluation processes. For example, we evaluate what we will wear, what
we will eat, which road to take to work, how people will respond to our
ideas, and so on. Evaluation is part of what we do in the normal course of
everyday living. However, the systematic and professional conduct of
evaluation is undertaken when there is some decision to be made or some
form of learning is necessary in order to take action in the short or long
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term. It is conducted when there is sufficient evidence that the answers to

evaluative questions are important enough to warrant expending re-
sources to undertake a formal or systematic approach, versus an informal,
ad hoc kind of judgment. For example, would you agree to undergo
surgery based on a doctor’s statement, “I have a hunch that this may help
you”? Most likely, you would seek additional information or a second
opinion. Or think about all of the organizational change processes that
have been implemented over the years. Would the board of directors or
executive leadership of an organization implement a program just because
it sounded like a good idea? Okay, that was a trick question; this happens
all of the time, unfortunately. But just think about the money that has
been wasted because “good ideas” are not evaluated or, just as often, are
considered failures! The important point here is that systematic and pro-
fessional evaluation adds value to the organization and the work of its
members. Therefore, we believe that evaluation should be integrated into
an organization’s work practices for the following reasons (see Figure
1.2). Each of the benefits described depends on the evaluation findings
being used.
Evaluation Can Contribute to Improved Quality

When an evaluation focuses on issues related to program or product qual-
ity, for example, both internal and external customers or clients may be
more confident in using, participating in, or purchasing the program or
product. The data collected for the evaluation provide evidence of quality
according to some predetermined set of standards. For example, a training
program vendor might use the evaluation results of specific workshops to
advertise the quality of its programs in its marketing brochures.
Evaluation Can Contribute to Increased Knowledge

Among Organization Members by Building Their
Evaluation Capacity
Evaluation leads to increased knowledge among organization members in
at least two ways. First, those who participate in the evaluation come to
know and understand the evaluand more fully. Second, they learn about
good evaluation practice if they are involved in the design and implemen-
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FIGURE 1.2 Reasons to Evaluate

Evaluation ensures quality.
Evaluation contributes to increased organization members’ knowledge.
Evaluation helps prioritize resources.
Evaluation helps plan and deliver organizational initiatives.
Evaluation helps organization members be accountable.
Evaluation findings can help convince others of the need or effectiveness of
various organizational initiatives.
Experience with evaluation is fast becoming a marketable skill.
tation of the evaluation and thus might be more willing and able to facil-
itate future evaluations. For example, program staff in a nonprofit agency
who have had limited involvement in formal evaluation activities learn
that the program is having a significant impact on one set of clients but is
missing the mark on another segment. For a long time, they thought this
might be true, but now the evaluation confirms this situation. As a result,
they are able to discuss the specifics of the program’s logic and identify
strategies for revising the program. They also learn that evaluation does
not have to be a threatening activity, and they should be developing plans
for one or more evaluations during the year.
Evaluation Can Help Prioritize Resources

Given the multiple demands placed on organization members today, there
are usually more needs for services and programs than can possibly be met
with available personnel and financial resources. Evaluation can help iden-
tify the programs, services, and products that are most critical to the orga-
nization’s success. It can also help prioritize things that the organization
needs to pay attention to sooner than later. As a decision-making tool,
evaluation helps determine what is worth developing or continuing. In
short, evaluation makes good economic sense. For example, many organi-
zations have small training and organization development or performance
improvement departments that can’t meet all the organization’s needs at
once. To help prioritize what to do first, a trainer may conduct a needs as-
sessment to better understand the organization’s priorities for improving
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performance. Then she can develop a plan for implementing a variety of

learning, performance, and change initiatives in the coming year. Without
the needs assessment data, the trainer would only be guessing in regard to
designing and offering appropriate and timely training.
Evaluation Helps Plan and Deliver Organizational Initiatives

Evaluation can be used to plan, design, develop, and implement various
organizational initiatives. Data collected from an evaluation can identify
areas of opportunity as well as strengths and weaknesses of the organiza-
tion that would inhibit or support new organizational ventures. Thus
evaluation can be used as a diagnostic process before any organizational
change or learning intervention. For example, let’s say your organization
is considering a reorganization of its core functions that would require
employees to work in cross-functional teams. This would represent a sig-
nificant change in how work is accomplished. You could be asked to
evaluate the organization’s readiness for team-based work. You might
conduct interviews with employees at various levels, observe current
work practices, and survey a sample of employees to ascertain their
knowledge, attitudes, and skills regarding team-based work. Based on
the evaluation’s results, you would be able to recommend a series of
strategies that will help employees shift to working in teams.
Evaluation Helps Organization Members Be Accountable

Evaluation can be used as a means for showing the value certain efforts add
to the organization. In days of cost cutting, layoffs, and outsourcing, orga-
nization members must be able to show the impact and consequences of
their work if they are to be part of the organization’s long-term strategy.
Without evaluation data that provide evidence of the usefulness of this
work, organization members remain vulnerable to decisions made without
data. Evaluation findings can help clarify what and how certain programs,
processes, and products promote the organization’s mission and goals. They
provide the necessary accountability that many funders and leaders are re-
quiring. For example, consider an organization that is experiencing a sig-
nificant downturn in profitability. Its first instinct is to cut its customized
training programs that are offered through the learning and performance
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department. When confronted with this scenario, the department gathers

the evaluation data that have been aggregated and stored in a knowledge
management database and shows how the department’s efforts have actu-
ally improved employees’ performance. In addition, it is able to demon-
strate that cutting training programs during difficult economic times
contradicts what the literature suggests about productivity and profitability.
Evaluation Findings Can Help Convince

Others of the Need or Effectiveness of
Various Organizational Initiatives
Often we find ourselves lobbying for additional time, resources, person-
nel, or materials to do our jobs better or to provide more effective ser-
vices. Without data to back up our requests, we have little to support our
arguments. Evaluation findings can be used to illustrate the effects of a
program, process, or initiative on employee morale, learning, motivation,
organizational culture and climate, productivity, sales, or efficiency. For
example, a nonprofit housing agency has been piloting a mentoring
program with a sample of new employees and volunteers as a means to
acculturate them to the organization and help them develop a career
path. The evaluation of this pilot program has found it to be highly
successful. One of the important indicators is that the turnover rate has
been significantly reduced, resulting in great cost savings. In addition,
new employees and volunteers express satisfaction with their job, feel
connected to the organization’s mission, and say they plan to stay with
the organization for at least three years. The manager of the mentoring
program uses the evaluation data to lobby for additional funds to ex-
pand the mentoring program’s activities.
Experience with Evaluation Is Fast Becoming

a Marketable Skill
In spite of many organizations’ reluctance to engage in systematic and on-
going evaluation work in the past, there is a growing recognition that evalu-
ation skills and knowledge are increasingly important to a wide variety of
jobs. For example, typing the words “program evaluation” into any major job
search website will yield thousands of jobs with evaluation responsibilities.
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Graduate students who take one or more courses in program evaluation or

practitioners who have taken several workshops on evaluation-related topics
from reputable organizations are finding that they have a distinct advantage
over other applicants who know little about evaluation.
The results from Fleischer’s (2007) survey of American Evaluation As-
sociation members provide further evidence of evaluation’s benefits at an
organizational level. Seventy percent or more of the respondents believe
that evaluation contributes to:
• The organization’s ability to learn from its experiences

• Implementing planned change strategies
• Helping intended users question basic assumptions about their
practice
• Promoting group learning
• Enhancing intended users’ evaluative thinking ability
She has also found that these beliefs have increased significantly over the
last ten years.
Top Ten Reasons Evaluation Is Neglected
Over the years, we’ve probably heard every reason why evaluation can’t
be done. We list them here to acknowledge that conducting evaluations
is sometimes an uphill battle but definitely one worth fighting for (Fig-
ure 1.3):
10. Organization members misunderstand evaluation’s purpose and role.
Many people within organizations have not had formal training or expe-
rience with evaluation and thus lack an understanding of what evaluation
is and can do for the organization. Often their assumptions about evalua-
tion are faulty and lead to negative expectations for evaluation work.
9. Organization members fear the impact of evaluation findings. Some
organization members worry that an evaluation’s findings will lead to
their being fired or laid off or some other form of punishment. This fear
may be grounded in organizations where there is a culture of distrust
and/or unwillingness to support individual, team, or organizational
learning. In addition, some members do not wish to be held account-
able for their actions.
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8. There is a real or perceived lack of evaluation skills. In some situations

organization members would like to conduct evaluations, but they lack the
necessary evaluation knowledge and skills. They may not be aware of what
specific skills are needed; they just know that they and their colleagues
can’t do it in a way that would be considered competent or credible by the
intended users of the evaluation results.
7. No one has asked for it. When we wrote the first edition of this book, we
cited this as the number one reason for neglecting evaluation. However, in
the past few years, this situation has been changing. While many organiza-
tions are now requiring their employees to conduct evaluations, much of
this demand has been brought about by funders requiring evaluations.
However, we still meet many learning, performance, and change practi-
tioners who say they don’t do any evaluation or, at best, administer post-
course evaluation surveys. We still wish to challenge these practitioners by
asking, “Can you and your organization afford not to evaluate?” How much
does it cost to not know how well certain programs, services, or products
are doing, or what effect they are having? How much does it cost to make
the same mistakes repeatedly? How much does it cost to limit a program’s
positive effects to only a few in the organization when many more could
benefit? Though these questions may sound flippant, they are critically im-
portant if we are serious about having an impact in our organization.
FIGURE 1.3 Top 10 Reasons Evaluation is Neglected

10. Organization members misunderstand evaluation’s purpose and role.
9. Organization members fear the impact of evaluation findings.
8. There is a real or perceived lack of evaluation skills.
7. No one has asked for it.
6. Organization members don’t believe the results will be used; data are col-
lected but not analyzed or used.
5. Organization members view evaluation as time-consuming and laborious.
4. The perceived costs of evaluation outweigh the perceived benefits.
3. Organizational leaders think they already know what does and does not work.
2. Previous experiences with evaluation have been either disasterous or disap-
pointing.
1. Organization members don’t value evaluation.
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6. Organization members don’t believe the results will be used; data are col-
lected and not analyzed or used. Most people in organizations have been
asked at one time or another to complete an organizational culture or
climate survey or respond to an organization development consultant’s
interview questions, or have been observed performing various work
tasks. Usually they are told that managers are very interested in employ-
ees’ opinions and that the results will be used in some way. However,
they rarely hear or learn about the findings or see any tangible changes
resulting from their feedback. Repeated experiences such as these may
affect organization members’ trust in evaluation efforts. Employees may
wonder why they should participate if they don’t believe their feedback
will be considered and used.
5. Organization members view evaluation as a time-consuming, laborious
task. In organizations where planned and systematic evaluations have not
been conducted, and there is a lack of evaluation knowledge and skills,
employees tend to view evaluation as one more thing to do that is not
central to their daily work. When viewed this way, evaluation is often
relegated to the “back burner” and rarely done. Good evaluation takes
time and energy but does not have to consume months and years. Some
evaluations that are limited in scope can be conducted in a few weeks;
other evaluations that seek to answer more complex and critical issues
may take several weeks to six months or more. Given that evaluation is
used to inform decision making and learning, it must be conducted in
timely, cost-effective ways.
4. The perceived costs of evaluation outweigh the perceived benefits of evalua-
tion. Because evaluation is often thought to be a lengthy process involving
outside consultants, there is a related belief that the benefits of evaluation
cannot possibly outweigh such costs. However, engaging clients in early
discussions about how the results will be used can resolve this issue. Costs
for a systematic evaluation can be compared with the benefits that are
likely to be realized if changes are made based on the evaluation findings.
This view is often linked to organization members’ previous history with
evaluation efforts that did not lead to use of the findings. Another related
issue that inhibits organizations from evaluating is the short-term nature
of organizational decision making. In many cases, the short-term costs of
evaluation need to be balanced with the long-term benefits of whatever
changes are made based on the evaluation results. For example, an evalua-
0465018666-01:0738202681-01.qxd 7/9/09 1:26 PM Page 17
tion might have a high cost, yet the impact of the changes made as a result
of the evaluation will not benefit the organization for several months to a
year. Given management’s impatience for results, this is a significant chal-
lenge to evaluation work.
3. Organizational leaders think they already know what does and does not
work. We often hear managers say that they don’t need to conduct evalua-
tions because they already know what employees think, or that they have a
good handle on how to solve the issues at hand. They’re satisfied with the
information they collect informally and thus view formal, systematic eval-
uation activity as a waste of time. How accurate their perceptions are may
vary considerably.
2. Previous experiences with evaluation have been either disastrous or dis-
appointing. In these cases there may have been (1) broken promises that
the findings would lead to certain changes, (2) blatant misuse of the find-
ings or the evaluation process, (3) reports that were written but unread
and unused, (4) critical issues that were totally ignored, or (5) inplementa-
tion of “easy” recommendations only. Organization members will not
want to engage in further evaluation efforts if they feel that it is a waste of
time. These previous experiences have promoted a culture of “why
bother?” when it comes to evaluation.
1. Organization members don’t value evaluation. This number one reason
is an aggregate of all the others reasons we believe evaluation is often ne-
glected. When organization members don’t understand what evaluation
is, when they don’t have evaluation knowledge and skills, when they don’t
make time for evaluation, when they perceive it as too time-consuming,
or when leaders think they know the answers before asking the questions,
it is because they have yet to truly understand the value of evaluation. As
evaluators and learning, performance, and change practitioners, we must
be more mindful of the need to change attitudes towards evaluation
while we are also building the knowledge and skill capacity for engaging
in evaluation work.
Kinds of Evaluations
Though we often think of evaluation taking place at the end of some ex-
perience or program, evaluations can and should occur at various times
throughout the life cycle of a program or an organization. The following
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section describes how evaluation may provide different kinds of informa-

tion depending on when it is implemented.
Developmental Evaluation
In the mid-1990s, Patton (1994) introduced the term developmental eval-
uation to “describe certain long-term, partnering relationships with
clients who are, themselves, engaged in ongoing program development”
(p. 312). He developed this construct to call attention to the fact that
evaluators were increasingly being asked to provide evaluative data during
a program’s design process and to be a part of the design team. The devel-
opmental evaluator sits side by side with the designers, providing feed-
back that can be used to increase the likelihood that the program will be
successful when implemented. Patton emphasizes that developmental
evaluation is not a model; rather, it is a “relationship founded on a shared
purpose: development” (1994, p. 313). Questions a developmental evalu-
ation might address are:
• What are the right set of activities and strategies for this program?
• What is the best design?
• What are the appropriate goals and objectives?
• What and whose needs is this program addressing?
• What processes should be in place to make implementation
effective?
• What criteria or standards are being used to design this product?
Developmental evaluation has some similarities with the practices of

beta testing, pilot testing, or other kinds of program design processes that
involve collecting data/information that is fed back into the design process.
Formative Evaluation
Scriven was the first to coin the terms formative and summative as ways of
describing evaluation’s main purposes or functions. He explains that forma-
tive evaluation is typically conducted for the purposes of program or prod-
uct improvement by in-house staff. However, many formative evaluations
are also conducted by external evaluators. The findings from formative
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evaluations are fed into an improvement-focused process that further de-

velops, refines, or revises the object being evaluated. The reports that result
from a formative evaluation typically remain internal to the organization.
Examples of questions that formative evaluation might address include:
• How well is the program being implemented?

• What are the barriers to implementation?
• How effective are the program’s strategies and activities?
• How might the product be improved to appeal to a larger
audience?
• To what extent is the staff prepared to implement the program’s
objectives?
• How might the process be refined to make it more user-friendly?
• What aspects of the service are working well?
Summative Evaluation
Summative evaluation is implemented for the purpose of determining

the merit, worth, or value of the evaluand in a way that leads to a final
evaluative judgment. It “is conducted after completion of the program
(for ongoing programs, that means after stabilization) and for the ben-
efit of some external audience or decision maker (for example, funding
agency, oversight office, historian, or future possible users)” (Scriven
1991, p. 340). Examples of decisions made based on summative evalua-
tions include the granting of continued funding for the program, the
expansion of the program to other sites, the elimination of a program
that has outlived its usefulness or is not meeting the current needs of
participants, grades in a course, or a decision of which vendor to use.
Summative evaluations are often conducted by external evaluators
(though not always). Stake (quoted in Scriven 1991) is credited with
helping us understand the difference between formative and summative
evaluations with the following analogy: “When the cook tastes the soup,
that’s formative; when the guests taste the soup, that’s summative” (p.
19). Questions a summative evaluation might address include:
• To what extent did the program meet its goals?

0465018666-01:0738202681-01.qxd 7/9/09 1:26 PM Page 20
• What were the learning outcomes?

• Were the results worth the project’s costs?
• What components of the program are reproducible in other
locations?
• In what ways did participants benefit from the program?
• To what extent is the product viable?
• To what extent has the process improved employee productivity?
Summative evaluations come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The

following are four common kinds.
Monitoring and Auditing

Monitoring typically occurs when a program is well-established and ongo-
ing, and is often associated with the need to communicate the success of a
program or program components; it is also a means for checking on the pro-
gram’s implementation for fine-tuning and to account for resources (Owen
2006). A monitoring evaluation might involve the development of a system
for tracking performance indicators (standardized measures such as a per-
centage, index, or rate monitored at regular intervals; Mathison 2005), or fo-
cus on the extent to which program administrators are using funds and staff
resources appropriately. Monitoring kinds of evaluation is typically under-
taken for accountability purposes and serves as a means to prove that the
program is being implemented as designed and approved (Rossi and Free-
man 1985). However, internal auditors are increasingly looking at program
effectiveness in addition to costs. Auditing kinds of evaluation are specifi-
cally focused on the program’s financial and/or legal accountability and are
implemented to investigate the degree to which a program has used its
funds appropriately (Scriven 1991) and whether or not program results es-
tablished by an authorizing body are being achieved (Schwandt 2005).
Outcome Evaluation
Outcome measurement “is the process and set of procedures for
assessing, on a regular basis, the result of an agency’s programs for its
participants” (United Way of America 1996). An outcome-focused
evaluation seeks to “gauge the extent of success in achieving specific
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outcomes, assesses the reasons for achievement or non achievement,

validates the contributions of a specific organization to the outcomes,
and identifies key lessons learned and recommendations to improve
performance” (United Nations Fund for Population Activities 2004, p.
8). Its purpose is to understand intended changes in knowledge, skills,
attitudes, practices, and policies that result from a program or project’s
intervention. In so doing, it collects information on the inputs, activi-
ties, and outputs of the program. In essence, outcomes refer to “benefits
or changes in participants’ knowledge, attitudes, values, skills, behavior,
condition, or status” (Plantz, Greenway, and Hendricks 1997, p. 17).
Impact Evaluation
“Impact evaluation is used to assess the effects of a settled program”
(Owen 2006) and focuses on what happens to participants as a result of
the intervention or program. Sometimes called impact assessments or
summative evaluations, “they typically try to make a causal [sic] reference
that connects the evaluand with an outcome” (Bickman 2004). The pri-
mary question for an impact evaluation is, What would have happened to
those receiving the intervention if they had not in fact received the pro-
gram? Information generated by impact evaluations may be used to
inform decisions on whether to expand, modify, or eliminate a particular
policy or program and can be used in prioritizing public actions (http://
web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/
EXTISPMA/0,,menuPK:384339~pagePK:162100~piPK:159310~the-
SitePK:384329,00.html#whatis, July 2, 2008).
Performance Measurement
Newcomer explains that “performance measurement is the label typically
given the many efforts undertaken within governments and in the non-
profit sector to meet the new demand for documentation of results”
(1997, p. 5). Similarly, the United Nations Fund for Population Activities
(2004) defines performance measurement as “a system for assessing the
performance of development interventions, partnerships or policy re-
forms elative to what was planned in terms of the achievement of outputs
and outcomes” (p. 8).
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Performance measurement has been promoted in the United States for

more than twenty years and has received increasing attention as the pub-
lic’s distrust of government has grown. Canada has been implementing
performance measurement kinds of evaluation since the mid-1970s, as has
Australia since 1984 (Winston 1999). In the 1990s performance measure-
ment became a rallying cry within the U.S. government arena as a means
to hold local, state, and federal agencies accountable. The result was the
Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA), which
Requires each federal program to identify indicators of outcome for major

programs, to provide targets at the beginning of each fiscal year for each in-
dicator, and to report on the actual values for each outcome indicator within
six months after the end of the fiscal year. (Hatry 1997, p. 32)
GPRA focuses specifically on government performance “in terms of

planning, budgeting, measurement, monitoring, and evaluation. The
Act’s intent is to focus government activity on results, rather than on in-
puts or process” (Wargo 1994, p. 65).
Developmental, formative, and summative evaluations are not necessarily
linear in their implementation. Rather, they should be viewed as circular, in-
terwoven, and fluid. For example, if an evaluator worked with a design team
to develop a program and used evaluation to help guide the program’s design
(developmental evaluation), the team might decide later to conduct a forma-
tive evaluation of the program to see how it’s working. A few months or
years later, it might decide to conduct a summative evaluation to determine
the continued need for or expansion of the program. These results might
lead to a new program design, which may again call for a developmental
evaluation. Some evaluations may also address formative and summative
kinds of questions at the same time. For example, an evaluation might focus
on questions related to improving certain elements of a program’s imple-
mentation (formative), while also including a question that asks, Should the
program be expanded to additional audiences? (summative).
The Logic of Evaluation
Evaluation is said to have a particular logic that influences its process and
makes it a unique enterprise. This logic refers to the specific principles of
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reasoning that underlie the inference processes in the field of evaluation

(Scriven 1995). Most often the logic of evaluation relates to understand-
ing how one determines the processes and impact of a program. As
Fournier (1995) explains, the logic of evaluation involves (1) establishing
criteria (on what dimensions must the evaluand do well?), (2) constructing
standards (how well should the evaluand perform?), (3) measuring perfor-
mance and comparing with standards (how well did the evaluand per-
form?), and (4) synthesizing and integrating evidence into a judgment of
worth (what is the worth of the evaluand?).
We believe that evaluation logic also includes the development of recom-
mendations for future action. However, evaluation theorists differ signifi-
cantly on this point. Some suggest that external evaluators do not have the
experience or authority to make such recommendations. Others would ar-
gue that it is the evaluator’s responsibility to make recommendations. Still
others believe that the evaluator and clients together should develop recom-
mendations based on the evaluation’s findings (Shadish, Cook, and Leviton
1995). In an effort to develop and use recommendations more systemati-
cally, Iriti, Bickel, and Nelson (2005) have developed a decision-making
framework for assessing the appropriateness of making recommendations in
various contexts. An outcome of their research is a very useful list of key
variables and questions to consider when making recommendations.
An example of applying evaluation logic might go like this if we were
to evaluate the ability of an organization’s website to motivate people to
register for a particular training workshop:
Establishing Criteria. Here we would ask, What are the criteria of a

good website? Is it readability, color, interactivity, navigability? These cri-
teria might come from subject matter experts or the research literature.
Constructing Standards. Here we are concerned with how well the

website should perform—what are our expectations for offering this
website? What constitutes a rating of effectiveness? For example, we may
set a standard that if a thousand people per day visited the website and 25
percent signed up for a training course, it would be deemed successful.
Measuring Performance and Comparing with Standards. Based on

the standards we’ve outlined, the question here is, How well is the website
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accomplishing its goals of attracting trainees? Does the website attract

a thousand visitors per day or more and lead to 25 percent of those
registering?
Synthesizing and Integrating Evidence into a Judgment of Worth.

Based on what we learn from the evaluation relative to the criteria and
standards we’ve set forth, we learn that the website attracts on the average
seven hundred visitors per day, and 15 percent of them register for a
training course. The question then becomes, Is it worth it for the organi-
zation to continue offering and supporting this website?
Developing Recommendations. Based on the determination of

worth, the evaluator might decide that the cost of the website, as cur-
rently designed, is not worthwhile and might recommend either re-
designing the site to attract more visitors or eliminating the site and
developing another process for marketing and registering trainees.
Developing the logic of evaluation addresses the steps one undertakes
to come to an evaluative judgment about the merit, worth, or value of the
evaluand.
Evaluation Use
Evaluation should always be conducted with the intention of using the

results. If there is no clear intention to use the findings, then an evaluation
should not be undertaken. When evaluations are conducted and there is no
concerted effort or intention to use the results, then organization mem-
bers may wonder why they participated in the evaluation. If the results
are not used, then everyone who participated in the evaluation has been
cheated, and the organization has missed a critical opportunity to learn
about its practices. Reflecting on the realities of evaluation, Patton
asserts that “the central challenge to professional [evaluation] practice
remains—doing evaluations that are useful and actually used!” (1997, p.
xiv). In fact, Patton (2008) labels his approach to evaluation utilization-
focused evaluation. Utilization-focused evaluation focuses on intended
use by intended users (p. 98).
Our strong commitment to use has resulted from many years of work-
ing in the learning, performance, and change professions and with evalu-
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ation clients who, when asked about what kinds of evaluation activities
they’ve been involved with, proudly point to piles of surveys on desks,
floors, and filing cabinet drawers, packed tight with several years’ worth
of surveys. Yet when asked what they have learned from the results of
these surveys or how they have used the findings (typically post–course
reaction forms), they somewhat guiltily admit, Not much. However,
many point out that the surveys are reviewed for problems, and these of-
ten lead to follow-up with concerned individuals if names are provided.
Although the collection of these surveys is certainly an evaluation act, it
is incomplete. When the data are not aggregated, analyzed, and reported,
the evaluation has failed to achieve its full potential.
Use of Findings
For over thirty years, evaluation researchers have been studying the topic
of evaluation use, utilization, and influence (e.g., Alkin, Daillak, and
White 1979; Cousins and Leithwood 1986; Fleischer 2007; Henry and
Mark 2003; Kirkhart 2000; Leviton and Hughes 1981; Patton 1978;
Preskill and Caracelli 1997). One theme of this research has been to bet-
ter understand how evaluation findings may be used to make program-
related decisions (e.g., changes) as well as to influence policy. We usually
think of evaluation use in terms of actively employing the findings in tan-
gible, observable ways. This is known as instrumental use and refers to the
direct application of what has been learned from the evaluation. The ef-
fects of use can be seen, heard, or felt in some way.
For example, in evaluating a knowledge management system, the de-
signer learned that those who were using the system were confused about
how to navigate through the site to find the information they needed. As
a result of evaluating how organization members used the system
(through interviews and observation), she redesigned the cues guiding
people to the information they sought in the system. She immediately
used the findings from the evaluation to improve the knowledge manage-
ment system’s design and implementation. Formative evaluation such as
this often leads to instrumental uses of evaluation findings.
Evaluation findings can also be used to clarify an individual or group’s
conceptualization or perception of the evaluand. This type of use is called
conceptual or knowledge use, and usually occurs as a result of hearing a verbal
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DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)
The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.
NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.
MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]
MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY
With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
“We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
BRAZIER
Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT
SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB
CUTTING THE EDGE

FINISHING THE BOTTOM
LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING
FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE
TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL
NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK
DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG
REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

BEATING THE BARK
WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT
MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN

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Evaluation in Organizations: A

Systematic Approach to Enhancing

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

use of web-based surveys. Chapter 11 on interviewing and Chapter 12

• What Evaluation Is and Isn’t

work processes and activities. We believe this is due, in part, to a lack of

What Evaluation Is and Isn’t

Evaluation refers to the process of determining the merit, worth, or value of

The “something” Scriven refers to is called the evaluand—the object

Program evaluation is the use of social research procedures to systematically

The primary role of evaluation is to enhance and supplement the natural

A fourth definition used by many today is from Patton (2008), who

Program evaluation is the systematic collection of information about the

We envision evaluative inquiry as an ongoing process for investigating and

In an effort to distinguish evaluation from other forms of inquiry,

Evaluation is an applied inquiry process for collecting and synthesizing evi-

Although each definition takes a slightly different view of evaluation,

The Relationship Between Evaluation

FIGURE 1.1 Relationship between Evaluation and Research

1. They are often initiated for different purposes.

So, even though evaluation and research both provide information

Evaluation and research are different—different in degree along the dimen-

Although it is important to understand the difference between these

What Can Be Evaluated?

A program can be thought of as a “set of planned activities directed to-

Evaluation is not arcane or inaccessible. Actually, we continuously engage

term. It is conducted when there is sufficient evidence that the answers to

Evaluation Can Contribute to Improved Quality

Evaluation Can Contribute to Increased Knowledge

FIGURE 1.2 Reasons to Evaluate

Evaluation Can Help Prioritize Resources

performance. Then she can develop a plan for implementing a variety of

Evaluation Helps Plan and Deliver Organizational Initiatives

Evaluation Helps Organization Members Be Accountable

department. When confronted with this scenario, the department gathers

Evaluation Findings Can Help Convince

Experience with Evaluation Is Fast Becoming

Graduate students who take one or more courses in program evaluation or

• The organization’s ability to learn from its experiences

Top Ten Reasons Evaluation Is Neglected

8. There is a real or perceived lack of evaluation skills. In some situations

FIGURE 1.3 Top 10 Reasons Evaluation is Neglected

section describes how evaluation may provide different kinds of informa-

Developmental evaluation has some similarities with the practices of

evaluations are fed into an improvement-focused process that further de-

• How well is the program being implemented?

Summative evaluation is implemented for the purpose of determining

• To what extent did the program meet its goals?

• What were the learning outcomes?

Summative evaluations come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The

Monitoring and Auditing

outcomes, assesses the reasons for achievement or non achievement,

Performance measurement has been promoted in the United States for

Requires each federal program to identify indicators of outcome for major

GPRA focuses specifically on government performance “in terms of

The Logic of Evaluation

reasoning that underlie the inference processes in the field of evaluation

Establishing Criteria. Here we would ask, What are the criteria of a

Constructing Standards. Here we are concerned with how well the

Measuring Performance and Comparing with Standards. Based on

accomplishing its goals of attracting trainees? Does the website attract

Synthesizing and Integrating Evidence into a Judgment of Worth.

Developing Recommendations. Based on the determination of