Public administration

approach: what we do need for

consistent information services
evaluation

Dr. Jurgita Rudžionienė

VILNIUS UNIVERSITY, Faculty of
Communication
 Some points for our talking
• Nobody can argue against – much attention to services
evaluation is given worldwide...
• ... But does it work in desirable extent?
• To be frank, performance evaluation of information
institution still often isn’t in the centre of specialists
themselves as well as managers, politicians, finansists
and other stakeholders;-)…
• …anyway during last time the importance of evaluation
is constantly growing
• Attempts to find strong factors, ways, collaborators
etc. to elaborate performance evaluation are constantly
seeking
…an attempt to shift to
Public Administration
Need for creating culture of assessment
and evaluation?
What is the way?
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION?

• Demand from the market and different

stakeholders for high public institution
value
– Still remains and…
– ...even becames more strict
 Aspects of perception and
conceptualisation
• Evaluation culture perception:
- Evaluation as successful public administration (PA) part and
instrument
- Possibility to demonstrate evidence and significance of
institution to different stakeholders
- Global experience, local specifics
- Tools and methods
- Human attitude, as well as professional one:
- priorities...
- ...striving to no fear to discover negative your performance
results...
- ...aiming to high quality infromation institution performance
• Evaluation
– High level theory and competent practice
Statement of the problem: Why?
• What comes first – institutional evaluation or
public sector administration (otherwise, egg
or chicken)?
• Public administration (PA) of public sector has
its own history
• Some kinds of individual institutions has rich and
long history too
• …so, let’s look to Public Administration from the
point of view of evaluation
 Evaluation definitions:
Dimensions
(according to Dahler-Larssen, 2007)

• Knowledge dimension (all definitions state

about systematical evaluation need)
• Use dimension
(importance for resolving practical situations)
• Value dimension (evaluation of values and
deserts)
• Evaluand (output, outcomes (results),
administration)
Definition of evaluation (1)

Evaluation is Evaluation is the

the systematic systematic acquisition
assessment of and assessment of
information to provide
the worth or useful feedback about
merit of some some object
object
(Trochim); (Trochim);
Definition of evaluation (2)

An evaluation is defined as a research-

based service providing a systematic
and transparent assessment of an
object (Widmer)
Evaluation objects
FUNCTIONAL variety of public
policy evaluation

• Planning;
• Accountability;
• Improvement of policy implementation;
• Knowledge production;
• Marketing;
• Community consolidation;
• Enlightening;
• Organizational learning.
 Implementation of evaluation
functions
• Evaluation attempts to ensure several
functions
• The choice of the functions depends on
the aim of the evaluation information,
evaluation type or even the approaches of
evaluation organization in the country
 PA
• Public sector organizations opened
themselves for performance evaluation
and measurement striving to create
higher level public services for
customers
• Public administration treats evaluation as
tool for evidence-based decision
making
 Evaluation types
• INTERNAL
• EXTERNAL
 Choice between EXTERNAL and
INTERNAL evaluators
External evaluator Internal evaluator

Advantages Disadvantages Advantages Disadvantages

Less likely to be Less well More insights Lack of

influenced by informed about through independence
political regime context of a “understanding the
programme realities on the
Independent ground”
High costs Less likely to be
Evaluation More chance of able to “think
expertise Less able to drive “buy-in” outside the
through change from those box”
Brings new ideas as a result of the delivering
and fresh recommendation the programme
approaches s
Focus on
organizational
Focus on
learning and
accountability
program
improvements

Less costs
 Validation the FOUR
DIMENSIONS approach for
assessment

• infrastructure of institution;
• innovativeness of institution;
• human resources;
• quality of the place
 Evaluation role in PA
• Comparing evaluation to other
instruments of public management

– performance/internal audit,
– activity management),
– Etc.,
 Further reading
• Rudžionienė J., Dvorak J. (2014). Public
administration approach: What do libraries
need for consistent information services
evaluation. Library Management, Vol. 35.
No 6/7, p. 495-507. Prieiga per internetą:
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/pdfplus
/10.1108/LM-02-2014-0019