1. Perceived Truthfulness And Perceived Usefulness Of Program Evaluations By Direct Service Staff.
- Author
-
Holland, Rosemary Sheridan
- Subjects
- Direct, Evaluations, Perceived, Program, Service, Staff, Truthfulness, Usefulness
- Abstract
Factors that have been identified as influencing the utilization of evaluation reports have resulted from studies in which the respondents were policymakers, executive directors or evaluators. Factors that influence direct service staff in believing evaluation findings and adopting evaluation recommendations have not been identified. This exploratory study was intended to determine if direct service staff are influenced by the factors identified as important by directors and policy makers. The study used simulated evaluation report abstracts with a questionnaire to elicit responses on perceived Usefulness (dependent variable) and perceived Truthfulness (dependent variable) of the evaluations. Respondents were staff members of community mental health agencies in southeastern Michigan. The predictor variables were Staff Participation, Quality of Research Design, Specificity of Recommendations and Relevance of the Evaluation. All predictor variables except Specificity of Recommendations were significant, but Relevance explained far more variance than the others. Two additional variables also were predictive for both dependent variables: greater work experience and more positive experiences with program evaluations were related to higher Truthfulness and Usefulness scores. The two dependent variables were highly correlated and virtually could not be distinguished from each other.
- Published
- 1984