What do practitioners expect from an evaluation report? A qualitative analysis of Dutch crisis management professionals' expectations

Ralf Josef Johanna Beerens, Karin Haverhoek-Mieremet

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Purpose: This paper seeks to overcome the mismatch between evaluation reports and the expectations of the target audience, by identifying crisis management professionals' expectations. 

Design/methodology/approach: An adapted stakeholder information analysis was used to survey the expectations of 84 crisis management professionals in the Netherlands. A general inductive analysis was applied to qualitative data, from which five main themes emerged: purpose; object or focus; reasoning and (meta) analysis; result or conclusion, and the overall design of the evaluation. 

Findings: Currently, evaluation reports are seen merely as a way to share experience and support thinking about how to avoid repeating mistakes. However, most respondents expected them to contribute to learning and support improvement. They should provide actionable feedback on what could be done differently or better, and indicate how this can be achieved. Respondents emphasised the need to focus on the human factor and not neglect the context. The wide variety of views underlined that it is difficult to create one evaluation product that meets all expectations. 

Research limitations/implications: Although some major themes clearly emerged from the data, it is unclear how they relate to each other, and their relative importance. In addition, no distinction is made between evaluations of real events and simulations. 

Practical implications: Users should be encouraged to provide input into the evaluation process by clarifying their needs and how they use evaluation reports. 

Originality/value: This research is the first attempt to identify user expectations regarding what constitutes an effective evaluation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-25
JournalInternational Journal of Emergency Services
Volume10
Issue number1
Early online date2020 Aug 27
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

Bibliographical note

Ralf Josef Johanna Beerens is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Safety (IFV) of the Netherlands. He has shared responsibility for the Institute’s Master’s programme in Crisis and Public Order Management (MCPM). In addition, he is a PhD candidate, focusing on multi-organisational emergency response (exercise) evaluation at the Division of Risk Management and Societal Safety at Lund University in Sweden. He is particularly interested in the evaluation of the operational performance of (international) emergency response organizations, teams or modules during exercises and crises, which reflects his professional experience as an evaluator. Ralf Josef Johanna Beerens is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email protected]

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • Health Sciences
  • Other Social Sciences

Free keywords

  • Crisis
  • Disaster
  • Emergency
  • Evaluation
  • Evaluation design
  • Evaluation report
  • Exercise
  • Expectations
  • Response
  • Simulation
  • Survey
  • The Netherlands
  • Usefulness

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