The Implications of the Rationality of Decision-Makers on the Utilization of Evaluation Findings

Abstract

The article aims at finding out how assumptions on the rationality of decision-makers and the decision-making process affect the ways to structure problems connected to the utilization of evaluation findings in decision-making. Rationality is connected to the use of information in decision-making. The Rational Model assumes that that all information provided by advising bodies will form a firm basis for decision-making. The Non-Rational Model assumes that most information is not actually used in decision-making. The Boundedly Rational Model aims at following the path of the Rational Model but falls short of it in many respects. Ultimately it is the only coherent basis for understanding the role of evaluation findings in decision-making.

Keywords:

• evaluation
• decision-making
• rationality
• information
• utilization

Notes

8. Ibid, pp. 53–55.

9. Ibid, p. 56.

10. Ibid.

15. Ibid., pp. 231–232.

17. Patton, op. cit., p. 65.

19. Weiss, op. cit., pp. 15–17.

20. Rossi, op. cit., p. 39.

22. Weiss, op. cit., p. 5.

26. Patton, op. cit., p. 20.

27. Weiss, C. H., Murphy-Graham, E., & Birkeland, S. An alternative route to policy influence. American Journal of Evaluation 2005, 26 (1), 344. Henry, G. T., & Mark, M. M. Beyond use: Understanding evaluation's influence on attitudes and actions. American Journal of Evaluation 2003, 24 (3), 294. Rich, R. F. (1977). Uses of social science information by federal bureaucrats: Knowledge for action versus knowledge for understanding. In C. H. Weiss, Ed., Using social research in public policy making. Lexington, Toronto: Lexington Books pp. 199–211. Knorr, K. D. Policymakers' use of social science knowledge: Symbolic or instrumental? In Weiss, C. H., Ed., Using Social Research in Public Policy Making. Lexington, Toronto: Lexington Books, 1977, pp. 165–182.

29. Henry & Mark, op. cit.

30. Rich, op. cit., p. 200.

31. Lindblom & Cohen, op. cit., p. 1.

33. Henry & Mark, op. cit., p. 294. Patton, op. cit.

36. Pollitt, op. cit., pp. 122–123.

37. Pollitt, op. cit., p. 124.

38. Patton, op. cit.

42. Simon, op. cit.

48. Van der Knaap, Ibid., p. 26.

50. Patton, op. cit., pp. 16–17.

51. Weiss et al., op. cit., p. 13.

52. Caplan, op. cit., p. 185.

53. Caplan, op. cit., p. 185.

55. Patton, op. cit.

58. See also Iriti, et al., op. cit., p. 472.

59. Torres & Preskill, op. cit. 389.