A PROGRAM EVALUATION AND THE DYNAMICS OF ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING

Abstract

The organizational learning has been the focus
of several studies. Similarly, research on the area
of program evaluation has generated ample and
complex literature. However, there has been a lack
of studies that analyze the link between evaluation and learning, specially in the public sector. This study examined aspects of such link, or interaction, focusing on the case of the Programa de Ação Social em Saneamento – prosege (a social sanitation program), from the Secretaria de Polí tica Urbana - sepurb, at the Ministério do Planejamento e Orçamento – mpo (the Brazilian Ministry of Planning and Budgeting). The analysis has used a model founded on the Chris Argyris and Donald Schön’s concepts of single-loop and double-loop (1996). As a first step, the practices of evaluation in the conception, implementation and conclusion phases of the prosege were identified and classified according to the criteria developed by the Evaluation
Research Society Standards Committee (1982). Following that, it was verified the types of organizational learning derived from the utilization
of evaluation. It was found that evaluation was a very important instrument of feedback on the process of organizational learning, i.e., on the way the organization detected and corrected its mistakes and errors. Nevertheless, there was clear evidence that this learning process could have been more effective. The factors which facilitated or inhibited the productive organizational learning during both phases of conception and implementation of prosege were identified and listed.