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Michael Morris: Ethical Considerations in Evaluation

Evaluators must act with integrity and see themselves as more than just methodological technicians as they uphold the Evaluators’ Ethical Guiding Principles and the Program Evaluation Standards. They should strive to understand the organizational and other cultures in which a project is embedded, because they cannot do justice to the evaluation without such an appreciation. Before the evaluation is designed and implemented, evaluators should consider the ethical challenges that might arise and find a way to introduce these topics into discussions with stakeholders during the contracting and negotiation phase, in addition to soliciting the stakeholders’ concerns. Having mildly uncomfortable conversations with stakeholders early on can reduce the likelihood of having to engage in much more difficult interactions later in the project. Doing this will also enable the evaluator, at a later point, to bring stakeholders’ attention back to those initial discussions, increasing the chances that the latter will act in accordance with whatever guidelines had been agreed upon. For example, pressure to misrepresent or ignore (unflattering) findings is frequently encountered by evaluators. Early discussion of how to deal with potentially unwelcome results in the evaluation report is a worthy investment of everyone’s time. Ultimately, moral courage is key for evaluators, particularly internal ones. Doing the right thing can put an evaluator at risk. Sometimes, however, the only reason for doing the right thing is that it is the right thing to do.

Michael Morris is emeritus professor of psychology at the University of New Haven and a former chair of the AEA Ethics Committee. He is the author of Evaluation Ethics for Best Practice: Cases and Commentaries (Guilford Press, 2008). Veronica Thomas interviewed Dr. Morris in the fall of 2019.