Does Evaluation Build or Destroy Trust?

Abstract

This article reflects on the relationship between evaluation and trust. Evaluation has become prominent in recent years as a way to control administrative action.The underlying assumption here is that administrative action, e.g. in the form of publicly funded programmes, requires control in order to gain or sustain its legitimacy.Two case studies of programmes of higher education reform in Germany, initiating so-called `virtual universities', are used to investigate how stakeholders experienced evaluation. Informants argued that there was too much evaluation, that confusion and competition arose about the roles of evaluation, and that little instrumental use occurred. This situation caused frustration and begs the question whether evaluation, intended to increase trust through systematic and transparent inquiry and rational decision-making, contradicted its own claims. It is argued that evaluation can be endangered by `inverse process use' or `process damage'.