Organizations' Use of Evaluation Research:implications for Trust, Support for Research, and Support for the Program
Open Access
- Author:
- Hammaker, Sarah Marie
- Area of Honors:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Melvin Michael Mark, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Richard Alan Carlson, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Evaluation Research
Evaluation
Research
Trust in Organizations
Support for Research
Support for Program - Abstract:
- In a world of “evidence-based practice,” it is still unclear how perceptions of an organization are affected by its use or non-use of research. In an online study, undergraduates read a fictional news article reporting research their university supposedly conducted on a small pilot program to help students find jobs. The program was described either as beneficial, or not. The university was reported either as planning to implement the program widely, or not. Participants then answered questions about their trust in the university, support for this kind of research, and support for the program. Contrary to hypotheses, trust was not maximized when the program was successful and widespread implementation planned. More generally, there were no significant effects of program success or intended implementation on trust. However, there were significant effects of program success, and significant interaction effects, on both support for the research and support for the program. Pairwise comparisons explored the interactions between program success and planned use. When the program was not successful, people were more likely to support research of the reported kind when the university planned to implement the program, rather than when they did not. Also, when the program was not successful, people supported the program more if implementation was planned than if not. Overall, the results showed that planned use of a program can influence people’s perceptions of the program and of evaluation research more generally, though these effects depend on program success.