Evaluation

Abstract

This book has been about the processes involved in strategy development and partnership organisation. Discussion has avoided the effectiveness and performance of strategies and partnerships. However, this chapter does address the effectiveness issue to the extent that policy evaluation requires the assessment of both policy outcomes and processes. The argument here is that assessing strategic outcome is extremely difficult, but the evaluation of strategy is possible if viewed as part of the wider processes of organisational and political change. The chapter provides an assessment of the varied forms of organisation and politics in the partnerships studied in Pittsburgh, Birmingham and Rotterdam, assuming that such an assessment could form part of an evaluation agenda. This approach therefore does not provide detailed prescriptions for effective management. Instead it suggests a framework that could link an organisational understanding of partnerships to process issues and evaluation.