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The political motives for reinstating national school inspection in 2003 and reinforcing it through the establishment of the Swedish School Inspectoratein 2008 stressed the necessity of sufficient state involvement in order to retain and ensure nationwide educational quality and equivalence. Since then, additional political efforts have been made to intensify and exercise national state control over education. On July 1, 2011, the Education Act gave the agency enhanced legal support. The aim of this study was to describe and analyze a sample of school leaders' stories of the regular inspection that have been conducted in their schools since the legal changes came into force. School leaders of 20 compulsory schools were interviewed. Theinterviews were analyzed and the results were presented in eight themes. In the following analysis, change mechanisms that had been initiated in the schools during the inspection process were examined through a theoretical framework of evaluation influence. The results from the second analys is also illustrated conceivable forms of pathways that link inspection processes to inspection outcomes. Finally, the empirical findings were discussed in terms of constitutive effects and education governance. The study was a part of the research project "Governing by inspection. School inspection and education governance in Sweden, England and Scotland".

Development evaluation is a booming business often seen as a development activity in its own right. Yet, not every actor in the field engages with evaluation. This is primarily due to inadequacies in time, data, resources and expertise. These challenges are prevalent among small nonprofits that arguably stand most in need to appraise their extensive efforts. In an accountability-focused environment, these organizations not only fail to assess adequately the impact of their work but also to evaluate reflectively their structure and implementation process. In response, the sociology and international studies departments at Brigham Young University set up an internship that trains students in evaluation techniques and then contracts their services to nonprofits that struggle to systematically evaluate their programs. Data collected from the student-evaluators and nonprofits showed that the evaluations influenced the organizations by helping the personnel learn, reflect on, discuss, and adjust their programs. In addition to finding evidence of the factors, mechanisms, and change processes that influence an evaluation's effect, this study extends the conceptual models within the influence literature by outlining the enabling role of students in contexts with high capacity constraints.

Organizational development is a central purpose of evaluation. Disasters and other emergency situations carry with them significant implications for evaluation, given that they are often unanticipated and involve multiple relief efforts on the part of INGOs, governments and international organizations. Two particularly common reasons for INGOs to evaluate disaster relief efforts are 1) accountability to donors and 2) desire to enhance the organization's response capacity. This thesis endeavors briefly to review the state of the evaluation field for disaster relief so as to reflect on how it needs to go forward. The conclusion is that evaluation of disaster relief efforts is alive and well. Though evaluation for accountability seems fairly straightforward, determining just how the evaluation influences the organization and beyond is not. Evaluation use has long been a central thread of discussion in evaluation theory, with the richer idea of evaluation influence only recently taking the stage. Evaluation influence takes the notion of evaluation use a few steps further by offering more complex, subtle, and sometimes unintentional ways that an evaluation might positively better a situation. This study contributes to the very few empirical studies of evaluation influence by looking at one organization.

Organizational development is a central purpose of evaluation. Disasters and other emergency situations carry with them significant implications for evaluation, given that they are often unanticipated and involve multiple relief efforts on the part of INGOs, governments and international organizations. Two particularly common reasons for INGOs to evaluate disaster relief efforts are 1) accountability to donors and 2) desire to enhance the organization s response capacity. This thesis endeavors briefly to review the state of the evaluation field for disaster relief so as to reflect on how it needs to go forward. The conclusion is that evaluation of disaster relief efforts is alive and well. Though evaluation for accountability seems fairly straightforward, determining just how the evaluation influences the organization and beyond is not. Evaluation use has long been a central thread of discussion in evaluation theory, with the richer idea of evaluation influence only recently taking the stage. Evaluation influence takes the notion of evaluation use a few steps further by offering more complex, subtle, and sometimes unintentional ways that an evaluation might positively better a situation. This study contributes to the very few empirical studies of evaluation influence by looking at one organization in depth and concluding that evaluation does influence in useful ways.

Evaluations have gained popularity for improving public policy measures, programmes and institutions in the field of science, technology and innovation (RTI). Though the frequency and quality of evaluations have increased, in terms of impact indicators and methodological diversification, concerns have been raised about their effectiveness to fuel change in policy making. This raises the issue of the low absorption level of evaluation findings by policy making in general and in Austria in particular. Recent research emphasises the need for a holistic perspective on the benefits and usefulness of evaluations in order to allow a more thorough consideration of complex interdependencies and effects that can occur at different levels and in different forms. While previous research has put much emphasis on the conduct of evaluations and their implementation, there are less empirical studies that address institutional or contextual explanations when it comes to the effects of evaluations. This study aims to contribute to the narrowing of this gap in the literature by investigating how individual and composite actors (such as organisations), as well as, the policy itself are affected by policy evaluations, drawing attention to the factors and mechanisms that shape evaluation effects. Making use of the concepts of "policy learning", actor-centred institutionalism and recent research in the field of evaluation utilisation for the analysis, this study developed a conceptual framework that proposes three groups of conditioning factors and mechanisms: Actors and their interactions, the institutional context, and the evaluation itself. A multiple case study approach, using evaluated programmes in the Austrian research, technology and innovation (RTI) policy scene, was employed to examine the effects of evaluations at various levels, the conditioning factors and mechanisms, as well as, the ensuing pathways of effects. Results indicate that evaluations generate a wide range of diverse effects, beyond individual learning, and clearly and visibly impact programme development. Several contextual aspects shape evaluation effects. The current structures and practices endorse evaluations as routine, which may reduce chances of broader learning, and distance the evaluation and the possibility to learn from it from an interested audience. The thesis concludes with implications for theory and practice, and suggestions for paths of future research.

Responding to and preventing violent conflict continue to be a major concern on the international agenda. However, the results of peacebuilding projects are often mixed and some interventions have even proven harmful in the past. In the debates on aid effectiveness, evaluations have been advocated as being an effective instrument to better understand the results of development and peacebuilding projects and thereby ultimately to improve the practice. However, despite a long tradition of evaluation utilisation research dating back to the 1970s, the effects of peacebuilding evaluations are far from being understood. The concept of evaluation use is too narrow and does not take the diversity of potential positive and negative evaluation effects into account. There is little evidence concerning the organisational factors that influence the use and effects of evaluations. Using a comparative case study analysis in three organisations implementing peacebuilding activities (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, Saferworld and the World Bank), this study examines the roles and effects of peacebuilding evaluations within international organisations. The results show a wide range of positive and negative evaluation effects that are promoted or hindered by different attitudes and the process of the evaluation, in addition to organisational and other contextual factors. To improve our understanding of the interlinkages in this context, evaluation pathways causally linking different effects and factors are proposed.