Using organisational theory in the promotion of evaluation ? a case study

Abstract

This paper discusses the use of organisational theory in a research and development project at the University of Queensland. It focuses on the introduction of a student evaluation of teaching scheme for feedback purpose and for use in annual appraisals, as well as for tenure and promotion decisions. It is a case study of planned change introduced into a traditional university within the framework of the literature on change, university systems and the academic profession. The paper demonstrates that organisational theory helps (a) to clarify the context and the conditions which facilitate introduction of change in a traditional university, and (b) to evaluate strategies to initiate and implement change. When the student evaluation of teaching system was developed and first promoted in Semester 2, 1982, 37 staff members had their teaching evaluated. Since then it has grown to a regular evaluation of teaching in over 300 class sessions, with 150-200 staff members participating each semester, and about 15,000 students returning questionnaires. This makes it a unique scheme in Australian universities. This paper discusses the use of organisational theory in a research and development project at the University of Queensland. The project was concerned with [1] academic staff in a university, their attitudes to, and perceptions of, evaluation and professional development, their roles as teachers and researchers in relation to evaluation and professional development and their use of the provisions offered; [2] the establishment of a student evaluation of teaching scheme for feedback purposes and for use in promotion and tenure decisions as a case study of change introduced into a university; and [3] the interrelationship between evaluation instruments developed during the course of the project and the professional development program at the University of Queensland.This paper limits itself to a discussion of the introduction of a student evaluation of teaching system based on the literature on change, university systems and the academic profession. The author of this paper was both a researcher and a change agent in the larger project. As change agent she was an actor in the establishment of the student evaluation of teaching scheme.Change agents need to have knowledge of the context, the system, in which they operate. So what do we know about universities as 'systems'? Organisational theory here helped to illuminate the variables researchers and developers in a university context have to take into account.