Evaluating organizations: A systems and contingency approach

It has become increasingly difficult to keep pace with the amount of information being generated about how to evaluate organizations. If it were not enough that the situation is made difficult by the sheer mass of material on evaluation, clarity is further hindered by many of the publications on the subject failing to make explicit the principles and assumptions upon which they are based. This was the situation confronting the authors when they began a national project with the National Association of Councils for Voluntary Service on the evaluation of the performance of Councils for Voluntary Service. In an attempt to bring some order to the field, this paper adopts a systems and contingency approach to elucidate the nature and practical usefulness of the different methods of evaluation. It first seeks, using some tools of Checkland's soft systems methodology, to present a systematic analysis of the subject of evaluation. Then, in the light of the analysis, an attempt is made to formulate a simple classification of approaches to evaluation which serves to match the different forms of evaluation to the contexts in which they are most appropriate for use.     

中国乡村的城镇化进程

中国乡村的城镇化进程体现在货物、资金、人员和信息的流动 ,这些流动已经在过去的十几年甚至更长时间的中国产生了极大的影响。然而 ,所有这些变化都没有离开成千上万的中国农民的迁徙的机动性。