CHAPTER 9 - REVIEW - Evaluation and Implementation

Evaluation is something that we all do all of the time. We evaluate everything from getting up in the morning to going to bed at night. However, it is also an essential part of control – a subject we explored in the last chapter. If we get evaluation right we can usually expect to have a better chance of success than if we get it wrong. This is therefore a crucial aspect of Management.

            In this chapter we have explored the complexities of evaluation and identified the essential criteria on which it depends. We may think that it is unrealistic to apply the entire set of these criteria all of the time, but at least we should be aware of the possible variations. The more important and complex is the decision, the more important it is to consider all of these criteria. We should note the essential point that, decisions can and are made without adequate evaluation, — and we should not confuse the two concepts. We should therefore not assume in the Management Universe that decisions are necessarily based on proper evaluation.

We have also seen that much evaluation is based on verbal questions rather than simple numerical tests. It therefore follows that we have to be particularly careful as to how we pose questions, conduct surveys, or make statements. In an attempt to provide unambiguous verbal evaluation we have examined the use of a propositional syntax. This, although at first sight may seem like tedious nit picking, forces us to take account of the grammatical meaning and accuracy of our propositions. This in turn helps us to avoid vagueness and ambiguity. We might note in passing that politicians frequently use the reverse process in order to avoid giving a clear and unambiguous meaning in statements and answers to questions.

            We have also seen that decision making, and the evaluation of which it forms part, should lead on to implementation. We have identified the components of implementation and examined them. Again it is important to realise that in the Management Universe decision making should always lead to implementation. Making a ‘good’ decision is not an end, but a simply a stage in the effective control of processes and systems.

The English King Canute was good at making bold decisions and giving firm decisive orders. It is said that he instructed the tide not to come up the beach as far as his throne. Although he was good at making decisions and giving orders sometimes he failed to make a proper evaluation of the situation, — so neither he nor anyone else was able to implement his decision.