Ethical Issues in Evaluation

Ethics in evaluation are focused on what it means for evaluators to “do the right thing.” Although there is considerable controversy about what “the right thing” means, in philosophy as well as practice, there is general agreement that ethical challenges are common in all phases of the evaluation process, from initial contracting to the reporting and use of the findings. This entry discusses various approaches to ethics and their implications for evaluation, ethical challenges in evaluation tasks, two sets of guidelines for conducting good evaluations, and emerging perspectives on ethics in evaluations.