Deepening understanding of managing evaluation

Depth, resonance, and shadow are added to how the expertise of managing evaluation could be grasped and understood. Returning to the notion of “competency” (Stevahn, King, Ghere, & Minnema, 2005), this is contrasted more deeply with Dreyfus and Dreyfus’s (2004) conception of expert and to its use in nursing by Benner (2004; Benner, Tanner, & Chelsa, 1996). Dreyfus’s five-stage developmental model is presented, as is a sixth stage often not discussed, “practice wisdom” or phronesis, what Strasser (1985) calls “practical science.” This notion is explored and its sources in Ancient Greece cited. A beginning exploration is made of lived managing, as is the notion of the “already known.” Evaluators are “knowledge workers” (Davenport, 2005), and managing them is central to the work of managing studies and managing an evaluation unit.