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How Can We Make Disaster Management Evaluations More Useful? An Empirical Study of Dutch Exercise Evaluations

Beerens, Ralf Josef Johanna LU orcid ; Tehler, Henrik LU and Pelzer, Ben (2020) In International Journal of Disaster Risk Science 11(5). p.578-591
Abstract

The evaluation of simulated disasters (for example, exercises) and real responses are important activities. However, little attention has been paid to how reports documenting such events should be written. A key issue is how to make them as useful as possible to professionals working in disaster risk management. Here, we focus on three aspects of a written evaluation: how the object of the evaluation is described, how the analysis is described, and how the conclusions are described. This empirical experiment, based on real evaluation documents, asked 84 Dutch mayors and crisis management professionals to evaluate the perceived usefulness of the three aspects noted above. The results showed that how evaluations are written does matter.... (More)

The evaluation of simulated disasters (for example, exercises) and real responses are important activities. However, little attention has been paid to how reports documenting such events should be written. A key issue is how to make them as useful as possible to professionals working in disaster risk management. Here, we focus on three aspects of a written evaluation: how the object of the evaluation is described, how the analysis is described, and how the conclusions are described. This empirical experiment, based on real evaluation documents, asked 84 Dutch mayors and crisis management professionals to evaluate the perceived usefulness of the three aspects noted above. The results showed that how evaluations are written does matter. Specifically, the usefulness of an evaluation intended for learning purposes is improved when its analysis and conclusions are clearer. In contrast, evaluations used for accountability purposes are only improved by the clarity of the conclusion. These findings have implications for the way disaster management evaluations should be documented.

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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Disaster management evaluation, Evaluation design, Evaluation report, Exercise evaluation, The Netherlands, Usefulness
in
International Journal of Disaster Risk Science
volume
11
issue
5
pages
14 pages
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:85087806044
ISSN
2095-0055
DOI
10.1007/s13753-020-00286-7
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
8bca7ce1-e45b-41e8-9075-d196ddbaf497
date added to LUP
2020-07-20 09:52:39
date last changed
2022-04-18 23:36:21
@article{8bca7ce1-e45b-41e8-9075-d196ddbaf497,
  abstract     = {{<p>The evaluation of simulated disasters (for example, exercises) and real responses are important activities. However, little attention has been paid to how reports documenting such events should be written. A key issue is how to make them as useful as possible to professionals working in disaster risk management. Here, we focus on three aspects of a written evaluation: how the object of the evaluation is described, how the analysis is described, and how the conclusions are described. This empirical experiment, based on real evaluation documents, asked 84 Dutch mayors and crisis management professionals to evaluate the perceived usefulness of the three aspects noted above. The results showed that how evaluations are written does matter. Specifically, the usefulness of an evaluation intended for learning purposes is improved when its analysis and conclusions are clearer. In contrast, evaluations used for accountability purposes are only improved by the clarity of the conclusion. These findings have implications for the way disaster management evaluations should be documented.</p>}},
  author       = {{Beerens, Ralf Josef Johanna and Tehler, Henrik and Pelzer, Ben}},
  issn         = {{2095-0055}},
  keywords     = {{Disaster management evaluation; Evaluation design; Evaluation report; Exercise evaluation; The Netherlands; Usefulness}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{5}},
  pages        = {{578--591}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{International Journal of Disaster Risk Science}},
  title        = {{How Can We Make Disaster Management Evaluations More Useful? An Empirical Study of Dutch Exercise Evaluations}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13753-020-00286-7}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/s13753-020-00286-7}},
  volume       = {{11}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}