Honey, I shrunk the evaluator: Reflections on the 1990 National Evaluation Conference

The 1990 National Evaluation Conference, a conference devoted to current developments in evaluation, left the authors with many concerns. This paper, after describing a few of the contributions which were of relevance to human services, explores some of the dilemmas. Is program evaluation a research activity or not? What are the implications of the commercialisation of the public sector? Is evaluation a tool to induce employee conformity? These questions are raised, and their implications for human services discussed.