External Evaluation: Types, Characteristics And Advantages
Evaluating the dynamics of an organization, whether it is an educational center, company or any other type of institution, is necessary to be able to detect failures and improve its internal processes.
The internal evaluation, carried out by the members of the organization themselves, is very useful, but it lacks full objectivity. For this reason, complemented by this, there is the external evaluation, in which a person outside the institution itself evaluates different aspects such as performance, internal dynamics and economic flows.
Next we are going to see what external evaluation is why it is so important in the business and educational field, its main advantages and also what ways can be used to apply it.
External evaluation is any process in which an organization, institution or group is examined through the assessment of a person who is not part of those human groups. That is, it is the evaluation carried out by a person outside a group of people in order to have the least biased and subjective measurement possible. These types of evaluations are quite common in business and educational contexts.
Business world
In the field of organizations, external evaluation is carried out to verify impartially and objectively whether the company is meeting the objectives it had set for itself or whether it treats its workers appropriately Applied in the business field, it is possible to detect possible failures, aspects to improve within the organization and, also, compare it with other companies in the same sector.
Educational field
Regarding the education sector, this type of evaluation serves to know if different schools and institutes comply with the standard and minimum levels imposed by the Ministry of Education or the regional government in terms of teaching. It serves to see if the center is respecting current regulations, if its students learn adequately or if there is any aspect to improve. It also serves to see how far it is from the national average in terms of education, and sometimes it can even be compared between countries
Given that evaluation and quality in the classroom are closely related, both external and internal evaluation are essential to be able to carry out an adequate analysis of the processes in the educational institution. The internal one serves so that teachers know what to improve, in addition to whether they have to personalize or adapt the contents and their teaching to the type of students they have been assigned to, while the external one serves to perfect the educational policies of the region or state, competencies government type.
Regardless of the specific context for which the external evaluation is carried out, it is clear that its main intention is to carry out the most objective measurement possible of the performance of an institution or group of people. It is a tool essential to prevent the emotions, feelings, beliefs and expectations of the members of the organization from influencing its performance since evaluating oneself or evaluating colleagues, clients or students is difficult to do in a neutral way.
Characteristics of external evaluation
There are several aspects to mention about the external evaluation that, in addition to being the characteristics that define it, can also be understood as its main advantages.
1. External evaluator
The main characteristic of external evaluation and, in turn, the one that offers the most advantages is the fact that the evaluator is outside the group or institution that evaluates. This person seeks to check how the company or entity works by observing it as objectively as possible.
As this evaluator, in addition to being a professional specialized in carrying out this type of evaluations, is not related to the organization nor has ties of friendship with its members their way of measuring performance and other aspects is as supportive as possible.
Directly related to the fact that the evaluator is outside the group being evaluated, external evaluation has the advantage of providing greater impartiality. Organizations of any type can request an external evaluation in order to obtain the most objective point of view possible about their own performance or behaviors within the institution. The impartiality of the external observer allows for better detection of possible failures and errors in the organization.
3. High standardization
Although it doesn’t always have to be like this, In most cases the external evaluation is carried out through standardized tests These tests have the advantage that their results can be compared with those of other institutions or centers in the same sector, to see to what extent the group of people evaluated meets the standards or if their performance is very low than expected.
Methods used
There are many ways that can be used to obtain the most objective and impartial information about a group of people , educational center, company or any other organization that we can think of. Below we will see the most common ones, all of them ideal to be handled by the external evaluator or to ensure that the information collected is organized in such a way that allows this evaluator to interpret it as neutrally as possible.
1. Interviews
One of the easiest ways to do an external evaluation is using standardized interviews. This type of instruments consist of batteries of questions related to the sector and topic to be evaluated. You can ask anything, such as beliefs about work, dynamics within it, performance, job expectations…
2. Surveys
Surveys, especially anonymous ones, are ideal for collecting all types of data. They are questionnaires that can sometimes be filled out by the people surveyed themselves and, if anonymous, they invite the respondent to be as sincere and honest as possible, whether they are students, teachers, employees or bosses.
This type of resource makes the respondent look freer and more assertive expressing their true expression reporting the problems you have encountered and what aspects you think should be improved.
A technique that is also widely used in external evaluations is that of focus groups, which They consist of selecting a group of people at random and taking them to a controlled environment where they will be asked questions about their experience within the entity, what they think about work or studies and what needs they have seen satisfied and which have not.
4. Direct observation
Sometimes it is not necessary to resort to questionnaires, interviews and controlled environments to find out how people in an institution behave or think. Direct observation can be a very useful tool within the external evaluation, as long as it is done in a way in which the person being observed does not realize that he is being observed, since in that case his way of behaving would change.
It can be especially useful in the field of education and business. In education, it is observed how students behave naturally, what their “natural” performance is and, also, whether they behave appropriately or not.
In business It allows us to contemplate aspects such as interactions with customers, delivery times, some organizational vices and common problems that employees do not perceive as so important that they are neither aware of them nor complain about them, although they may influence the overall performance of the organization.
5. Audit
The audit is a very common form of external evaluation in companies that serves to verify the functioning of the processes and the performance of those involved This type of tool consists of hiring an expert from outside the company who evaluates all aspects of the institution, indicates what the failures are, offers advice and proposes solutions to improve its performance or put an end to the problems that have arisen. detected.
