Concept mapping methodology: A catalyst for organizational learning

In this paper, concept mapping is suggested as a methodological catalyst for organizational learning. Concept mapping, by virtue of its psychological and sociological foundations, offers a way to simultaneously understand complex systems in terms of both intra- and inter-personal relationships. We posit that key stakeholders, when taken together, represent the organization as a bounded unit and set the stage for the interaction between evaluation practice and organizational learning. We illustrate this argument by reference to an evaluation study in which concept mapping was used by two stakeholder groups as a process of structured conceptualization. Ultimately, the methodology facilitated the development of a jointly authored conceptual framework to be used in future program planning, development, and evaluation.