Coping Behavior of Evalpreneurs: Key Findings from My Dissertation and Implications for Evaluation Practice by Nicolas Uwitonze

Date: Sunday, September 7, 2025

Hello, AEA365 community! Liz DiLuzio here, Lead Curator of the blog. This week is Individuals Week, which means we take a break from our themed weeks and spotlight the Hot Tips, Cool Tricks, Rad Resources and Lessons Learned from any evaluator interested in sharing. Would you like to contribute to future individuals weeks? Email me at AEA365@eval.org with an idea or a draft and we will make it happen.

Hello, my name is Dr Nicolas Uwitonze, a recent graduate from Virginia Tech (May 2025) whose research focused on Exploring Problem-Solving Preferences, Expressed Identity, Identity Integration, and Coping Behavior of Evalpreneurs in the United States: A Phenomenography Study”.

In my previous blogs, I shared an overview of my dissertation and on problem-solving styles of evalpreneurs. In this blog, I will share insights on how evalpreneurs engage in coping behavior when solving problems outside their preferred styles.

Cool Tricks

Preferred vs. Coping Behavior in Evaluation Consulting: Evidence from research

Research shows that a person’s problem-solving style—along with their beliefs, attitudes, traits, and habits—helps shape their overall personality (Kirton, 2011). But here’s the catch: people don’t always stick to their natural way of thinking when facing challenges. What we actually see is a mix of their preferred approach and what’s called coping behavior—when someone deliberately steps outside their usual style to tackle a problem based on what the situation demands.

For example, drawing on a pilot study from my dissertation, I observed that certain evaluation consulting tasks align naturally with an individual’s preferred problem-solving style, whereas others demand the use of coping behavior.

• Tasks such as project management, data analysis, financial tracking, administrative responsibilities, and managing day-to-day project details are generally more congruent with the preferences of adaptive professionals, who favor structure, attention to detail, and incremental change. These same tasks require significant coping effort from more innovative whose preference for unstructured, big-picture thinking often clashes with such routine-oriented responsibilities.
• Conversely, innovative professionals find greater alignment with tasks such as business development, branding, marketing, and broad strategic planning activities. For the more adaptive, these tasks involve greater cognitive strain and necessitate coping, as they typically prefer clarity, consistency, and established framework

Hot Tips:

What Additional Insights Did My Study Reveal About U.S. Evalpreneurs’ Coping Behavior?

• My study revealed that coping among U.S. evalpreneurs is a dynamic and multifaceted process. While navigating tasks outside their preferred problem-solving styles often led to stress or frustration, their coping experiences also served as catalysts for increased self-awareness, growth, and professional resilience.
• Both adaptive and innovative evalpreneurs described the emotional labor embedded in their roles, especially when their coping efforts went unrecognized by clients or peers. For many, coping was an internal, often invisible process—frequently misunderstood or undervalued—highlighting the cognitive and emotional work behind the scenes in evaluation consulting.
• Importantly, coping wasn’t just seen as a reaction to situational demands, but as a continuous learning journey. Participants shared how it enhanced their leadership, communication, and collaboration skills over time.
• Many evalpreneurs believed that early awareness of their own and others’ problem-solving styles could have improved team dynamics, emotional resilience, and stress management.

Implications for Evaluation Practice

1. Learning & Leadership: Both adaptive and innovative individuals may see coping as a chance for personal growth, emotional  and leadership development.
2. Reflective Practice: Evalpreneurs evolve through coping—becoming more reflective, agile, and resilient.
3. Team Awareness: Reflect on how coping shows up in your organization. Begin by taking the KAI to understand problem-solving preferences. This awareness helps align one’s role and performance with their cognitive strengths.

Rad Resources

• Exploring the applicability of KAI in evalpreneurship: A pilot study with Intention2Impact. https://hdl.handle.net/10919/126242
• To learn more, check my Doctoral dissertation: https://hdl.handle.net/10919/134999
• Also check AEA’s estudy workshop on Practical Applications of KAI in Evaluation Practice.
• In need to connect, collaborate, or a consultant visit Nicolas Uwitonze’s VT expert Profile

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