Awareness of conducting action research (AR) with a systems thinking orientation is increasing. We consider such orientation to be a fundamental, grounding, feature of AR. However, little exploration has occurred of how evaluation activity within AR, using a tool such as Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS), might enhance this orientation. We offer an argument for utilizing GAS to not only broaden action and deepen the research in individual AR projects, but also, for learning more about AR at a meta‐level where there is the increased complexity when evaluating multiple AR projects in diverse contexts. As well as theorizing the concepts noted, an outline of the way the evaluative study of action research (ESAR) customized and deployed GAS for evaluation of AR at both individual and meta‐levels is provided. The paper is a unique contribution to the domains of AR, systems thinking and evaluation methods. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.