Chapter Thirteen – Organizational Effectiveness

Be able to define organizational effectiveness Understand the issues underpinning measuring

organizational effectiveness Discuss the difficulties of the goal model Be able to briefly discuss the three significant

elements of the process approach Understand variable analysis Understand why ethical problems arise out of

attempts to measure effectiveness

Effectiveness – the degree of congruence between organizational goals and some observed outcome.

Alternative views of organizational effectiveness, is it:o Organizational survival,o Environmental adaptability,o Based on multiple indicators, oro Based on multiple perspectives?

Cameron (1981) Reasons for confusiono There are important differences in the way

scholars conceptualize organizations.o Goals are often complex, multiple, and

conflicting.o Researchers often use multiple and overlapping

measurement criteria. Effectiveness cannot be measured as a

single phenomenon.

Why assess organizational effectiveness?o Scholars• Account for the growth or decline of an organization• Investigate interactions between organizations and

their environments• Seek to understand the antecedents of effectiveness

o Practitioners• Effectiveness influences how organizations are

managed.• Accountability• Can lead to the redistribution of resources within the

agency

Effectiveness studies (evaluation research) occur in a political context.o The organization, program, and offices are creatures of

a political process.o The results of the study feed into the political processes

that sustain or change the organizationo The studies themselves are political because they

involve implicit statements about the legitimacy of goals and interests within the organization (Lovell, 2004).

Effectiveness studies reflect the perspective of the organization’s dominant coalition.

Some theoretical perspective must underlie any discussion of effectiveness (Hannan and Freeman, 1977).

Even the question of whether an organization is regarded as succeeding or failing will depend on theory.

There are seven commonly used models for assessing organizational effectiveness.

The most common assessment model Defines effectiveness by the extent to which the

organization achieved its goals Difficulties

o There are limitations to the rationality of organizations.o Cannot differentiate between official and operative

goalso Activities not related to goals are not measured.o The relationship between goal attainment and

consequences is not straight forward.

Internal process – effective organizations work efficiently Participant-satisfaction or strategic-constituency –

effective organizations serve the interests of the key constituencies.

Process approach – effectiveness is a process, not an result Systems view – incorporates concern for change in the

environment Behavioral emphasis – focuses on attentiveness to the

contributions of individual employees Systems resource model – extent to which the organization

can attain the resources it needs

Variable analysisoHighly related to the goal modeloStudies involve the identification and

measurement of some goal or goalsoMost common method used to assess

organizational effectivenessoAttempts to examine causal links in the

attainment of some goal

Gross-malfunctioning analysiso The target of inquiry is failed of failing organizations.o The analysis examines the reasons behind the failureo Usually done following a major event (e.g. prison riot)

Revelatory analysiso Asks who is getting what from an organizationo How organizations are used by internal and external

groups.

What domain or activity is the target of assessment?o Using a single dimension is difficult because criminal

justice agencies do so many different things.

Differentiate between;o Performance appraisal – processes central to the

evaluation of an individual’s performanceo Performance measurement – the relationship

between performance and actual goal accomplishment

Effective studies incorporate multiple dimensions.

After settling on the domain to focus on, the next stop is to identify the variables that will be used to measure performance.o Validity in variables is the key consideration – does the

variable measure what it purports to measure?

How the variables are measured is the next consideration.o Levels of measuremento Other measurement rules and procedures (e.g.

recidivism)

Alternatives to outcome measureso Process measures – measure the activities

assumed to cause effectiveness within organizations

o Structure measures – measure the organizational features or participant characteristics that are presumed to have an impact on effectiveness

Multiple measureso Overcome the difficulties associated with single

measures of effectiveness Multigoal/multimeasure designs give a more

comprehensive view of organizational effectiveness that single measures.

Skogan’s (1996) logic model of the programo Intervention – level of effort involvedo Mechanism – how the program is to affect the outcomeo Outcomes – anticipated outcomes of the program

Data can be produced to make it appear that the organization is effective.

The motivation to manipulate the datao Fear of reprisalo Competition for resources (internal and external)

Avoiding ethical problemso The assessment must make senseo The goals (evaluative criteria) are realistico Reduce fear of reprisalo Judge managers within their domain

Organizational effectiveness is the degree of congruence between organizational goals and some observed outcomes.

Organizations are complex and have complex and conflicting goals.

The goal model assumes thato organizational goals can be identified, o members work toward goals, o and that goal attainment can be achieved.

The three significant elements of the process approach are:oMultiple goal attainment must be

optimizedoChanges in the organization’s

environment and goals will change, oConsiders the contribution of employees.

Variable analysis is:o Selecting separate domains, o Finding variables that provide measures of success

within each domain, and o Finding variables that are specific to effectiveness

within each domain. Ethical problems in organizational effectiveness occur

because it is relatively easy to produce numbers that make an individual or group look good, like the goals have been attained.

In cooperation with area agencies your department recently created a Fusion Center designed to collect and disseminate information relating to potential terroristic activities.

The Fusion Center is staffed with numerous intelligence analysts.

Using the goal model approach, develop a method for assessing the Fusion Center’s organizational effectiveness.