Testing a Multi-Dimensional Model of Organizational Performance: Prospects and Problems

Scholars have been preoccupied for generations with identifying the “best measure” and model of organizational performance. Drawing on previous work focused on the development of multi-dimensional frameworks or models of organizational performance, this paper presents our perspective on organizational performance, discussing a multi-dimensional model that emphasizes the importance of assessing the two primary dimensions of performance, management and program performance. We advocate for the use of both perceptual and objective measures in seeking to understand organizational performance, finding that examining these perceptual and objective measures has significant usefulness in seeking to fully capture performance. In addition, through the use of multi-level random coefficient (or hierarchical) modeling, we find various interconnections between management dimensions and program dimensions in understanding organization performance in 22 human service organizations providing early care and education services.

[1]  Daniel P. Forbes.  Measuring the Unmeasurable: Empirical Studies of Nonprofit Organization Effectiveness from 1977 to 1997 , 1998 .

[2]  Neal Schmitt,et al.  Configurations of Organizational Effectiveness and Efficiency , 1993 .

[3]  Carolyn J. Heinrich.  Do Government Bureaucrats Make Effective Use of Performance Management Information , 1999 .

[4]  J. Pfeffer.  Organizations and Organization Theory , 1982 .

[5]  M. Whitebook.  Who Cares? Child Care Teachers and the Quality of Care in America. Final Report, National Child Care Staffing Study. , 1989 .

[6]  K. Cameron,et al.  Organizational Life Cycles and Shifting Criteria of Effectiveness: Some Preliminary Evidence , 1983 .

[7]  K. Jöreskog,et al.  LISREL 8: New Statistical Features , 1999 .

[8]  R. Herman,et al.  Multiple Constituencies and the Social Construction of Nonprofit Organization Effectiveness , 1997 .

[9]  Dave Ulrich,et al.  MEASURING HUMAN RESOURCES: AN OVERVIEW OF PRACTICE AND A PRESCRIPTION FOR RESULTS , 1997 .

[10]  Myron E. Weiner.  Images and Organization , 1984 .

[11]  Salwa Ammar,et al.  Using Fuzzy Rule–Based Systems to Evaluate Overall Financial Performance of Governments: An Enhancement to the Bond Rating Process , 2001 .

[12]  Herman L. Boschken.  Organizational Performance and Multiple Constituencies , 1994 .

[13]  Warren G. Bennis,et al.  Changing Organizations , 1966 .

[14]  Peter Chalos,et al.  An application of data envelopment analysis to public sector performance measurement and accountability , 1995 .

[15]  Arnold S. Tannenbaum,et al.  A Study of Organizational Effectiveness , 1957 .

[16]  W. Scott,et al.  Institutions and Organizations. , 1995 .

[17]  B. Bergmann,et al.  Supplementary Information To Accompany America's Child Care Problem: The Way Out. , 2002 .

[18]  Roland J. Kushner,et al.  Exploring structure-effectiveness relationships in nonprofit arts organizations , 1996 .

[19]  Laurence E. Lynn,et al.  Governance and Performance: New Perspectives , 2001 .

[20]  L. Grossman,et al.  Eager to Learn: Educating Our Preschoolers , 2001 .

[21]  Stanley E. Seashore,et al.  Factorial Analysis of Organizational Performance , 1967 .

[22]  Sten Jönsson.  Institutions and Organizations , 1997 .

[23]  Carolyn J. Heinrich.  Outcomes–Based Performance Management in the Public Sector: Implications for Government Accountability and Effectiveness , 2002 .

[24]  K. Weick.  FROM SENSEMAKING IN ORGANIZATIONS , 2021, The New Economic Sociology.

[25]  Jack J. Phillips,et al.  Accountability in Human Resource Management , 1995 .

[26]  Anthony S. Bryk,et al.  Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods , 1992 .

[27]  Susan K. Walker.  Time to Care: Redesigning Child Care to Promote Education, Support Families and Build Communities , 2004 .

[28]  M Keeley,et al.  A social-justice approach to organizational evaluation. , 1978, Administrative science quarterly.

[29]  Virginia B. Edwards.  Quality Counts 2002: Building Blocks for Success. State Efforts in Early Childhood Education. , 2002 .

[30]  R. Herman,et al.  Theses on Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness , 1999 .

[31]  Laurence J. O'Toole,et al.  Advancing Public Management: New Developments in Theory, Methods, and Practice , 2000 .

[32]  C. Argyris.  Integrating the individual and the organization , 1964 .

[33]  Lisa A. Riley,et al.  America's Childcare Problem: The Way Out , 2002 .

[34]  Richard M. Steers.  Problems in the Measurement of Organizational Effectiveness , 1975 .

[35]  John Rohrbaugh,et al.  A Spatial Model of Effectiveness Criteria: Towards a Competing Values Approach to Organizational Analysis , 1983 .

[36]  D. Whetten,et al.  Organizational Effectiveness: A Comparison of Multiple Models , 1984 .

[37]  William T. Gormley.  Everybody's Children: Child Care as a Public Problem , 1995 .

[38]  Yeheskel Hasenfeld,et al.  Enforcement, Compliance, and Disputes in Welfare-to-Work Programs , 1996, Social Service Review.

[39]  R. Herman,et al.  Methodological Issues in Studying the Effectiveness of Nongovernmental and Nonprofit Organizations , 1990 .

[40]  J. Rohrbaugh,et al.  A Competing Values Approach to Organizational Effectiveness , 1981 .

[41]  Kim S. Cameron,et al.  Domains of Organizational Effectiveness in Colleges and Universities , 1981 .

[42]  A. V. D. Ven,et al.  Measuring And Assessing Organizations , 1980 .

[43]  Joy Palmer,et al.  The Human Organization , 1997, J. Knowl. Manag..

[44]  H. Rainey,et al.  Galloping Elephants: Developing Elements of a Theory of Effective Government Organizations , 1999 .

[45]  Ronald F. Ferguson.  Paying for public education: New evidence on how and why money , 1991 .

[46]  Yeheskel Hasenfeld,et al.  Human Service Organizations. , 1982 .

[47]  David Kaplan,et al.  A didactic example of multilevel structural equation modeling applicable to the study of organizations , 1997 .

[48]  R. Golembiewski.  Macro organizational behavior , 1980 .

[49]  Roel Bosker,et al.  Multilevel analysis : an introduction to basic and advanced multilevel modeling , 1999 .

[50]  John E. Delery,et al.  Modes of theorizing in strategic human resource management: Tests of universalistic, contingency, and configurational performance predictions , 1996 .

[51]  Warren G. Bennis,et al.  Changing organizations : essays on the development and evolution of human organization , 1966 .

[52]  R. Herman,et al.  Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness: Contrasts Between Especially Effective and Less Effective Organizations , 1998 .

[53]  Ann McCoy.  Ready or Not – Here They Come , 2001 .

[54]  Dall W. Forsythe.  Quicker, Better, Cheaper? Managing Performance in American Government. , 2001 .

[55]  J. F. Byrnes,et al.  Costing Human Resources: The Financial Impact of Behavior in Organizations , 1984 .

[56]  R. Zammuto.  Assessing Organizational Effectiveness: Systems Change, Adaptation, and Strategy , 1982 .

[57]  Richard M. Clifford,et al.  Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, Revised Edition , 1998 .

[58]  R. Rojas.  A Review of Models for Measuring Organizational Effectiveness Among For‐Profit and Nonprofit Organizations , 2000 .

[59]  Stuart Jay Deutsch,et al.  Organizational Effectiveness: A Multiple-Constituency Approach , 1980 .

[60]  Kay Ann Cassell,et al.  High Performance Nonprofit Organizations: Managing Upstream for Greater Impact , 1999 .

[61]  Myron E. Weiner Mga.  Images and Organization , 1984 .

[62]  Richard Arum,et al.  Do private schools force public schools to compete , 1996 .

[63]  Paul S. Goodman,et al.  New perspectives on organizational effectiveness , 1977 .

[64]  Sally Coleman Selden,et al.  A Model of Voluntary Turnover in State Government , 2000 .

[65]  Kim S. Cameron,et al.  The Relationship Between Faculty Unionism and Organizational Effectiveness , 1982 .

[66]  Barbara L. Wolfe,et al.  Child Care Quality: Does It Matter and Does It Need To Be Improved?. , 2000 .

[67]  James L. Price,et al.  The Study of Turnover. , 1978 .