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A three-factor model of administrative effectiveness.
Abstract
A three-factor model of social welfare administration is proposed that emphasizes concern for technical effectiveness or service-goal attainment, the necessity for attaining optimal internal coherence in social service organizations, and administrative engagement in the political environment. Concepts such as organizational and administrative effectiveness are burdened by indeterminacies, unknowns, and unstable relationships. This is a closer approximation of reality than the attempt of orthodox rationalism to impose a false orderliness, as if (1) goals could always be made clear, unambiguous, and precise, (2) they could be taken as givens, (3) goals and values were separable, and (4) the effectiveness of goals was not contingent in some imprecisely known ways on internal processes and the external resource environment. There may yet come a time when allocations for the human services and the relative shares allocated to different sectors are determined by an arithmetic of effectiveness. However, it is more likely that political calculation will dominate priorities and shares.
Journal
(1986)
vol10
no3
pages1-14
Categories
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Evaluation and Information Management
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Program Evaluation Strategies
