Chapter 6 Flashcards
Definition: “formal expressions of general goals that represent organizations values and purposes”
- Typically found in mission statements
- Official value statements
- Guide and motivate employee behavior
- Enhance organization legitimacy
Official Goals (Perrow 1961)
Definition: “provide specific objectives an organization seeks through actual operations and procedures”
•how an agency plans to achieve its broad mission
Operative Goals
SMART Goals - Acronym
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely
Which federal act (1993) mandated agencies publish strategic plans that include goals and performance measures?
Governmental Performance and Results Act (GPRA)
Definition: “a condition that members of an organization seek to attain”
Organizational Goal
Political scientists and economists have asserted that ____and_____ have distinctively multiple, vague, and conflicting goals
Public organizations & public policies
Many observers assert that _________ have major implications for public organizations and their management
goal complexities
The absence of _________ increases emphasis on rule adherence and hierarchical control
Performance criteria
“the state of having many ways of thinking about the same circumstance or phenomena” (Feldman, 1989)
ambiguity
- refers to the amount of interpretive leeway available in translating an organization’s mission or formal goals into directives for specific actions to accomplish the mission
- uses a “rules to law” (R/L) ratio developed by Kenneth Meier (1980) as a measure of the power of bureaucratic agencies
Directive Goal Ambiguity
- refers to the extent to which performance objectives can be precisely described and to which objective performance indicators are available
- When we have clear evidence about the results of an activity, we use the evidence to evaluate performance.
- When we lack such evidence, we often turn to inputs and work activities to evaluate the activity.
Evaluative Goal Ambiguity
- refers to ambiguity about priorities among multiple goals
- the degree of imprecision in priorities among multiple goals and performance targets, counted (a) the number of long-term strategic goals and (b) the number of annual performance targets
Priority Goal Ambiguity
The six (6) antecedents of goal ambiguity
- Type of Responsibility
- Complexity of the policy problem and work routines
- Financial “Publicness
- Competing demands for constituencies
- Managerial capacity
Ambiguity Antecedent: Have vague general mandates
Type of Responsibility
Ambiguity Antecedent: “the level of attention that an external entity (or entities) with political authority or influence devotes to the agency”
Political salience
Ambiguity Antecedent: Some agencies handle routine tasks while others carry out more complex policies
Complexity of the policy problem and work routineness
Ambiguity Antecedent: Different groups and authorities often exert multiple, conflicting influences that can make an agency’s goals more ambiguous
Competing demands from constituencies
Ambiguity Antecedent: Government agencies vary in managerial capacity to clarify organizational goals through such activities as strategic planning and performance measurement
Managerial capacity
Ambiguity Antecedent: funded by government vs funded by private means
Financial “publicness”
based on whether the program provided clear targets for levels of improvement in pursuing program goals
“target ambiguity”
refers to whether the program provided timelines for when a level of improvement would be obtained.
“Timeline ambiguity”
indicates the proportion of program goals that are expressed as objective results, as opposed to more subjective and workload evidence (such as levels of activity rather than results)
“Evaluation ambiguity”
A central challenge in goal setting and goal clarification involves the pursuit of what can be called _______, or the pursuit of_________ that effectively represent valuable, intended results and avoid dysfunctions
goal validity & good goals
The approach proposed by Yuchtam & Seashore (1867) defined effectiveness based on the ability of the organization to attract and maintain valued resources
•organizational effectiveness, [how] organization achieves its goals
•
Systems-Resource Approach
The approach proposed by Etzioni (1964) defined effectiveness as the extent to which the organization achieves its goals
- The simplest approach based on the link between stated goals and effectiveness
- Its shortcoming is that it does not consider complications. It is concerned with the output side and whether the organization achieves its goals in terms of the desired level of output.
- Does not consider goal conflict, hierarchy, goal types, and subtypes
Goal Approach
dealing with the issue of organizational effectiveness, referring to the extent to which the organization achieves its goals
Systematic Approach
- This Model focuses on the organization’s multiple stakeholders and their satisfaction with the organization
- Use of surveys to gauge satisfaction
Participant-satisfaction model
- These models determine effectiveness by looking at whether the organization’s processes function well and treat employees as a key component of effectiveness
- assesses organizational effectiveness by referring to such factors as organizational capabilities and capacities, communication and information flow, leadership style, motivation, interpersonal trust, and other internal states assumed to be desirable.
Internal Process and Human Resource Models
- Looks at internal activities and assesses effectiveness by indicators of internal health and efficiency
- organizational capabilities, capacities; communication, information flow; leadership; motivation; trust
Internal Process Approach
- concentrates on the evaluation of human and social experiences in the organization
- leadership and team processes; communication; work satisfaction; rewards and incentives; individual performance assessments; resources; support; training; engagement with the organization)
Human Resource Model
The framework proposed by Quinn & Rohrbaugh (1983)
Idea that effective organization must balance and mange four major aspects of organization performance
▪ Human Relations Model (internal focus & flexibility)
▪ Internal Process Model (internal focus & control)
▪ Rational Goal Model (external focus & control)
▪ Open-Systems Model (flexibility & external focus)
Focus on two dimensions
▪ Internal vs. External emphasis
▪ Flexibility vs. control
Competing Values Approach
•requires an organization to develop goals, measures, and initiatives for four perspectives
Financial – “return on investment, economic value added (156).”
Customer – “customer satisfaction, retention (156).”
Internal – “quality, response time, new product introductions (156).”
Learning and growth – “employee satisfaction, information system availability (156).”
Balanced Scorecard (Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton, 1996, 2000)
Kim Cameron’s models of effectiveness
Legitimacy Model
Fault Driven Model
High Performing Model
Cameron Model: defines effectiveness as the extent to which the organization engages in legitimate activity by focusing on the survival or demise among a set of organizations.
Legitimacy model
Cameron Model: considers effectiveness as the absence of faults or traits of effectiveness
Fault-driven model
Cameron Model: judges excellence in relation to other similar organizations
High-performing systems model
William Ouchi (1981) -holistic concern for employees
Theory Z (Japanese management)
W. Edwards Deming (1986) - statistical quality control; defining quality in terms of customer needs and responses
Total Quality Management (TQM)
analyze business processes systematically (cost, quality, timeliness; [inefficiency]; knowledge management
Process engineering
Theory proposed by Cyert and March (1963) found that decision makers in business firms displayed satisficing behaviors.
- Decisions are often made under conditions of “bounded rationality.
- Decision-makers engage in satisficing
Behavioral Theory of the Firm (BTF)
In BTF theory making the most satisfactory decision they can make within the limits on their ability to decide rationally
Satisficing
The “theory of attribute substitution” can explain why such surrogation occurs. Focusing on “making the metrics,” not the end goal, is a mental shortcut or heuristic.
• Decisions depend on how individuals assess the potential outcomes of a decision
Prospect Theory
In Prospect Theory refers to the tendency for performance measures to evolve and take the place of the actual goal that managers intended to pursue
surrogation
- systematically evaluates how well states manage their money, people, information, and infrastructure—four areas critical to ensuring that states’ policy decisions and practices actually deliver their intended outcomes
- produces a report card
Government Performance Project
structures of interdependence involving multiple organizations or parts thereof, where one unit is not merely the formal subordinate of the others in some hierarchical arrangement” (O’Toole, 1999)
organizational networks
Why do networks underperform?
The general instability of collaboration networks
The role of partner rivalries
Partners’ reasons for friction and withdraw
