Search Results for Management - Narrowed by: Stecher, Brian M.

Toward a culture of consequences [electronic resource] : performance-based accountability systems for public services : executive summary / Brian M. Stecher [and others].

2024-05-17T07:13:18Z

by Stecher, Brian M.
Call Number 352.35 22
Publication Date 2010
Summary Performance-based accountability systems (PBASs), which link incentives to measured performance as a means of improving services to the public, have gained popularity. While PBASs can vary widely across sectors, they share three main components: goals, incentives, and measures. Research suggests that PBASs influence provider behaviors, but little is known about PBAS effectiveness at achieving their performance goals or about government and agency experiences. This document summarizes a study that examined nine PBASs in five sectors: child care, education, health care, public health emergency preparedness, and transportation. In the right circumstances, a PBAS can be an effective strategy for improving service delivery. Optimum circumstances include having a widely shared goal, unambiguous observable measures, meaningful incentives for those with control over the relevant inputs and processes, few competing interests, and adequate resources to design, implement, and operate the PBAS. However, these conditions are rarely fully realized, so it is difficult to design and implement PBASs that are uniformly effective. PBASs represent a promising policy option for improving the quality of service-delivery activities in many contexts. The evidence supports continued experimentation with and adoption of this approach in appropriate circumstances. Even so, PBAS design and its prospects for success depend on the context in which it will operate. Also, ongoing system evaluation and monitoring are integral components of a PBAS; they inform refinements that improve system functioning over time.
Format: Electronic Resources
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Analyzing the operation of performance-based accountability systems for public services [electronic resource] / Frank Camm, Brian M. Stecher.

2024-05-17T07:13:18Z

by Camm, Frank A., 1949-
Call Number 352.66 22
Publication Date 2010
Summary Empirical evidence of the effects of performance-based public management is scarce. This report describes a framework used to organize available empirical information on one form of performance-based management, a performance-based accountability system (PBAS). Such a system identifies individuals or organizations that must change their behavior for the performance of an activity to improve, chooses an implicit or explicit incentive structure to motivate these organizations or individuals to change, and then chooses performance measures tailored to inform the incentive structure appropriately. The study focused on systems in the child-care, education, health-care, public health emergency preparedness, and transportation sectors, mainly in the United States. Analysts could use this framework to seek empirical information in other sectors and other parts of the world. Additional empirical information could help refine existing PBASs and, more broadly, improve decisions on where to initiate new PBASs, how to implement them, and then how to design, manage, and refine them over time.
Format: Electronic Resources
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Toward a culture of consequences [electronic resource] : performance-based accountability systems for public services / Brian M. Stecher [and others].

2024-05-17T07:13:18Z

by Stecher, Brian M.
Call Number 352.35 22
Publication Date 2010
Summary Performance-based accountability systems (PBASs), which link incentives to measured performance as a means of improving services to the public, have gained popularity. While PBASs can vary widely across sectors, they share three main components: goals, incentives, and measures. Research suggests that PBASs influence provider behaviors, but little is known about PBAS effectiveness at achieving performance goals or about government and agency experiences. This study examines nine PBASs that are drawn from five sectors: child care, education, health care, public health emergency preparedness, and transportation. In the right circumstances, a PBAS can be an effective strategy for improving service delivery. Optimum circumstances include having a widely shared goal, unambiguous observable measures, meaningful incentives for those with control over the relevant inputs and processes, few competing interests, and adequate resources to design, implement, and operate the PBAS. However, these conditions are rarely fully realized, so it is difficult to design and implement PBASs that are uniformly effective. PBASs represent a promising policy option for improving the quality of service-delivery activities in many contexts. The evidence supports continued experimentation with and adoption of this approach in appropriate circumstances. Even so, PBAS design and its prospects for success depend on the context in which the system will operate. Also, ongoing system evaluation and monitoring are integral components of a PBAS; they inform refinements that improve system functioning over time.
Format: Electronic Resources
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Organizational improvement and accountability : lessons for education from other sectors / Brian Stecher and Sheila Nataraj Kirby, editors ; prepared for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

2024-05-17T07:13:18Z

by Stecher, Brian M.
Call Number 379.158 22
Publication Date 2004
Summary The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is a performance-based accountability system built around student test results. The accountability system comprises explicit educational goals, assessments for measuring the attainment of goals and judging success, and consequences (rewards or sanctions). But the mechanisms through which the system is intended to work are not well understood. The authors examined five accountability models: two from the manufacturing sector (the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Program and the Toyota Production System (TPS)), a performance incentive model used in the evaluation of job training programs for the poor, accountability in the legal sector, accountability in health care as shown by clinical practice guidelines, use of statistical risk-adjustment methods, and the public reporting of health performance measures. Although education faces unique challenges, the authors conclude that educators can learn much from these other sectors. The Baldrige, TPS, and the clinical practice guidelines suggest the importance of focused institutional self-assessment, understanding school and district operations as a production process, being able to develop and apply a knowledge base about effective practice, and empowering participants in the process to contribute to improvement efforts. The job training and risk-adjustment models and the legal and health care accountability models provide specific guidance on how to enhance system-wide accountability in education by broadening performance measures; making sure performance goals are fair to all students and schools; developing standards of practice in promising areas; and encouraging professional accountability.
Format: Electronic Resources
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