Suchergebnisse

Examining the linkage between service provision and client outcomes is important in performance-based human service environments. Since most performance initiatives reward agencies for improving client outcomes rather than providing specific services, managers may have incentives to streamline workers' efforts and reduce resources devoted to services considered nonessential. This article uses data from a performance-based child welfare initiative to examine the relationship between child permanency outcomes, the services provided by caseworkers, and the environment surrounding frontline service provision. Findings indicate that greater service efforts are required to reunify children with parents than to reach other outcomes, including adoption and placement with relatives. They also indicate that formal organizational responses to performance environments affect client outcomes partially through the services provided by frontline workers. These findings suggest that managers should attend to the interplay between the organizational environment, service technology, and client outcomes when designing performance-based systems in the human service sector. Adapted from the source document.

Objective : This study examines in-agency and out-of-agency service provision to a sample of 243 foster children and their families. Method : Data come from a longitudinal study of 243 foster children and families served by non-profit agencies that were operating under either a performance-based, managed care purchase-of-service contract or a fee-for-service reimbursement mechanism. Results : Children and families served by agencies with performance-based, managed care contracts receive fewer of three of five types of services than those served by agencies reimbursed through fee-for-service contracts. Conclusions : Results suggest that performance-based, managed care contracting is related to suppressed service provision and may lead to service disparities between foster children and families served under different market environments.