Performance-based Accountability: Lessons from a Nonprofit Human Services Agency

Performance-based Accountability: Lessons from a Nonprofit Human Services Agency

Nonprofit agencies are required to meet diverse performance expectations from multiple stakeholders, each having specialized notions of accountability. The pressure for performance accountability prompts organizational change, development, and puts emphasis on the evaluation of achievements. This article analyzes the results of organizational change in a nonprofit human service agency to address the quandaries of nonprofit performance accountability. The results indicate that the various change interventions generally improved agency performance. However, the sustainability of improved performance is thwarted by complex accountability relationships which tend to create tension. It is claimed that over-reliance on any one set of accountability relationship leaves other sets of accountability relationships vulnerable to negative organizational outcomes.

Nonprofit agencies are required to meet diverse performance expectations from multiple stakeholders, each having specialized notions of accountability. The pressure for performance accountability prompts organizational change, development, and puts emphasis on the evaluation of achievements. This article analyzes the results of organizational change in a nonprofit human service agency to address the quandaries of nonprofit performance accountability. The results indicate that the various change interventions generally improved agency performance. However, the sustainability of improved performance is thwarted by complex accountability relationships which tend to create tension. It is claimed that over-reliance on any one set of accountability relationship leaves other sets of accountability relationships vulnerable to negative organizational outcomes.