Assessing Organizational Performance: Exploring Differences Between Internal and External Measures

ABSTRACT

Differences in judgments of public service performance across stakeholder groups have often been noted, but have rarely been tested. We measure the extent of these differences between and within internal and external stakeholders. The evidence shows that internal groups usually overestimate the performance of their organizations. We then develop and test a model of inter-organizational variations in the extent of this overestimation. The statistical results show that performance overestimation is more likely in small organizations with geographically dispersed clients, and in organizations that adopt fashionable management practices that are associated with higher institutional legitimacy.     

Shaping Public Corporation Leadership in a Turbulent Environment

This article explores how public corporation leadership copes with a turbulent environment using political, managerial, and individual leadership elements. It is an in‐depth case study of Lee Ji‐Song, who effectively managed the politically and managerially challenging environment that resulted from the merger of two large public corporations into the Korea Land and Housing Corporation. Lee, an engineer, manager, and chief executive of a major construction company, took advantage of his political, managerial, and individual leadership capital to cope with political challenges from lawmakers and with managerial challenges such as postmerger integration management, organizational stabilization, and financial improvement. The authors suggest that an effective public corporation leader must be a skillful politician and businessperson, as public corporations often operate in an environment in which public and private values interact.     

Advancing E‐Government at the Grassroots: Tortoise or Hare?

American grassroots governments have rushed to join the e-government revolution. Although there is a growing body of e-government literature, little of it is empirical. Using data from two nationwide surveys, we conduct a longitudinal examination of local government adoption of e-government, Web site sophistication, the perceived impacts of e-government, and barriers to the adoption and sophistication of e-government. We also discuss correlates of e-government adoption and sophistication with selected institutional factors. We find that e-government adoption at the grassroots is progressing rapidly (if measured solely by deployment of Web sites). However, the movement toward integrated and transactional e-government is progressing much more slowly. Continuing research, particularly longitudinal study, is needed to monitor the evolution of e-government among U.S. local governments, especially to keep pace with the practice and to ascertain the actual impacts of e-government.     

Treatment Fidelity in Sex Offender Programming: Assessing Delivery across Community Providers

In an effort to focus on treatment fidelity in the sex offender field, this study evaluated the treatment delivery of ten clinicians who provided treatment to sex offenders under community supervision. Data collection and analysis involved a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Results revealed that treatment providers varied in their use of empirically-supported treatment techniques, their participation in the community containment approach, and their adherence to the treatment contract. These findings provide support for the continued study of treatment fidelity in the corrections literature. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

Voting Counts: Participation in the Measurement of Democracy

The measures of democracy commonly used in empirical research suffer notable limitations, primarily the exclusion of participation. As a result, quantitative studies may undervalue the effect of democracy on important social outcomes or misinterpret the aspect of democracy responsible for that effect. We respond by introducing and validating two variants of a new indicator, the Participation Enhanced Polity Score (PEPS), which augments institutional factors with the breadth of citizen participation. We demonstrate, using statistical evidence on democratic persistence, basic needs fulfillment, and gender equality, that no measure of democracy can be considered an accurate representation of its basic character without directly including participation as a core component. Bruce E. Moon is professor of international relations at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He is the author ofThe Political Economy of Basic Human Needs (Cornell University Press. 1991) and two editions ofThe Dilemmas of International Trade (Westview Press, 1996, 2000). Jennifer Harvey Birdsall is a researcher for a NGO in Geneva, Switzerland. She received her B.A. in international relations and economics from Lehigh University and her M.S. in global affairs from Rutgers University-Newark. Sylvia Ciesluk is pursuing an M.A. at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. She received her B.S. in economics from Lehigh University. Lauren M. Garlett is a geography teacher at Bellamy Middle School in Chicopee, Massachusetts. She received both her B.A in international relations and her M.Ed. in secondary education from Lehigh University. Joshua J. Hermias is associate director of the Global Young Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C. He received his B.A. in economics from Lehigh University and his M.A. in international development from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, England. Elizabeth Mendenhall is pursuing a Masters in International Affairs (MIA) in economic and political development at Columbia University. She received a B.A. in international relations at Lehigh University. Patrick D. Schmid is a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at Lehigh University. He received both his B.S. and M.S. in computer science from Lehigh University. Wai Hong Wong is a research associate at FactSet Research Systems. He received his B.A. in international relations and economics at Lehigh University. We are grateful for the helpful suggestions of Frank Davis, Bill Dixon, Chaim Kaufmann, Rajan Menon, Pamela Paxton, Larry Taylor, and the anonymous reviewers.     

Public entrepreneurship and organizational performance in Asia: Do entreprneurial leadership,ethical climate and Confucian values matter in Korea and China

This is an empirical study on the effects of Confucian values and entrepreneurial leadership on public entrepreneurship and organisational performance in Asia based on data collected from China and South Korea. This study focuses on the differences in the effects of Confucian values, entrepreneurial leadership, and ethical climate on public entrepreneurship and organisational performance between government agencies in South Korea and China. Contrary to the conventional Western perspective, this study shows that Confucian values are not necessarily negatively associated with public entrepreneurship and organisational performance. Entrepreneurial leadership and public entrepreneurship (as a mediating variable) appear to be significant factors to organisational performance. The similarities and differences between China and South Korea are discussed.     

Forged seal detection based on the seal overlay metric

This paper describes a method for verifying the authenticity of a seal impression imprinted on a document based on the seal overlay metric, which refers to the ratio of an effective seal impression pattern and the noise in the neighborhood of the reference impression region. A reference seal pattern is obtained by taking the average of a number of high-quality impressions of a genuine seal. A target seal impression to be examined, often on paper with some background texts and lines, is segmented out from the background by an adaptive threshold applied to the histogram of color components. The segmented target seal impression is then spatially aligned with the reference by maximizing the count of matching pixels. Then the seal overlay metric is computed for the reference and the target. If the overlay metric of a target seal is below a predetermined limit for the similarity to the genuine, then the target is classified as a forged seal. To further reduce the misclassification rate, the seal overlay metric is adjusted by the filling rate, which reflects the quality of inked pattern of the target seal. Experiment results demonstrate that the proposed method can detect elaborate seal impressions created by advanced forgery techniques such as lithography and computer-aided manufacturing.     

Assessing the correctional orientation of corrections officers in South Korea

The correctional goal in South Korea has recently changed from the straightforward punishment of inmates to rehabilitation. Currently, emphases are being placed on education, counseling, and other treatment programs. These changes have consequently begun to also change the corrections officers' roles from a purely custodial role to a human service role, in which officers are expected to manage rehabilitation and treatment programs. Despite these changes, few studies have examined the attitudes of corrections officers toward rehabilitation programming. This is an important dimension to examine in rehabilitation programming, as corrections officers play a major role in the delivery of institutional programs. This study examines the attitudes of South Korean corrections officers toward rehabilitation programs. Approximately 430 corrections officers were sampled. Results show that correctional attitudes are largely influenced by not only officers' own motivations for joining corrections but also by institutional factors such as job stress. Policy implications are discussed.     

New Governance in Australian Schools: A Place for Business Social Responsibility?

Many public policy areas are being transformed as traditional government roles and relationships with other actors are changing. This article reports on business not-for-profit support for Australian secondary schools revealing substantial contributions directed at core educational and schoolwork interface activities. The article explores the nature of these supports, the means by which the relationships between schools and businesses emerge, the motivation of business and broader issues arising from the involvement of business in this and other areas of public policy.