Using Organizational Report Cards

Abstract

In recent years, organizational report cards have proliferated, especially in the fields of education and health. They have many purposes but two are particularly important: in economic terms, they help to correct “information asymmetries ” between organizations that provide services and outsiders who purchase or appraise such services; in political terms, they help to make service delivery organizations more “accountable ” to public officials and to citizens. Several recent trends have encouraged the development of organizational report cards. First, the “privatization ” of certain services makes it all the more important to have trustworthy measures of the performance of nonprofit and for-profit organizations that deliver services on behalf of the government. Second, greater sensitivity to budget deficits encourages public officials to demand good “value for money ” as they seek to control costs without diminishing the quality of public services. Third, the expansion of consumer choice in such realms as education and health care has generated greater consumer interest in comparative performance data. Fourth, both citizens and public officials are better educated and thus better equipped to use and understand performance data. Fifth, the growing popularity of the Internet has produced an ideal forum for easy access to data on organizational performance.

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