How good are we at doing good?

This book is about managing organizations that exist in order to make a difference to lives and societies. It is about the challenges of running projects, activities and collaborations in pursuit of high aspirations.

It is about those situations where it may be hard to know how much good the organization is really doing, and how well it is run. In these cases, how can those responsible find better ways of doing things and how can they give a meaningful account of their stewardship of resources?

The book is in three parts. The first two to three chapters set the scene for the research – locating the issues in public policy developments and the literature on measurement. The next four chapters provide the heart of the book by presenting original research on eight different methods of performance measurement and/or performance improvement. Some of these are specific tools (e.g. ISO 9000, the Excellence Model), others are broader approaches (outcome measurement, benchmarking). The last two chapters draw the discussion together with an emphasis on the implications for managers and policy-makers.

In particular, this book considers one solution that has been urged for more than a decade – becoming more business-like, by adopting measurement and other modern management practices. It examines what happens when this is done.

Why social enterprises?

There has never been a satisfactory collective term for the independent agencies, campaigns, foundations, self- help federations, semi-detached public bodies and socially-oriented businesses through which individuals, groups and societies have shared their concerns, provided services, voiced dissent and pursued vocations. This ‘loose and baggy monster’ (Kendall and Knapp 1995) has grown rapidly in size, significance and sophistication over the last decade. All the major social changes and challenges of our time – Aids, the environment, an ageing population, urban decay, drugs and crime, the new information technologies, globalization – have seen the emergence of new initiatives and new forms of social action. And, the standing of social enterprises has increased. Often, they have what governments and corporations seek – credibility, expertise, public support and engagement.

Performance measurement has become a central concern in public management, public administration and public policy, with issues around ‘benchmarking’, ‘quality’ and ‘the audit society’ all attracting intense practitioner and academic interest.

Managing and Measuring Social Enterprises…

Explores how the performance agenda has impacted on public policy and management. The author examines what has actually happened when performance improvement techniques originating in the private sector has been applied in public and non profit organizations.

Research aims

In the words of the author the investigations that grew into this book began as an exploratory study of the issues raised by the spread into social enterprises of the ideas and methods associated with performance measurement and improvement. It therefore aimed to be descriptive and interpretive: to document how and why new methods were being used, and to report the sort of challenges and benefits that the managers and staff of social enterprises associated with them. To this extent, the enquiries started relatively ‘open’, following a grounded theory approach.

Some major sections of the book offer a review of recent developments in the theory of performance management and the extensive research on it in both private and public contexts in the last decade. It plays an important role in the book by introducing several key concepts and recurring themes – such as the tensions that inevitably arise between the different meanings that performance has within institutional, managerial and professional domains.

Managing without managerialism

One final implication from the case studies seems so clear and so important, it can also serve as a conclusion. Where the various methods were used most successfully they were ‘translated’ in the course of their introduction into terms that were concrete and meaningful for those involved. They provided occasions where a range of people in the organization could discuss the methods, take ownership of them, and then play a part in relating them to the specific circumstances they faced. So the performance agenda, like all other important aspects of management, has to be pursued with and through people – or else it falters.

Basically, communication and the people side of management remain fundamental.  By providing well grounded and theoretically informed guidance to the problem of performance management outside of the private sector, Managing and Measuring Social Enterprises is good reading for those interested in public and social enterprises.     q
 

Reviewed by Ambika Sharma