Few topics in nonprofit research and practice have received greater attention in recent years than organizational effectiveness. In spite of this intellectual interest, little consensus has emerged, either theoretically or empirically, as to what constitutes organizational effectiveness and how best to measure it. In this article, we introduce a multidimensional and integrated model of nonprofit organizational effectiveness (MIMNOE). The model captures two prominent dimensions of organizational effectiveness, management effectiveness and program effectiveness. In addition, to illustrate how this framework can be used empirically, the article proposes a method of analysis that exploits the interrelationships between the multiple dimensions in the model. MIMNOE is useful for both scholars and practitioners because it requires attention not only to program outcomes, but also equally to the factors that influence those outcomes.

The author would like to thank Sally Coleman Selden, Ann Chin Lin, and Sandra Danziger for their comments on these ideas.

Drawing upon the theories of social skill and strategic action fields (SAFs), this article presents a SAF Framework for Implementation Research. In the framework, policy implementation systems are conceptualized as multilevel SAFs that form around a public service intervention. Within this context, socially skilled actors leverage diverse sources of authority-including but not limited to political authority-to enable change or stability to a public service intervention. While the framework has underpinnings in field theory, it is able to encompass multiple theoretical perspectives, including complexity theories, organizational theories, economic theories, and theories of human behavior. Importantly, the SAF Framework allows for the integration of results relevant to both management and policy-change in implementation systems, and change in the behavior or conditions of an external target group.KEY WORDS: public policy, public management, policy implementation Policymakers and scholars have wrestled with the challenges of policy implementation for more than half a century. These challenges stem from the ambitious aspirations often embedded in public policy, the diffuse governance of intergovernmental relations and service networks, and the tough problems that land in the public arena for resolution. Taking place at the intersection of public management and public policy, implementation often involves changing systems operations and altering conditions of target groups, both of which are difficult endeavors. As prior scholars have recognized, policy implementation operates

Th e use of interorganizational relationships such as collaboration, partnerships, and alliances between public, private, and nonprofi t organizations for the delivery of human services has increased. Th is article contributes to the growing body of knowledge on collaboration by exploring one kind of interorganizational relationshipinteragency collaboration -in the fi eld of early care and education. It examines variations within interagency collaborations and their impact on management and program outcomes. Th e fi ndings show that interagency collaboration has a clear impact on management, program, and client outcomes: Specifi cally, the intensity of the collaborative relationship has a positive and statistically signifi cant impact on staff compensation, staff turnover, and school readiness. Sally Coleman Selden is an associate professor at Lynchburg College. Her current research focuses on strategic human resource management in state governments and the impact of collaboration on nonprofi t organizational effectiveness. University of South Carolina. Her research focuses on public and nonprofi t management, including human resource management, nonprofi t organizational effectiveness, and collaborative service delivery.untested assumptions concerning the impact of collaboration (Milward 1996;O ' Toole 1997 ).Th e article is divided into fi ve sections. First, we review previous research on collaboration, focusing primarily on studies that develop typologies of collaborative forms and impact studies. Second, we describe the policy context in which this project examines interagency collaboration. Th ird, we describe the nature of collaboration in early care and education and develop a set of hypotheses about the impact of interagency collaborations on management processes and program outcomes. Fourth, we introduce the data and methods used in this study. Finally, we examine the hypotheses using the data collected and discuss the implications of the fi ndings. Approaches to the Study of CollaborationA number of scholarly and practitioner communities are engaged in research about collaborative service delivery, each with its own perspective on how best to approach the topic. Research has focused on the factors associated with successful collaboration, the motives underlying the decision to collaborate, the types of collaborative models, and the outcomes of collaborative relationships (Foster-Fishman et al. 2001;Gray 1989;Mattessich and Monsey 1992;Mulroy and Shay 1998;O ' Regan and Oster 2000 ;Stone 2000). Because of the diversity of academic fi elds involved in the study of collaborative service delivery and the multiplicity of relationships, a considerable range and volume of research exists across disciplines. Th erefore, we will limit our review of the research by focusing on two areas that are directly relevant to our study. First, the review explores a few of the myriad of approaches scholars have taken to classify various forms of interorganizational relationships, with a focus on typologies and classifi cat...

This article examines the ability of frontline human service agencies to collaborate across organizational boundaries. Data come from an in-depth study of the public welfare and private welfare-to-work contractors in two Michigan counties and document significant problems that arise from the inability of these two sectors to collaborate in the provision of welfare programs. I use ethnographic methods that capture the perspectives of frontline workers themselves in order to understand how collaboration is actually thwarted. In spite of dramatically different organizational settings, frontline staff in both sectors draw on the same sources of evidence, that is, past relations, daily experiences, and client stories, when assessing the organizations with which they are mandated to collaborate. These collective beliefs create parameters within which staff interpret events and react to them. Their interpretations and reactions further reinforce the beliefs shared throughout the organization about the legitimacy, efficiency, and effectiveness of the partner organization. In this way, the social process at the front lines of the welfare system creates systemic barriers to collaboration. I conclude by considering how this analysis can help the local manager improve policy implementation and human service collaboration. Volumes have been written about the importance of increasing human service coordination, collaboration, and service integration to improve the quality and availability of social services for children and families. 1 Collaborative efforts run the gamut from executive meetings for joint planning of new community initiatives to ''one-stop'' service centers

Although the importance of the public policy environment for strategic action of nonprofit organizations has become increasingly clear, research on nonprofits is often divorced from their policy context. The purpose of this article is to present a theoretically informed framework for analyzing policy environments that can inform nonprofit research. Drawing on insights from political science, organization theory, public management, and nonprofit studies, the authors propose that the framework reflects a policy field that is an identifiable set of elements in a specific environment that directly shapes local public service provision. These elements include the structures created by institutions that deliver public programs and the ways in which state and local actors interact with and shape these structures as they work on public problems. Through a research example, the article presents the policy field framework’s analytic steps.

The topic of public service partnerships has clear substantive importance. Governments all over the world are increasing their dependence upon collaborative partnerships to delivery public services. This article reviews literature written in the crevice between the espoused benefits of collaborative service partnerships and the reality that they are difficult to create, sustain, and use to mobilize resources in ways that create positive results. According to this article, the literature exploring the collaborative public service delivery is diverse. This reflects the variation found in the field, as practitioners use an increasingly wide array of tools to work on complex, public problems. What has resulted is a disparate literature with two distinct streams of inquiry — one focusing on collaboration itself, the other on the consequences these new service arrangements have on organizations and citizens. This article reveals some fundamental issues unresolved in the ongoing scholarly inquiry.

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