Topic and Relevance
In recent years, human service organizations have made considerable efforts to develop performance measures. Encouraged by a rising pressure to improve performance and to ensure the quality of their services, most public and nonprofit providers of human services rely on some form of performance measurement today. Despite the many challenges to realize the full potential of performance measurement, only little research has been conducted on the implementation of performance measurement in organizations that provide human services directly to clients. This dissertation intends to provide a deeper understanding of implementing agencies and the behavioral responses of managers in professional organizations.