Bad Translation or Double Standards? Productivity and Accountability Across the Private, Public and Voluntary Sectors

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Bad Translation or Double Standards? Productivity and Accountability Across the Private, Public and Voluntary Sectors

In: The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress 2002: Towards a Social Understanding of Productivity

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Janice Stein (Belzberg Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto)

Abstract

In this chapter by Janice Stein warns about the dangers of adopting a narrow conception of productivity and efficiency. Building on her analysis in The Cult of Efficiency, she argues that the language of efficiency, understood narrowly as cost-effectiveness, confronts distinctive problems when transferred from the private sector to the public and voluntary sectors. Determining the efficiency or productivity of a public service requires a measurement of the value or utility generated by the service. However, such measurements are much more difficult than in the private sector, where the feedback provided by the market provides as continuous measure of value. Stein contends that the collapse of the language of efficiency into mere cost-containment has ironically undermined the effectiveness and productivity of the public and voluntary sectors. She illustrates the perverse results along three dimensions: the inability to provide for unexpected contingencies; cuts in investment in research and development; and the problems in maintaining of full accountability.

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This chapter was published in: Andrew Sharpe, Executive Director & France St-Hilaire, Vice-President , Research & Keith Banting, Director (ed.) The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress 2002: Towards a Social Understanding of Productivity, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, pages , 2002.

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Handle: RePEc:sls:repsls:v:2:y:2002:js

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Keywords: Volunteering; Volunteer; Voluntary; Voluntary Sector; Public Sector; Public Enterprises; Productivity; Efficiency; Accountability; Redundancy; Satisfaction; Hospitals; Healthcare; Health Care; Public Services; Research; Development; Innovation; Responsibility; Donors; Trust; Commitment; Social Capital;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs
L33 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Boundaries of Public and Private Enterprise; Privatization; Contracting Out
L21 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Business Objectives of the Firm
J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

NEP-ALL-2004-02-15 (All new papers)
NEP-EDU-2004-02-15 (Education)

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