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PERFORMANCE, EVALUATION AND THE NHS: A CASE STUDY IN CONCEPTUAL PERPLEXITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMPLEXITY
Author(s) -
KLEIN RUDOLF
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.313
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-9299
pISSN - 0033-3298
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9299.1982.tb00490.x
Subject(s) - perplexity , ambiguity , perspective (graphical) , service (business) , knowledge management , computer science , organizational performance , management science , process management , public relations , sociology , business , political science , marketing , economics , artificial intelligence , language model , programming language
This paper adopts a comparative perspective towards the analysis of performance evaluation in the National Health Service. The NHS, it is argued, is best seen as an organization which is not unique but which ranks high on a number of dimensions: uncertainty about the relationship between inputs and outputs; heterogeneity of activities and aims; the ambiguity of the available information. These factors help to explain why performance evaluation in the NHS is both conceptually and organizationally problematic, and fragmented and professionalized in practice. By looking at the same factors in other organizations, it may be possible to start constructing a framework for examining the problems of performance evaluation in different settings.