Abstract
The field of performance management is premised on the centrality of measurement and performance information use in everyday decision making and practice. Information is managed through the use of information systems, but research shows that implementing these technological systems is not enough. This research responds to recent calls for a better understanding of performance information use and the role of dialogue among stakeholders in promoting learning and system change. Through case analysis and qualitative modeling, it proposes the concept of performance information artifacts, and the need for effective boundary spanners to promote effective learning and knowledge sharing in performance dialogue.
Highlights
In the summer of 2005, after a routine review of case practice that involved a set of child fatalities, the New York State Commissioner for the Administration for Children Services (ACS) identified several areas in child protection operations, policy, and practice that needed to be changed or strengthened to improve service delivery
In this paper we follow a case study approach (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 2003). Data for this case comes from the analysis of an in-depth case study of the ChildStat program developed at the New York City (NYC) Administration for Children Services (ACS)
The ChildStat case summary analysis, prepared by an analyst on the basis of electronic records, is a list of bulleted, one- to two-sentence explanations, of what was done on the case, what the strengths and weaknesses of the case were, whether the caseworker captured the ‘bigger picture’ of what was happening with this child and family, and suggestions for things that could have been done differently
Summary
In the summer of 2005, after a routine review of case practice that involved a set of child fatalities, the New York State Commissioner for the Administration for Children Services (ACS) identified several areas in child protection operations, policy, and practice that needed to be changed or strengthened to improve service delivery. Three characteristics make boundary objects more effective for sharing knowledge across boundaries (Carlile, 2002): a) boundary objects must be “representative” of the language and syntax of the different communities, b) “concrete” enough to depict effectively the consequences of interdependencies among the communities’ work, and c) “transformable” to help participants to recreate and transform their own practices in light of the interdependencies In this way, performance information artifacts that are not inclusive of a diversity of perspectives or that are ineffective in showing interdependencies of work among different actors in the system might not be effective aids to facilitate dialogue, and only facilitate presenting different positions of actors, and may lead to blocked communication instead of increased understanding of the different perspectives to the problem. This characterization suggests emergent qualities of the use of boundary objects
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