The Impact of Devolution on Organizational Effectiveness: An Exploratory Case Study of Faith-Based Child Care

Abstract

Although the foundations of President Bush’s faith-based initiative could be traced back at least to Colonial times, the re-packaging of this idea has raised concerns about the role of the federal government in the affairs of faith based organizations, the professionalization of social services, rent seeking, and the crowding out of private funding. This paper aims to examine the local implications of decentralizing the provision of social services in Lee County, Florida. More specifically, we will identify how devolution has affected the organizational effectiveness of faith-based organizations in the day care sector. For this paper, organizational effectiveness was defined in terms of goal setting, efficient use of resources, and reputation. This initial exploratory study suggests that any devolutionary policy that aims to aggressively include faith-based organizations in the provision of social services will face the challenge of weak information flow mechanisms within the industry.