The Proverbs of Evaluation: Perspectives from CSA's Experience

Abstract

In 1946, Herbert Simon published an article in Public Administration Review entitled Proverbs of Administration.' noted that proverbs almost always can be arrayed in mutually contradictory pairs. One example was Look before you leap! as contrasted with He who hesitates is lost. Similar examples spring readily to Absence makes the heart grow fonder is contradicted by of sight, out of mind. Similarly, Money is the root of all evil is offset by A heavy purse makes a light heart. Finally, A good conscience is a continual feast confronts the more cynical view that Conscience is that small voice which warns us that someone may be looking. Simon then pointed out that the field of administration is dominated by certain principles or proverbs. For each of these, however, one can conjure up a set of circumstances which either undermine or at least constrain severely the application of the principle. Let us take just two of these principles. One asserts that administrative efficiency depends on unity of command. Simon describes a situation in which an accountant in a school department is subordinate to an educator. If unity of is observed slavishly, the accountant cannot take technical direction from the finance department. Evidently some duality of command is called for. Where two authoritative commands conflict, a subordinate should know which individual in the hierarchy he or she is expected to follow. However, on a day to day basis, employees in an organization must themselves reconcile conflicting commands from many different authoritative sources.2 The second principle is that greater efficiency is achieved with a more limited span of control. Sometimes a ratio of six or seven subordinates per supervisor is