Measuring Social Change
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Measuring Social Change

Performance and Accountability in a Complex World

Alnoor Ebrahim

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  1. 320 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Measuring Social Change

Performance and Accountability in a Complex World

Alnoor Ebrahim

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About This Book

The social sector is undergoing a major transformation. We are witnessing an explosion in efforts to deliver social change, a burgeoning impact investing industry, and an unprecedented intergenerational transfer of wealth. Yet we live in a world of rapidly rising inequality, where social sector services are unable to keep up with societal need, and governments are stretched beyond their means.

Alnoor Ebrahim addresses one of the fundamental dilemmas facing leaders as they navigate this uncertain terrain: performance measurement. How can they track performance towards worthy goals such as reducing poverty, improving public health, or advancing human rights? What results can they reasonably measure and legitimately take credit for? This book tackles three core challenges of performance faced by social enterprises and nonprofit organizations alike: what to measure, what kinds of performance systems to build, and how to align multiple demands for accountability. It lays out four different types of strategies for managers to consider—niche, integrated, emergent, and ecosystem—and details the types of performance measurement and accountability systems best suited to each. Finally, this book examines the roles of funders such as impact investors, philanthropic foundations, and international aid agencies, laying out how they can best enable meaningful performance measurement.

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Information

Publisher
Stanford Business Books
Year
2019
ISBN
9781503609211
Edition
1
Topic
Betriebswirtschaft
Subtopic
Non-Profit- & gemeinnützige Organisationen
Chapter 
1
CONCEPTUALIZING 
SOCIAL 
PERFORMANCE 
IN 
A 
COMPLEX 
WORLD
We 
will 
need 
to 
give 
up 
childish 
fantasies 
that 
we 
can 
have 
total 
guarantees 
of 
others’ 
performance. 
We 
will 
need 
to 
free 
professionals 
and 
the 
public 
service 
to 
serve 
the 
public. 
We 
will 
need 
to 
work 
towards 
more 
intelligent 
forms 
of 
accountability.
ONORA 
O’NEILL 
(2002)
IN 
A 
SERIES 
OF 
LECTURES
on 
BBC 
radio, 
the 
Cambridge 
philosopher 
Onora 
O’Neill 
offered 
a 
provocative 
take 
on 
accountability 
in 
public 
service. 
She 
argued 
that 
efforts 
to 
improve 
the 
performance 
of 
public 
service 
providers, 
be 
they 
doctors 
or 
teachers 
or 
police 
officers, 
had 
a 
dark 
side: 
they 
were 
leading 
to 
a 
compliance-driven 
culture 
focused 
on 
rule-following 
behavior 
and 
quantitative 
targets 
rather 
than 
actually 
improving 
performance 
(O’Neill 
2002). 
Her 
apprehensions 
can 
be 
extended 
to 
the 
social 
sector 
more 
broadly, 
including 
nonprofit 
orga-
nizations 
and 
social 
enterprises, 
where 
the 
mantras 
of 
“accountabil-
ity” 
and 
“impact” 
have 
been 
ascendant 
for 
over 
a 
decade. 
Yet, 
despite 
the 
proliferation 
of 
reporting 
requirements, 
measurement 
procedures, 
and 
auditing 
rituals, 
there 
is 
limited 
evidence 
that 
performance 
in 
the 
sector 
has 
substantially 
improved 
(Ebrahim 
and 
Weisband 
2007; 
Es-
peland 
and 
Stevens 
2008; 
Hwang 
and 
Powell 
2009; 
Lewis 
and 
Madon 
2003; 
Power 
1999).
What 
then 
might 
meaningful 
performance 
measurement 
based 
on 
“intelligent 
forms 
of
accountability” 
look 
like? 
The 
purpose 
of
this 

Table of contents