Measurement of Federal Agency’s Performance: Using the Case of Thirteen Agencies under Department of Agriculture Open Access
Wang, Xuetao (Spring 2019)
Published
Abstract
How to evaluate the performance of federal agencies? This question has been investigated by extensive literature. However, these literatures had three types of problems. First, some of existing literature tried to use a universal set of criteria to evaluate the agency’s performance but ignored the distinctive nature of each agency. Second, most literature used survey methods to gauge the opinion of employees as indicators of the agency’s performance. This method relied on the opinion of employees, which was not always reliable. Third, it was hard to balance the theoretical argument and empirical analysis. Most studies only emphasized on one aspect but was relatively weak on the other aspect. This study proposed two models to deal with the problem. The graph algebra model could help us understand what variables will influence the performance of agencies and provide a theoretical argument explaining how those variables contribute to the agencies’ performance. The interaction variable regression model paved the way to compare the performance of agencies with respect to utilizing each resources variable and overcoming the negative constraints. The agencies’ performance would be decided by how well it utilizes their resources and overcomes the negative constraints to maximize their output. The main contribution of this study was: 1. proposed a new performance evaluating method; 2. identified the factors which might influence the performance of the agency and offered theoretical argument for each variable; 3. utilized a model to compare the performance across agencies. The study found out that agency size and employees’ working experience could help explain the agency’s performance, and agencies have efficiency difference in utilizing the budgetary resources.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction………………………………………………………………………1
Chapter 2: Unit of Analysis………………………………………………………………….8
Chapter 3: Theory: The Conceptualization and Operationalization of Performance ….………9
Chapter 4: Measuring Independent Variable: Budgetary Resources, Human Resources, Negative Constraints …………12
Chapter 5: Measuring the Dependent Variable: The Output ………….…………………....15
Chapter 6: Control Variables ……………………………………………………………….16
Chapter 7: Methods ………………………………………………………………………....17
Chapter 8: Empirical Analysis ………………………………………………………….…..21
Chapter 9: Conclusion …………………………………………………………………........27
Chapter 10: References ……………………………………………………………………..33
Chapter 11: Appendix I ……………………………………………………………………..38
Chapter 12: Appendix II …………………………………………………………………….47
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