Contracting

Management Practice

Since its founding, the Mack Center has worked through its research and training programs to improve management practice in the human services. Each of the following areas of inquiry identifies implications for management practice:

Responding to county human service agencies’ critical information needs during the current COVID-19 pandemic on human service organizations. Exploring nonprofit and public sector relationships in the context of human service contracting. Identifying the response to the Great Recession by county human service agencies. Understanding the organizational and...

Public/Nonprofit Contracting

Our studies of nonprofit-county contracting have emphasized the role of human service managers in fostering interorganizational coordination through interpersonal exchange. Two studies have examined how public and nonprofit managers resolve contract-based organizational tensions while serving clients effectively and meeting public accountability requirements.

The first study, drawing on dyadic case studies of three county agencies and contracted nonprofit partners, highlighted the collaborative nature of human service contracting amidst technical...

Perspectives of Public and Nonprofit Managers on Communications in Human Services Contracting

Carnochan, S.
McBeath, B.
Chuang, E.
Austin, Michael J.
2018

Government contracts and grants constitute the largest funding source for the majority of nonprofit organizations. Contracts for complex services, such as those involved in delivering human services, pose substantial challenges for public and nonprofit managers. In this context, concerns have been raised about contract management capacity, including challenges related to proposal and contract development, implementation, and performance reporting, as well as the impact of contract monitoring tools on contractor performance. Relatively few studies have provided a cross-sectoral...

Service Coordination by Public Sector Managers in a Human Service Contracting Environment.

McBeath, B.
Chuang, E.
Carnochan, S.
Austin, Michael J.
Stuart, M.
2018

Despite emerging evidence of contracting for evidence-based practices (EBP), little research has studied how managers lead contract-based human service delivery. A 2015 survey of 193 managers from five San Francisco Bay Area county human service departments examined the relationship between contract-based service coordination (i.e., structuring cross-sector services, coordinating client referrals and eligibility, overseeing EBP implementation) and the predictors of managerial role, involvement, and boundary spanning. Multivariate regression results suggested that county managers...

Performance Measurement Challenges in Nonprofit Human Service Organizations

Carnochan, S.
Samples, M.
Myers, M.
Austin, M.J.
2013

This qualitative study examines the experiences of four nonprofit human service organizations engaging in performance measurement processes to satisfy accountability requirements and increase organizational and program effectiveness. Nonprofits are increasingly required to respond to performance measurement mandates issuing from multiple sources. However, many of the recommended strategies have been developed in the for-profit and public sectors, and are less appropriate or feasible for nonprofit organizations. Three central findings emerged from interviews, focus groups, and review of...