Evaluating Organizational Performance

Abstract

As the definition of organization has evolved, so have the approaches used to evaluate organizational performance. During the past 60 years, organizational theorists and management scholars have developed a comprehensive line of thinking with respect to organizational assessment that serves to inform and be informed by the evaluation discipline. This article examines five extant models to assess organizational performance developed by researchers in the fields of organizational theory and management including the goal model, systems model, process model, strategic constituencies model, and competing values framework. Each model is based on a specific organizational paradigm, yet no model has displaced another in terms of its applicability or superiority for assessing performance. Instead, an accretive effect can be found as each subsequent model expanded upon select attributes of previous models as conceptualizations of organization were refined. Following the examination of the extant models, a checklist approach to evaluate organizational performance is proposed that specifically incorporates evaluation logic into its framework; building on the strengths of the extant models while mitigating the more prominent limitations.