Assessing organizational effectiveness in human service organizations: An empirical review of conceptualization and determinants

This article reviews 24 empirical studies that examined the relationship between intraorganizational factors and effectiveness in human service organizations. Special attention has been paid to identify organizational variables critical to effectiveness, clarify levels of effectiveness, and demonstrate diverse criteria of effectiveness. The review suggests that nonmaterial factors such as goal congruence, participation in decision-making, culture, climate and management strategy predict effectiveness. However, generalization seems hasty due to different operationalization of organizational characteristics, different samples and diverse criteria of effectiveness. Replication from diverse samples will corroborate these findings. Several implications and future directions are also discussed.