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ORGANIZATIONAL
ASSESSMENT AND
IMPROVEMENT IN
THE PUBLIC SECTOR
American Society for Public Administration
Book Series on Public Administration & Public Policy
Editor-in-Chief
Evan M. Berman, Ph.D.
National Chengchi University, Taiwan

Mission: Throughout its history, ASPA has sought to be true to its founding prin-
ciples of promoting scholarship and professionalism within the public service. The
ASPA Book Series on Public Administration and Public Policy publishes books that
increase national and international interest for public administration and which dis-
cuss practical or cutting edge topics in engaging ways of interest to practitioners,
policy-makers, and those concerned with bringing scholarship to the practice of pub-
lic administration.
Organizational Assessment and Improvement in the Public Sector,
Kathleen M. Immordino
Major League Winners: Using Sports and Cultural Centers as Tools
for Economic Development, Mark S. Rosentraub
The Formula for Economic Growth on Main Street America, Gerald L. Gordon
The New Face of Government: How Public Managers Are Forging a New
Approach to Governance, David E. McNabb
The Facilitative Leader in City Hall: Reexamining the Scope
and Contributions, James H. Svara
ORGANIZATIONAL
ASSESSMENT AND
IMPROVEMENT IN
THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data
Immordino, Kathleen M.
Organizational assessment and improvement in the public sector / Kathleen M.
Immordino.
p. cm. (American Society for Public Administration book series on public
administration & public policy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4200-8420-7 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Organizational effectiveness United States Evaluation. 2. Administrative
agencies United States Management Evaluation. I. Title.
JK421.I52 2010
352.3’5 dc22 2009028181
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at

and the CRC Press Web site at

v
Contents
Prologue xiii
Foreword xvii
Acknowledgments xxi
About the Author xxiii
1 Organizational Assessment and the Public Sector 1
e Demand for Effectiveness and Efficiency 3
Organizational Assessment 6
What Is Organizational Assessment? 7
Assessment and Organizational Development 10
How Does Assessment Work? 11
Stage 1: Understanding the Current State of the Organization 13
Information Collection and Exchange 14

Communication Process 2: Information Collection and
Exchange 35
e Importance of People in the Information Collection
Process 36
Communication Process 3: Negotiation and
Consensus-Building 39
Communication Process 4: Communicating Assessment
Outcomes 41
Communication as a Subject of Assessment 44
Summary 45
Notes 45
3 Applying Assessment Practices in the Public Sector 47
Current State of Assessment in Government and How It Has
Developed over Time 50
Internal and External Audit Functions 52
Performance Measurement 52
e Government Performance and Results Act 54
Performance Assessment Rating Tool 55
Balanced Scorecard 56
Structured Self-Assessment Models 58
Baldrige National Quality Award and Criteria for Performance
Excellence 58
Adapting the Baldrige Award Program 62
Baldrige-Based State Award Programs 63
Baldrige-Based Federal Award Programs 64
e President’s Quality Award 65
Adapting Existing Assessment Processes for the Public Sector
Assessment 66
Customers and Constituents: A Lesson in Semantics 67
Examining Results and Outcomes 68

Strategic Planning Elements 88
Strategic Plan Development 88
Implementing the Strategic Plan 89
Category 5: Measurement and Analysis 90
Dashboards 91
Measurement and Analysis Elements 92
Information 92
Performance Measurement 93
Benchmarking 93
Category 6: Programs and Processes 93
Programs and Processes 95
Core Programs, Services, and Processes 95
Administrative Support Processes 96
viii ◾ Contents
Category 7: Results 96
Results 97
Performance Measures and Results 97
Assessment: Applying the Information Learned 98
Stage 1 98
Stage 2 98
Stage 3 100
Stage 4 100
Notes 100
5 Implementing a Self-Assessment Program 101
Step 1: Preparing for an Assessment 102
Determining Readiness for Assessment 103
Leadership Support 103
Workforce Climate 104
Timing and Agency Priorities 105
Planning the Implementation 106

Step 3: Following rough on Outcomes 122
Identify Steps for Further Action 123
Follow-Up Interviews 123
Plan to Repeat the Process 123
Keys to Success 123
Make Use of Process Experts 123
Share and Educate 124
Summary 124
Notes 125
6 Assessment, Improvement, and the Process of Organizational
Change 127
Change Efforts in the Public Sector 129
Identifying Barriers to Change 130
Individual Resistance to Change 130
Seeing Agencies as Systems 130
External Drivers of Change in Government 131
Change in Administration 131
New Mandates 132
External or Constituent Advocacy 132
Crises and Emergencies 132
e Process of Organizational Change 133
Understanding the Scope of Change 135
Organizational Learning and Personal Learning: Creating an Internal
Case for Change 139
e Role of Organizational and Personal Learning in
Communicating the Need for Change 142
Creating an External Case for Change: Constituent Involvement 143
Using Assessment Outcomes to Implement Improvement 145
Summary 146
Notes 147

Organizational Purpose 181
Structure 182
Demographics 182
Human Factors 182
Category 1: Leadership 182
Leadership Structure and Practices 182
Ethical Leadership 183
Category 2: Constituents 183
Identifying Constituents 183
Assessing Constituent Needs, Expectations, and
Satisfaction 183
Building Constituent Relationships 184
Category 3: Workforce Focus 184
Workforce Planning 184
Performance Assessment and Recognition 185
Learning and Professional Development 185
Workplace Climate 185
Operational Factors 186
Category 4: Strategic Planning 186
Contents ◾ xi
Strategic Plan Development 186
Implementing the Strategic Plan 187
Category 5: Measurement and Analysis 187
Information 187
Performance Measurement 187
Benchmarking 188
Category 6: Programs and Processes 188
Core Programs, Services, and Processes 188
Administrative Support Processes 188
Category 7: Results 189

xiii
Prologue
What do we mean when we talk about assessment and improvement in public sec-
tor organizations? Simply put, assessment and improvement are processes through
which a government agency—at the federal, state, or local level—can systematically
examine its operation and review its performance to determine current strengths
and opportunities for improvement and then can apply the information gained
to make positive changes. An assessment process, as described in this book, is a
structured method of collecting and evaluating information about those areas of
an agency’s operation that are most closely associated with organizational excel-
lence. e knowledge gained during the assessment is used to determine the relative
priorities of the suggested opportunities for improvement from which the agency
can initiate improvement efforts. Assessment is often referred to as self-assessment,
because it advocates the involvement of employees as the “consultants” who collect
the information and assess the current state of the organization.
e process of assessment recognizes that the effectiveness of a government
agency’s operations depends on many different factors and the relationships between
those factors. e ability to effectively accomplish the mission of any agency relies
on the organization’s leaders, the staff members, and the workforce climate, on the
ability to plan, on the use of measurement and information, on the programs and
processes that carry out the core functions and the support functions, and on the
constituents and beneficiaries for whom they provide these services. Each of these
categories makes a vital contribution.
Why is interest in assessment increasing in the public sector? e answer may
lie in two words: responsibility and capability. Public sector organizations have
an extremely broad scope of responsibility. ey provide services for individuals,
groups, large and small jurisdictions, and society at large. ey are responsible, in
many ways, for the services that enable our society to function. e services pro-
vided by government agencies impact people’s lives every day and cover a breadth
of responsibility unmatched in any another sector. ese responsibilities range from

is should provide an incentive to be proactive in examining our organizations
and initiating improvements.
Many government organizations are actively engaged in quality improvement
and assessment processes. e states of Utah and New Mexico actively utilize the
balanced scorecard process developed at Harvard University. ousands of govern-
ment agencies at all levels collect and analyze performance data and receive strong
support for their efforts from associations such as the American Society for Public
Administration, the Association of Government Accountants, the National Center
for Public Productivity at Rutgers University, and the International City/County
Management Association.
e year 2007 marked a very exciting time for assessment in government, as
the first two public sector winners of the prestigious Baldrige National Quality
Award were named. e winners, the Army Armament Research, Development
and Engineering Center (ARDEC) and the City of Coral Springs, Florida, are not
newcomers to the idea of assessment and quality improvement. Both have a long
and distinguished history of self-assessment and organizational improvement. ey
share many common values, including a focus on those for whom they provide
Prologue ◾ xv
services. e people at ARDEC say that feedback from their external environment
telling them that they needed to get better was a key factor in their adoption of
assessment processes, and their Baldrige application makes very clear their appre-
ciation of the responsibility to serve and protect the nation’s armed forces.
ere are a number of successful tools available for organizational assessment.
Why, then, is it necessary to design assessment processes for the public sector? How
is the business of government different from that of the private sector? Government
agencies are frequently told that they need to function more like business. In some
ways, this can be true. Government needs to become more efficient in the way
it conducts its business, and there are some lessons to be learned from the pri-
vate sector. But what is also clear is that there are significant and important dif-
ferences. Government agencies have a legislated set of functions and serve broad

conducted at Rutgers University (Immordino, 2006) demonstrated that the use of a
xvi ◾ Prologue
customized assessment process for government (1) facilitated communication about
assessment and improvement and about the organization itself; (2) increased the
level of organizational knowledge that staff members possess by enabling personal
and organizational learning, which, in turn, built support for change; (3) enabled
participants to agree on the essential functions of the agency and to focus on a
smaller number of critical responsibilities; and (4) essentially “raised the bar” in
terms of what staff members believe the agency is capable of achieving.
Assessment serves a number of purposes:
It provides a method and a common language for talking about the organiza- ◾
tion and how it can be improved.
It provides a way to involve employees from all areas and at all levels in ◾
improving the organization.
It focuses the attention of government leaders and staff members on the ◾
opportunities for improvement.
It helps prioritize the challenges facing the agency, thereby providing a “com- ◾
pass” for employees to use in decision making.
It provides a systems approach to thinking about the organization so that ◾
people view and understand the impact of their work operations on the oper-
ations of the agency as a whole.
Government is always changing. New constituents and beneficiaries, new
programs or funding sources, new expectations and technologies all mean new
approaches and reorganized priorities. In this atmosphere of continual change,
assessment provides a way to examine critical functions and to determine the
best ways to engage employees in identifying and implementing opportunities for
improvement. e ultimate goal of organizational assessment and improvement is
not only to improve efficiency and effectiveness but also to create a culture of assess-
ment, where continuous improvement is a part of the everyday business of carrying
out the work of government throughout the organization.

cultural fabric of many of our most distinguished private sector organizations. e
xviii ◾ Foreword
model is finding growing acceptance and application within education and health-
care, and has begun, also, to find application in non-profit organizations.*
With the publication of Organizational Assessment and Improvement in the
Public Sector by Kathleen Immordino, the benefits of the Baldrige framework are
extended to the culture, language and needs of government. e Public Sector
Assessment and Improvement (PSAI) model, like the Baldrige framework on which
it is based, provides both a standard and a strategy.
As a standard for excellence, the Baldrige framework consists of seven catego-
ries. Although the language and definitions used to describe the framework have
changed over the years, and vary somewhat from sector to sector, the seven basic
themes remain constant. In general terms, the framework suggests that organiza-
tional excellence requires:
†
1. Effective leadership that provides guidance and ensures a clear and shared
sense of organizational mission and future vision, a commitment to continu-
ous review and improvement of leadership practice, and social and environ-
mental consciousness
2. An inclusive planning process and coherent plans that translate the orga-
nization’s mission, vision, and values into clear, aggressive, and measur-
able goals that are understood and effectively implemented throughout the
organization
3. Knowledge of the needs, expectations, and satisfaction and dissatisfaction lev-
els of the groups served by the organization; programs, services, and practices
that are responsive to these needs and expectations, and assessment processes
in place to stay current with and anticipate the thinking of these groups
4. Development and use of indicators of organizational quality and effectiveness
that capture the organization’s mission, vision, values, and goals and provide
data-based comparisons with peer and leading organizations; widely sharing

*
and from avail-
able evidence, it would seem that Baldrige-based programs can be very helpful in
attaining a variety of important organizational goals, including:
Fostering organizational self-reflection ◾
Clarifying aspirations and goals ◾
Enhancing participant understanding of dimensions of organizational ◾
excellence
Team building ◾
Increasing and enhancing communication ◾
Professional and leadership development ◾
Promoting comparisons and benchmarking ◾
Identifying and creating a shared sense of priority improvement needs ◾
Promoting the measurement of performance ◾
Energizing members of the organization to possibilities for continuous ◾
improvement, even with limited resources
No doubt audiences for Organizational Assessment and Improvement in the
Public Sector will see great value in having a framework to advance the goals of
integrated assessment, planning, and improvement in government. For this reason,
in particular, this is an extremely important and timely book. It provides concepts
and tools to facilitate the creation of government entities that can come exemplify
* Brent D Ruben, Travis Russ, Stacy M. Smulowitz, and Stacey L. Connaughton. Evaluating
the Impact of Organizational Self-Assessment in Higher Education: e Malcolm Baldrige/
Excellence in Higher Education Framework. Leadership and Organizational Development
Journal, 28(3), 2007.
xx ◾ Foreword
the very best organizational principles and practices, and in so doing can help to
inspire renewed confidence in our organizations, our leaders, and our future that
is sorely needed.
Brent D. Ruben, Ph.D.


xxiii
About the Author
Kathleen M. Immordino, Ph.D., is the director of organizational research
and assessment for the University Center for Organizational Development and
Leadership at Rutgers, e State University of New Jersey. Prior to joining the
center in 2007, she was a career public sector professional with over 28 years of
experience in state government. Dr. Immordino served as the assistant commis-
sioner for administration in the New Jersey Department of Transportation, assis-
tant commissioner for planning and research in the New Jersey Department of
Personnel, and executive director for planning and development in the New Jersey
Department of Labor following a number of positions in human resources and
strategic planning.
A graduate of Dickinson College, Dr. Immordino received a master of arts
degree from Rider University and a Ph.D. in organizational communication
from Rutgers University. She is a past president of the New Jersey Chapter of the
American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and a recipient of the Joseph E.
McLean Chapter Service Award. She is a former vice chairperson of the Personnel
Subcommittee of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation
Officials and was a member of the publication board for the International Public
Management Association for Human Resources. She is a certified public manager
and an adjunct professor at Rider University.