Interorganizational Coordination, Administrative Consolidation, and Policy Performance.

The article examines long-term trends in the qualities of state administrative leadership from the 1960s to the 1990s. Although administrative and policy reformers often urge coordination as the key to more effective delivery of public services, there is little beyond anecdotal evidence to suggest that most approaches to coordination can actually improve public services in multi-organizational delivery systems. This article examines the effect of coordination patterns and administrative arrangements on the accomplishment of policy goals in the delivery of employment and training services under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). JTPA service delivery occurs at the local level in Service Delivery Areas (SDAs), and the Department of Labor measures performance outcomes at the SDA level, since it is there that clients are actually served. The article's study has two conclusions. First, in the current era of performance measurement and accountability; policymakers need to be aware that success along one dimension of policy performance does not necessarily mean success along others. Because the different dimensions may not be related to each other, constructing overall measures of performance will be misleading. Second, steps can be taken in the administration of employment and training programs to enhance performance along some dimensions. Coordination activities, despite the frequent grousing about them, can pay off.