The State Administration Database

Dias, J.J. & Maynard-Moody, S. (2007):

For-Profit Welfare: Contracts, Conflicts, and the Performance Paradox.

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 17(2), 189-211.

Please note: This page may contain data in Norwegian that is not translated to English.

Type of publication:

Tidsskriftsartikkel

Link to publication:

http://jpart.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/17/2/189

Link to review:

http://jpart.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/17/2/189

Number of pages:

23

Language of publication:

Engelsk

Country of publication:

USA

NSD-reference:

2329

This page was last updated:

11/7 2007

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Summary:

This article examines how financial inducements in performance contracts shape the inner workings of a for-profit welfare-to-work training program serving long-term recipients. Our work pays particular attention to how contract requirements shape relationships between manager and line staff and their treatment of clients. We argue that contract design, coupled with bottom-level management efforts to meet contractual obligations, leads to a performance paradox—the same actions taken to achieve contractual results ironically produce negative program practice and poor client outcomes. Thus, rigidly constructed legal agreements between the government and private service providers can distort incentive structures, causing programmatic conflicts between management and staff, and do little to reduce long-term welfare use and diminish recipients' poverty.