Examining the linkage between service provision and client outcomes is important in performance-based human service environments. Since most performance initiatives reward agencies for improving client outcomes rather that providing specific services, managers may have incentives to streamline workers' efforts and reduce resources devoted to services considered nonessential. This article uses data from a performance-bsed child welfare initiative to examine the relationship between child permanency outcomes, the services provided by caseworkers, and the environment surrounding frontline service provision. Findings indicate that greater service efforts are required to reunify children with parents than to reach other outcomes, including adoption and placement with relatives. They also indicate that formal organizational responses to performance environments affect client outcomes partially through the service provided by frontline workers. These findings suggest that managers should attend to the interplay between the organizational environment, service technology, and client outcomes when designing performance-basedd systems in the human service sector

The sate of agents: a special issue

Volume 20

Supplement 1

January 2010