Abstract
Public sector national agricultural research organizations (NARO)s are confronting the need to demonstrate performance, accountability, and results to maintain support and funding from investors. Current evaluation practices in NAROs are not performance oriented, nor are they applied at the organization level. A performance assessment system for NAROs is presented that integrates productivity and outcome evaluation with the assessment of key management activities influencing research outputs and impact. The system allows managers to record output levels over time and identify management weaknesses.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Agency for International Development. (1991). Research progress measurement and management decision making. Proceedings of a workshop for the Bureau of Research and Development, Agency for International Development, Washington D.C., December 1991.
Brinkerhoff, R. and Dressler, D. (1990). Productivity measurement: A guide for managers and evaluators. London: Sage Publications.
Britan, G. (1991a). Measuring program performance for federal agencies: issues and options for performance indicators. Draft prepared for the U.S. General Accounting Office.
Britan, G. (1991b). An agency-wide program performance information system for strategic management: A plan for design and implementation. Draft prepared for U.S.A.I.D.
Brown, M. and Svenson R. (1988). Measuring R&D productivity. Research Technology Management, 31:4, 11–15.
Brown, W. and Gobeli, D. (1992). Observations on the measurement of R&D productivity: A case study. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 39:4, 325–32.
The Canadian Comprehensive Auditing Foundation. (1988). Effectiveness: Reporting and auditing in the public sector, summary report. Ottawa: The Canadian Comprehensive Auditing Foundation.
The Canadian Comprehensive Auditing Foundation. (1988). Effectiveness: Reporting and auditing in the public sector, supporting research studies. Ottawa: The Canadian Comprehensive Auditing Foundation.
Chambers, R. (1981). Rapid rural appraisal: Rationale and repertoire. Public Administration and Management, 1:2, 95–106.
Cleaver, K. and Schreiber, G.A. (1994). Reversing the spiral: The population, agriculture, and environment nexus in sub-Saharan Africa. Washington D.C.: World Bank.
Coleman, G. (1992). Monitoring and evaluation in agricultural and rural development projects: Lessons and learning. Journal of International Development, 4:5, 497–511.
Connolly, T., Conlon, E., and Deutsch, S. (1980). Organizational effectiveness: A multipleconstituency approach. Academy of Management Review, 5:2, 211–17.
Faucett, A. and Kleiner, B. (1994). New developments in performance measures of public programmes. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 7:3, 63–70.
Food and Agriculture Organization. (1991). International agricultural adjustment, seventh progress report. Rome: FAO.
Heald, D. (1987). Performance measures in public enterprises. Public finance and performance of enterprises, proceedings of the 43rd Congress of the International Institute of Public Finance. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. 307–24.
Hicks, E. (1993). The evaluation of research for society: A commentary in conjunction with the COS workshop. Commentary prepared for the COS in conjunction with the International Conference on Evaluation, Social Science and Public Policy, Ottawa, 9–11 June 1993.
Horton, D., Ballantyne, P., Peterson, W., Uribe, B., Gapasin, D., and Sheridan, K. (1993). Monitoring and evaluating agricultural research: A sourcebook. Wallington, U.K.: CAB International.
International Center for Public Enterprises in Developing Countries and the Economic Institute of the World Bank. (1986). Performance evaluation and performance improvement (report of a Seminar on Public Enterprise Management for EMENA, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, 6–20 September 1986). Public Enterprise, 7:1.
Kostoff, R. (Ed.). (1994). Research impact assessment. Evaluation Review, 18:1 (special issue), 3–11.
Lele, Uma. (1992). Designing international cooperation for accelerating productivity growth in developing countries. Opening address for the Conference on Glbal Development Cooperation, Atlanta, Georgia, 4–5 December 1992.
Lipton, M. and Paarlberg, R. (1990). The role of the World Bank in agricultural development in the 1990s. Washington D.C.: World Bank.
Love, A. (1991). Internal evaluation: Building organizations from within. London: Sage Publications.
Management Systems International. (1991). The agricultural research impact indicators matrix (manuscript prepared for U.S.A.I.D.). Washington: MSI.
Meyer, C. (1994). How the rights measures help teams excel. Harvard Business Review, 72:3, 95–105.
Mosher, M. (1985). Measuring performance in R&D settings. Research Management, 18:5, 31–33.
Moynagh, W.D. (1993). Reporting and auditing effectiveness: Putting theory into practice. Ottawa: Canadian Comprehensive Auditing Foundation.
Narayanasuwami, C. (1992). Institution building for development: Lessons learned and tasks ahead. Asian Development Review, 9:2, 137–55.
Packer, M. (1983). Analysing productivity in R&D organizations. Research Management, 26:1, 13–21.
Pappas, R. and Remer, D. (1985). Measuring R&D productivity. Research Management, 18:3, 15–22.
Paul, S. (1991). Strengthening public service accountability: A conceptual framework. World Bank Discussion Paper 136. Washington D.C.: World Bank.
Plucknett, D., Ozgediz, S., and Smith, N. (1991). Assessing current and potential IARC/NARS networks: A focus on institutional impact. Assessing the impact of international agricultural research for sustainable development: Proceedings of a symposium, Ithaca, New York, 16–19 June 1991. New York: Cornell University Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development. 163–70.
Sachdeva, P. (1990). Analytical framework for the organization and structure of NARS. Organization and structure of national agricultural research systems: Selected papers from the 1989 International Agricultural Research Management Workshop. The Hague: International Service for National Agricultural Research.
Szakonyi, R. (1994a). Measuring R&D effectiveness—I. Research Technology Management, 37:2, 27–33.
Szakonyi, R. (1994b). Measuring R&D effectiveness—II. Research Technology Management, 37:3, 44–56.
Van de Ven, A. and Joyce, W. (Eds.). (1981). Perspectives on organization design and behaviour. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Van de Ven, A. (1981). The organization assessment perspective. Perspectives on organization design and behavior. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Wholey, J. and Hatry, H. (1992). The case for performance monitoring. Public Administration Review, 52:6, 604–10.
World Bank. (1989a). Sub-Saharan Africa: From crisis to sustainable growth. A long-term perspective study. Washington D.C.: World Bank.
World Bank. (1989b). Evaluation results for 1988. Washington D.C.: Operations Evaluation Department, World Bank.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Peterson, W., Perrault, P. Agricultural research organizations: The assessment and improvement of performance. Know Techn Pol 11, 145–166 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12130-998-1015-8
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12130-998-1015-8