Evaluating organizations with multiple goals

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Abstract
This article discusses some difficulties encountered in designing evaluation systems for organizations serving multiple goals, and suggests how these might be overcome. The particular focus of attention is the recently-established council for voluntary service (CVS) for Beverley Borough on Humberside. The work of the CVS is described, and the role that a well-designed evaluation system could play in its future development is explained. Some problems confronting those who would judge the performance of such a body are detailed – a major difficulty being the many different viewpoints possible about what is meant by ‘success’ for a CVS. The literature on evaluating organizational performance is then examined briefly, to see how it suggests coping with these problems. It is found that, although traditional approaches to evaluation are wanting, a modern ‘multi-actor’ approach, which has emerged simultaneously from a number of sources, does seem highly relevant. The actual evaluation system established in the CVS is then set out, showing how it has been incorporated as part of a development strategy for the CVS, how it overcomes the problems of evaluating organizations with multiple goals, and how, in doing so, it realizes many of the aspirations of the multi-actor theorists. It is argued, in conclusion, that since organizations – including commercial and business concerns – are best seen as serving multiple goals, the approach adopted in the CVS can provide a model of quite general applicability.

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