PACKAGING EFFECTIVE COMMUNITY-SERVICE DELIVERY - THE UTILITY OF MANDATES AND CONTRACTS IN OBTAINING ADMINISTRATIVE COOPERATION

Voluntary agreements, mandates, and contracts integrate networks of so cial service organizations, allowing them to function as coordinated w holes. The author reviews the history of contracting and mandating in the public sector. It is hypothesized that contracted relationships fo rmalize agreements between local organizations dependent on others. Ma ndated relationships are perceived to be important by policy-makers at a state or federal level. The differential acceptance and rejection o f these relationships in the community is explored. Data from social s ervice agencies are used to compare administrator's assessments of the effectiveness of mandated and contracted relationships used to coordi nate a group of agencies delivering services to children. When a manda ted relationship has been formalized into a contract by a local admini strator the perceived effectiveness of that relationship is higher tha n any other relationship in the community. If the mandated relationshi p has not been formalized by a contract this relationship is perceived to be the least effective. Important mandated inter-organizational ti es without monetary incentives are less likely to work. Local administ rators having developed the contracted ties see these ties as producin g a higher level of performance.