Skip Navigation



Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory Advance Access published online on July 19, 2006
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, doi:10.1093/jopart/mul002
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
17/2/189    most recent
mul002v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Johnson Dias, J.
Right arrow Articles by Maynard-Moody, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Article

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

Janice Johnson Dias 1 * and Steven Maynard-Moody 2

1 University of Michigan
2 University of Kansas

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Janice Johnson Dias, E-mail: janjohns{at}umich.edu


  Abstract

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.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 The American Review of Public AdministrationHome page
V. Lens
Implementing Full and Partial Work Sanctions: The Case of Texas
The American Review of Public Administration, May 1, 2009; 39(3): 286 - 303.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Cambridge J Regions Econ SocHome page
S. F. Schram, R. C. Fording, and J. Soss
Neo-liberal poverty governance: race, place and the punitive turn in US welfare policy
Cambridge J Regions Econ Soc, April 1, 2008; 1(1): 17 - 36.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.