A New Approach to Assessing Organizational Performance in Agricultural Research Organizations

Gijsbers, Govert, Peterson, Warren, Wilks, M. 2003. A New Approach to Assessing Organizational Performance in Agricultural Research Organizations. International Service for National Agricultural Research

Agricultural research organizations can no longer take for granted either their traditional role as providers of technology to the agricultural sector or the flow of funds that supports this role. Faced with competition from new actors in both the public and private sectors, such organizations are increasingly challenged to improve their performance and especially to demonstrate increased relevance and accountability to their stakeholders. But what is performance and how can it be measured? The 'performance revolution' has provided a variety of useful tools and concepts but few research institutions have either the necessary organizational culture or the practical skills to be able to apply them. In response to this challenge, ISNAR has worked with numerous agricultural research organizations in developing countries to develop a flexible, rapid, and cost-effective organizational performance assessment system (OPAS), specifically designed to meet their needs. The OPAS approach represents a shift in perspective-from isolated, externally driven evaluations, often carried out at the behest of donors, to an internally driven process of assessing organizational outputs and key management practices, the results of which can then be used both to demonstrate performance to stakeholders and to help managers to improve performance still further. This briefing paper provides an introduction to the OPAS process and discusses some of the issues involved in carrying it out.