Implementation Issues

• NCJ Number: 77239
• Author(s): W Williams
• Date Published: 1979
• Length: 109 pages
• Grant Number(s): 77-JN-99-0017
• Sponsoring Agency: US Securities and Exchange Cmssn
• Corporate Author: University of Washington
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Reports of the National Juvenile Justice Assessment Centers.

Annotation

Developed at the National Center for the Assessment of Delinquent Behavior and Its Prevention (NCADBIP), this monograph addresses both the immediate problem of implementing a known decision and the problem of raising an organization's capability to implement unknown future decisions.

Abstract

The first essay considers what is known about the implementation process and sets forth seven basic tenets of the implementation perspective. These tenets include the need for extensive community modification of program approaches, the use of the institutional process as the central focus of program implementation, and the necessity of discretionary behavior as a component of social services delivery. In addition, the essay discusses four critical questions the social agency should address in working toward a more defined strategy based on the implementation perspective. These include (1) establishing the primary guides, which are bargaining and fixing, to agency decisions and actions; (2) establishing structural means that support congruent responsibility and authority; (3) raising the competence of both Federal staff and grantees; and (4) developing an information process. Finally, the essay recommends that the individual agency should analyze the appropriateness and feasibility of the implementation perspective in terms of commitments, limits, and resources. A second essay focuses on the basic notion of management control, both generally and specifically, for the Federal social agency. The essay discusses information as the basic raw material of governance, presents definitions and concepts needed to discuss information development and use, and considers available techniques for analyzing and developing information in support of policy formulation, control, and advice. In addition, current field techniques that are available for gathering information are considered, and an agency information strategy is described. Notes and references accompany each essay. The appendix contains the implementation assessment design for Washington State's juvenile justice reform law, House Bill 371, along with information on fieldwork tasks, fieldwork protocol, and background notes.