Implementation and Impact of Results-Based Accountability Learning: Successes and Challenges With Human Service Professionals of Color in Urban Agencies

• Author: Nicole Mattocks,Amy Cohen-Callow,Karen Hopkins,Jenny Afkinich,Megan Meyer
• Published date: 01 January 2019
• Date: 01 January 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/2153368718809835
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article
Race and Justice
2019, Vol. 9(1) 80-94
Implementation
ª The Author(s) 2018
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and Impact of Results-
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DOI: 10.1177/2153368718809835
Based Accountability
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Learning: Successes
and Challenges With
Human Service
Professionals of Color
in Urban Agencies
Karen Hopkins1, Megan Meyer1, Amy Cohen-Callow1,
Nicole Mattocks1, and Jenny Afkinich1
Abstract
A foundation–university partnership was developed to expand the bench of human
service professionals (HSPs) of color trained in performance management with the
results-based accountability (RBA) framework. Interviews and survey data reflect the
RBA learning, application, and implementation experiences among three cohorts of
HSPs of color (n ¼ 39) representing a variety of urban nonprofit and public agencies
(n ¼ 35) in a metropolitan area. The HSPs reported valuable training experiences that
provided an opportunity to make a greater impact within their organizations. How-
ever, some found the training to be missing a strategy on how to manage RBA in their
work organizations. The participants reported appreciating the peer coaching process
for its mutual support structure, focus on application, and the opportunity to network
with others doing similar work across the region. The most common barrier reported
by the HSPs was that they did not hold high enough leadership positions or have
enough authority within their organizations, a common scenario for women of color
in particular, to enact substantial change in performance management agencywide.
Moving forward, strategies are needed to improve the implementation of RBA into
1 University of Maryland School of Social Work, Baltimore, MD, USA
Corresponding Author:
Karen Hopkins, University of Maryland School of Social Work, 525 West Redwood Street, Baltimore,
MD 21201, USA.
Email: khopkins@ssw.umaryland.edu

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urban nonprofit and public agencies and support the upward mobility of HSPs of color
to oversee performance results using RBA.
Keywords
results-based accountability, performance management, culturally specific programs,
race and juvenile justice, race, class, and gender articulation, criminological theories,
leadership
Introduction and Background Literature
Nonprofit and public agencies across the spectrum of human and criminal justice
services often struggle with a myriad of challenges that include insufficient financial,
human, and technical resources for responding to a growing need and demands for
service and high expectations for accountability and performance measurement
from private and public funders (Carnochan, Samples, Myers, & Austin, 2014; Fox,
Yamagata, & Harris, 2014; Hopkins, Meyer, Shera, & Peters, 2014; LeRoux &
Wright, 2010). These challenges are especially significant for agencies in low-income
urban communities that are fraught with environmental conditions related to poverty
and safety (Mensing, 2017; Meyer, Cohen-Callow, Hopkins, & Victorson, 2017;
Urban Institute, 2012; White, Edwards, Farrar, & Plodinec, 2015). While these
agencies may vary widely in their characteristics and missions, all have faced
increasing pressure to identify clear outcomes, build their performance evaluation
capacity, and demonstrate results amid seemingly intractable environmental condi-
tions (Liket, Rey-Garcia, & Maas, 2014). Many areas of public service delivery,
especially in criminal justice, are held to “accountability for results” by a range of
stakeholders and partners that include nonprofit and private organizations (Culp,
2005; Fox et al., 2014). Beyond demonstrating successful outcomes, nonprofit and
public agencies (i.e., social and criminal justice services) in urban settings must also
be keenly attuned to racial disparities that are not only in evidence for clients but also
among the service providers themselves. There is an increasing emphasis on helping
organizational members challenge racism in the workplace with a focus on equity,
justice, and inclusion. As racial/ethnic diversity increases, especially in urban agen-
cies, insuring equal engagement and equitable access to resources at work is critical
(Graham, 2016).
Thus, as the demand for human service organizations to provide more services and
accountability is increasing, managers and professional staff have to embrace new
practice and performance models that demonstrate clearer results and outcomes and
improve efficiency and racial equity (Benjamin, Voida, & Bopp, 2018; Graham,
2016). Effectively measuring performance to document and improve programmatic
and consumer outcomes in urban nonprofit and public agencies requires having both
high-quality “agency-generated” data and diverse employees who know how to
evaluate and use the data (Carnochan et al., 2014). A study on organizational learning

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documented that 6 in 10 nonprofit leaders did not (or did not know how to) track
metrics and measure progress and impact or reward staff for capturing and sharing
data and knowledge (Milway & Saxton, 2011). Further, using performance measures
to inform performance management and decision-making is often relegated to lead-
ership (mostly White) only, and thus, many employees at the operational level are
unfamiliar with how to use performance outcomes to guide practices. Therefore,
leadership plays a critical role in training, communicating, and supporting the use of
performance data across all organizational members (Culp, 2005; Fox et al., 2014).
While leadership is critical to ensuring participation and commitment toward per-
formance results, equitable opportunities for performance measurement learning and
skill building among management and nonmanagement staff are fundamentally vital
and strategic.
In an attempt to increase diversity within the current pool of researchers, evalua-
tors, and urban HSPs internal and external to an organization, with particular expertise
in results-based accountability (RBA), the Annie E. Casey Foundation implemented
the Expanding the Bench® (ETB) initiative. RBA is a widely supported and successful
performance management and measurement framework that does not need to be
specifically tailored or modified to meet the concrete needs of any particular orga-
nization as it is designed to be a usable and replicable process that can be adapted to
any setting (Friedman, 2015). Research shows that when human service managers
employ a range of concrete performance measures, their level of effectiveness in
strategic decision-making increases (LeRoux & Wright, 2010).
While many human service professionals (HSPs) lack sufficient training, learning,
and experience in RBA and performance management strategies and practices, in
general, people of color have been very much underrepresented in professional roles
associated with performance management, research, and evaluation of programs and
services according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation. One component of the initiative
includes a partnership between the Annie E. Casey Foundation ETB program and
the University of Maryland School of Social Work focused on an attempt to “level the
playing field” by training selected midlevel HSPs of color to be equipped with the
skills of RBA and reinforcing learning, providing support, and career development
through facilitated peer coaching circles, thereby building capacity for performance
management in urban (primarily inner city) nonprofit and public agencies. This
evaluation examined the effectiveness and impact of training and coaching HSPs of
color in RBA performance management by assessing three cohorts of participants’
learning, application, and implementation experiences.
The goal of training and developing HSPs of color in performance management and
evaluation techniques is a direct response to the entrenched systemic racism that still
pervades many institutions, which has contributed to an under representation of persons
of color in the professional workforce, in general, and in the human services sector
(Carten, Siskind, & Pender, 2016). Specifically, as reported by the Urban Institute, there
is a substantial underrepresentation of professionals of color in leadership and man-
agement roles within the nonprofit sector in the Baltimore–Washington Metro area.
Although nearly half (49%) the population in the Baltimore–Washington region is

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people of color, only 22% of nonprofit organizations in the region have executive
directors of color, and three of the five (60%) nonprofit managers are White (DeVita &
Roeger, 2010). Women of color are especially disadvantaged and often refer to their
inability to advance at work as a “concrete ceiling” (Beckwith & Carter, 2016). A long
history of employment discrimination against women and minorities has contributed to
difficulties with recruitment, retention, representation of the mostly urban communities
they serve, and promotional opportunities within their work agencies, resulting in the
lack of diversity in management roles and what is termed “representative bureaucracy”
(Morabito & Shelly, 2015).
This can have a dramatic impact on the ability of professionals of color to champion
change in organizational practices, such as implementing results-driven management
strategies (i.e., RBA for measuring performance) when they are typically...