The influence of mandatory requirements on voluntary performance reporting by large multi-service community service organisations

Abstract

Community service organisations (CSOs) are increasingly reporting on their performance, the imperatives for which arise from two sources: internally, through a purposeful approach to be effective and efficient; and externally, due to structural changes in the welfare economy, and because of the mandatory requirements of regulators, funders and accreditation agencies. This paper explains a hitherto unreported aspect of performance reporting by CSOs: the influence of mandatory requirements imposed by external parties on the development and use of performance reporting intended to meet the organisation's own needs. The paper shows that while mandatory reporting requirements could indirectly influence organisational performance reporting - through efforts to balance any negative consequences of the (often extensive and onerous) requirements - organisational participants also made direct use of performance information that was, in the first instance, compiled in response to the mandatory requirements of external parties, where it was felt this would contribute to organisational effectiveness.