Resource-deployment metrics measure inputs rather than the quality of service delivered

Evidence

It may be claimed that these problems-inducing behavior to conform to the measure, neglecting other responsibilities, and inauthentically performing according to the measured standards-are simply difficulties that skilled management experts can overcome. In particular, management often seeks measures of resource deployment, depending on the inference that the provision of resources is a surrogate for (and, to be sure, a prerequisite to) service delivery. This inference is acceptable when the qualitative issue is resource deployment, as in the case of police dispatch, ambulance response time, and neighborhood shift allocations in sanitation services. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1209

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the surrogate inference: managers treat deployed resources as a stand-in for delivered service, which holds only when resources are the actual question.