ABSTRACT
Elsewhere, Hasenfeld (1983) has warned of "the tendency by the organization to reify these measures as true indicators of effectiveness. " In so doing, "the organization allocates its resources and concentrates its efforts to score well on these criteria," despite their real limitations (p. 212). Whether or not the criteria are inherently valid, organizations may seek clients that most approximate "output" criteria at intake (Dale, 1983/84). If they cannot control intake, programs may jettison unpromising clients before they can show up as indicators of program failure (Lerman, 1968). Finally, Walker (1972) has observed the "strain towards falsification" whereby staff are pressured to lie with statistics in order to make their programs and themselves look better in the eyes of external evaluators and internal superiors.
