Mapping to inform organizational effectiveness

Public health agencies face continual pressure to create more health outputs from fewer inputs and have focused on improving efficiencies and increasing effectiveness. However, many of the management and organizational development constructs that inform effectiveness work in the business sector are awkwardly translated to public health. Though much is made of the differences between public sector and private sector contexts, this may have more to do with the inherent differences in an organization focused on population level outcomes rather than consumer level outcomes. Opportunities for accreditation and professional certification are influencing public health organizational development but uncertainty exists about how best to link these activities with public health practice expectations. Organizational mapping bridges the culture of public health practice with the organizational effectiveness literature, and creates a visual representation that can facilitate decision making about resources allocation. The intersection of concept mapping, performance expectations, and organizational capacity help to identify leverage points within the organization and suggest opportunities for maximizing efficiency and effectiveness. Maps can highlight a single attribute such as revenue source or staffing capacity or can overlay multiple layers of information, allowing the decision maker to view the effects of organizational complexity. (Example maps will be shared.) Further application of this mapping strategy will enable public health administrators to synthesize public health practice evidence with management and organizational behavior practices without the constraints of for-profit versus non-profit model differences.