Whose mission? The pervasive nature of the government contracting environment and the impact on not-for-profit organisations

This paper focuses on the outsourcing of public services to private organisations and the mechanisms that government puts in place to control these organisations. Abstract This paper examines the outsourcing of employment services in Australia in 1998 to non government entities and the control mechanisms that government has implemented to ensure accountability. Institutional theory and principal agent theory provide insights into how relationships emerge between the purchaser and provider of contracted services and the impact that this can have on the way not--‐for--‐profit organisations deliver services. This paper is based on the findings from a study of four not--‐for--‐profit organisations delivering federally funded employment services and explores the impact that the tightly controlled contracting environment has on the mission and behaviour of these organisation