The Matrix System at Work - Independent Evaluation Group - World ...
The Matrix System at Work - Independent Evaluation Group - World ...
The Matrix System at Work - Independent Evaluation Group - World ...
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
CHAPTER 4<br />
DELIVERING QUALITY SERVICES<br />
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FACTORS<br />
4.17 Budgetary processes and informal incentives had an impact on the<br />
effectiveness of the m<strong>at</strong>rix system. <strong>The</strong> new budgetary system quickly ran into<br />
difficulties because its detailed functioning principles had been left undefined and<br />
resulted in vari<strong>at</strong>ions and sometimes inconsistencies across the Regions. 53 In the first<br />
few years the transaction costs were very high. <strong>The</strong> uncertainty cre<strong>at</strong>ed for large<br />
numbers of technical staff members who were concerned about finding effective<br />
demand for their services and gener<strong>at</strong>ed supply-driven behaviors to ensure new<br />
tasks. Sector managers felt obliged to find work for their staff r<strong>at</strong>her than allow the<br />
labor market to determine demand for different staff members. Organiz<strong>at</strong>ional<br />
culture also played a major role in undermining the incentives to use global<br />
knowledge through increased cooper<strong>at</strong>ion among sectors and across Regions:<br />
defensive “turf” behaviors developed quickly and persist today, particularly among<br />
sector units with overlapping mand<strong>at</strong>es. <strong>The</strong> poor performance of Sector Boards is<br />
partly <strong>at</strong>tributable to such behaviors, as well as to the excessively large span of<br />
control of sector managers.<br />
4.18 External effects also had an impact on the m<strong>at</strong>rix system. Just when the<br />
m<strong>at</strong>rix system was being introduced, the onset of the Asian financial crisis cre<strong>at</strong>ed<br />
an unanticip<strong>at</strong>ed increase in demand for quick-disbursing loans, which distracted<br />
management’s <strong>at</strong>tention away from the Knowledge Bank th<strong>at</strong> was to offset the<br />
lending culture <strong>at</strong> precisely the same time th<strong>at</strong> new incentives and processes were to<br />
be put in place to support the m<strong>at</strong>rix structure. <strong>The</strong> growing importance of GPGs<br />
and the expanded external role of the networks in the new intern<strong>at</strong>ional aid<br />
architecture and growing corpor<strong>at</strong>e demands, which are unrel<strong>at</strong>ed to the internal<br />
m<strong>at</strong>rix management of country and sector units, also had an impact on the m<strong>at</strong>rix by<br />
diverting the <strong>at</strong>tention of the network anchors.<br />
INCENTIVES ARISING FROM THE METRICS OF SUCCESS<br />
4.19 <strong>The</strong> m<strong>at</strong>rix system was expected to reduce the emphasis on lending volume<br />
as the metric of success, but has not succeeding in doing so. <strong>The</strong> long-standing<br />
“lending culture” continues to privilege Board approval of lending oper<strong>at</strong>ions and<br />
disbursement r<strong>at</strong>ios over results in client countries. <strong>The</strong> Bank monitors and reports<br />
regularly on lending commitments, and supervision reports track disbursements<br />
closely, sending a signal th<strong>at</strong> volume r<strong>at</strong>her than quality is the measure of success.<br />
On knowledge products, the Bank tracks the number of ESW and technical<br />
assistance deliveries and the resources expended on them. It was only in FY11 th<strong>at</strong><br />
the Bank introduced a Corpor<strong>at</strong>e Scorecard and a message from the president<br />
announced th<strong>at</strong> the <strong>World</strong> Bank was embarking on “the next phase of the results<br />
agenda” (President’s End-of-Year Message, July 1, 2011). Even so, th<strong>at</strong> commitment<br />
67