PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Performance management is one of the most contested agendas of public management. Although there are many performance movements dating back to 1900’s, the New Public Management movement gave new impetus to public sector performance management. Performance entails a programme of change and improvement with defined outputs and outcomes. Achieving these requires us to have performance information and data that informs decision making among public officials. For meaningful performance management discourse, public values such as efficiency, effectiveness, equity, robustness, openness and transparency must be nurtured; KPI and target driven performance measurement embraced and technicalities of performance measurement internalized and institutionalized. Ethos of prioritizing measurement, indicator development, data collection, analysis and reporting must be part of the public service DNA. Why have public service performance management mantras such as Results Oriented Management (ROM), Open Performance Appraisal Systems (OPRAS), Business Excellence Model (BEM), Performance Contracting (PCs) produced results that have not met the expectations of citizens? How does your entity define performance, measure it, report the results and create the ‘waoh’ experience for top performers? How do you use performance information and reports in your organization?