Designing operative productivity measures in public services
| Pages | 55-67 |
| Date | 10 April 2009 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/03055720910962443 |
| Published date | 10 April 2009 |
| Author | Aki Jääskeläinen,Antti Lönnqvist |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Designing operative productivity
measures in public services
Aki Ja
¨a
¨skela
¨inen
Department of Industrial Management, Tampere University of Technology,
Tampere, Finland, and
Antti Lo
¨nnqvist
Department of Business Information Management and Logistics,
Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland
Abstract
Purpose – The aim of this paper is to find out how the productivity of public services can be
measured in the operative level of organisations. In particular, the role of different output elements
(tangible and intangible) is examined.
Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative research approach is used. The current knowledge
of the issue is presented by examining literature on public service productivity, intellectual capital and
performance measurement. In the empirical part, the findings of the literature review are applied and
further examined in the context of two services of the City of Helsinki, Finland.
Findings – The paper identifies tangible and intangible output factors in two case services. It also
illustrates how the factors can be measured in practice. The empirical examination suggests that the
challenges in the operative level productivity measurement relate especially to defining measures.
Identifying of different output factors is an easier task.
Research limitations/implications – The study presents and applies a novel approach of
designing productivity measures for public services. More empirical studies using the approach are
called for.
Practical implications – The measurement approach presented here can be utilised as a basis for
designing sophisticated productivity measures of public services.
Originality/value – A key challenge in examining public service productivity relates to the
intangible nature of services. Despite the great potential and practical relevance of the topic there
seems to be no understanding of how to capture this feature in order to design valid productivity
measures. The paper adds to the current knowledge by describing the process of designing measures
for disaggregated components of productivity, shares practical experiences related to the design
process and highlights the main challenges.
Keywords Intangible assets,Intellectual capital, Performancemeasures, Productivity rate,
Public sector organizations
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Service productivity is currently high on the agenda in many public organisati ons.
Many ongoing changes, such as the aging workforce, cause pressures to rationa lise
service processes and to improve productivity. Citizens are making more demands for
services of high quality with limited tax revenues. However, cutting costs cannot be the
only option in the effort to improve productivity. It is also necessary to ensure that the
outputs of public services are not impaired. This can be difficult if the productivity
measures used do not provide managers with detailed enough information.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0305-5728.htm
Productivity
measures
55
VINE: The journal of information and
knowledge management systems
Vol. 39 No. 1, 2009
pp. 55-67
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0305-5728
DOI 10.1108/03055720910962443
To continue reading
Request your trial