Performance Measurement and Management in the Public Sector: Some Lessons from Research Evidence
| Author | Jie Gao |
| Date | 01 May 2015 |
| Published date | 01 May 2015 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1704 |
PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT AND MANAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC
SECTOR: SOME LESSONS FROM RESEARCH EVIDENCE
JIE GAO*
National University of Singapore, Singapore
SUMMARY
During the past decade, there has been an explosion in the literature on performance-oriented reforms around the globe. What
are the major topics discussed in this literature? What can scholars and practitioners learn from it? This study provides an over-
view of the major themes, strategies, challenges, and outcomes of performance measurement and management reforms by
reviewing the literature produced during this period. It shows that useful strategies and tools have been developed for public
sector organizational performance improvement. Apart from continuing efforts to examine the role of measurement per se, there
has been a shift in focus from performance measurement to performance management in this literature. Nevertheless, research
evidence from both developed and developing countries shows that most reforms achieve only mixed results, with both costs
and gains and with daunting challenges, such as gaming, remaining. The paper concludes by discussing issues that deserve at-
tention from future research. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
key words—performance measurement; performance management; accountability; gaming; targets; citizen satisfaction; reform
outcomes
INTRODUCTION
In 1996, Blodgett and Newfarmer published an essay in Public Management that asserted that performance mea-
surement has arguably become “the hottest topic in government today.”Likewise, in his 1995 study, Behn pro-
posed that performance measurement had become one of the three “big questions”in public administration.
Since then, these papers have been often cited as evidence of the growing importance of performance measurement
in contemporary government reforms. Two decades later, the enthusiasm for government reform via performance
measurement remains high, with the focus shifting from measurement to management. A search on “performa nce
measurement”in the index of the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and Arts and Humanities Citation Index
(A&HCI) articles published in the category of Public Administration from 1980 to 2013 produces 357 results:
12 per cent (n= 43) published 1990–1999, 47 per cent (n= 167) published 2000–2009, and 41 per cent published
after 2010. In other words, of SSCI and A&HCI articles on performance measurement published in the past
15 years, 87 per cent are outputs of the past 4 years, from 2010 to 2013.
What is driving this rapid growth in scholarly interest is the implementation of performance-oriented manage-
ment reforms in governments around the globe over the past three decades (Bouckaert and Halligan, 2008). These
reforms have shining slogans such as “managing for results,”“reinventing government,”“management by mea-
surement,”“value for money,”and “customer-driven administration.”Regardless of their different focuses, these
reforms all share the use of performance indicators, which are mainly quantitative measures of the inputs, outputs,
throughputs, and outcomes of government work, often expressed in the form of targets, rankings, or intelligences
(Hood, 2007). As a main theme and key instrument of public administration reform, performance measurement has
sought effective ways to make government “work better and cost less.”
*Correspondence to: J. Gao, Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore, AS1, #04-36, 11 Arts Link, Singapore 117573.
E-mail: polgj@nus.edu.sg
This study is funded by a start-up grant from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore (WBS No. R-108-000-069-133).
public administration and development
Public Admin. Dev. 35,86–96(2015)
Published online in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pad.1704
Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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