Rethinking performance management

Many public sector managers and professionals perceive performance measurement as an administrative burden with limited benefits. Numbers are collected for other people’s purposes. At worst, poorly incentivized indicators force managers and professionals to take actions that go against the overall objectives of the organization. Professionals in sectors such as healthcare, education and social services argue that they are subject to tight control that signals distrust and decreases their own motivation. Policy interest has recently turned towards new governance approaches in the public sector, allowing for a higher degree of professional autonomy and participatory processes. This change in governance has implications for performance management. Rather than being a tool for central control, the purpose of performance measurement is to support learning and the initiation of improvement work locally. This chapter offers guidance to several design questions that emerge when performance measurement is used for such purposes. Questions that will be discussed include what to measure, the role of targets, best approaches to feedback and implications for managers at different levels. A key question, considered in more detail, is the role of social interaction and how audits and meetings in different forms can strengthen both incentives to learn and change as well as the outcome of the process. The chapter also discusses what might realistically be expected if performance measurement is used to support learning given the different conditions that exist across public services.