A PLEA FOR DIALOGUE DRIVEN PERFORMANCE‐BASED MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS: EVIDENCE FROM THE DUTCH PUBLIC SECTOR

Abstract

In the Netherlands performance-based management systems are at the core of changes denoted as New Public Financial Management (Olson et al., 1998, p. 18). In local, regional and central government very similar objectives of performance management underpinned initiatives in the 1980s and 1990s; namely the Policy and Management Instruments project in local and regional governments (ter Bogt and van Helden, 2005) and the Result-Oriented Management Control initiative in central government (van Helden and Mol, 2001). Also, performancebased management techniques have been introduced in professional organizations outside core-government but within the public sector, such as hospitals, universities, courts and the prosecution service. This paper aims to explore and examine those factors that explain the success or lack of success of performance measurement systems in the public sector. The paper will review three studies on the adoption of performance measurement systems in the Dutch public sector. The introduction, implementation and use of these systems will be evaluated according to several criteria, such as their goals, design principles, content (types of performance indicators included), as well as incentives and disincentives for their success. Our main claim will be that performance measurement systems in the public sector will be successful if these systems are developed and used in an interactive way between managers and professionals. The remainder of the paper will be structured as followed. We will first provide some theoretical reflections regarding the adoption and use of performance measurement systems. These reflections will lead to the formulation of research questions which will be subsequently used to interpret and evaluate three cases