Measuring Performance: Case of Lithuanian Municipalities

Abstract

Public sector plays a significant role in the economy as well as in the labour market. Form one side the primary task of the civil servants is to ensure the conditions where business and society are able to create value. On the other hand their salaries becomes a significant financial line in the state’s or municipality’s budget. Effectiveness and efficiency of management of civil servants require clear principals, results based approach and control system. Performance measurement concept which leads to transparent results based management and is widely applied in private companies for decades could be a solution for public sector as well. However implementation of the principals of performance measurement for public sector has its peculiarities and limitations. This study aims to find out the main obstacles to effective performance mesurement applicability in municipalities and to propose recommendations for performance measurement implementation covering various peculiarities of municipalities. Theoretical findings let us claim that the key success factors of performance measurement in the municipalities are political will and support, methodological assistance and expertise, clear performance measurement application strategy, high control of selectable parameters and equivalent allocation of funding. Results of qualitative research lead to the conclusion that issues related to clear understanding about what is performance measurement, what is its purpose, what benefits it can provide to municipal activities as well as of motivation and interest from different municipality’s administrative units are significant as well..DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.27.2.13480