Abstract
Performance management has attracted a lot of debate in the recent past. It is a systematic effort to improve performance through an ongoing process of establishing desired outcomes, setting performance standards to improve performance and productivity and aim at improving the quality of public service delivery. In view of this, the article discusses the extent to which performance management practices influence performance and productivity in public sector institutions in Africa. It notes that though performance management has been introduced in the African public service with the intentions of monitoring, reviewing, assessing performance and recognizing good performance, performance management systems in Africa have not been able to achieve the expected level of performance which will improve productivity. As a result, the article gives brief overview of public sector performance in some African public services and recommends among others that African public services need to lay more emphasis on productivity through <br />effective implementation of performance management systems. It concludes that public sector organisations in Africa can learn a lot from Western companies which have been wrestling with this issue for over two decades now.
Highlights
Performance management is increasingly gaining momentum in the public sector
This article traces some of the factors why performance management is being taken up rapidly in Africa. It gives an overview of the applicability of performance management as a tool for improving performance across the different public sector organizations in Africa
Introduction of New Public Management (NPM) models in Africa was influenced by challenges emanating by African countries trying to maintain a macro-economic stability, lowering inflation, reducing scope and cost of government and cutting deficit spending by deregulating public enterprises and ensuring they run as private sector business (World Bank, 1989)
Summary
It is a strategic approach to the management of public resources and involves the quest for efficiency and effectiveness in public service delivery. The reforms have all aimed at improving the quality of performance in public services, creating new forms of relationship between public and private sector organizations, and new types of regulation and accountability. These public management reforms have, in a variety of ways, been transferred to the state systems of developing and transitional economies. Conceptual analysis is used in order to get a better understanding of procurement practices in the African public sector
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