Performance Measurement in an Era of New Public Management

Abstract

The last two decades have witnessed a proliferation of scholarly discourse on performance management. This discourse evolved out of a number of forces in the early 1990s from the new public management movement, which called for government to show its efficiency in expending public resources as well as prove that substantive results—or outcomes related to a program’s effectiveness—had been generated by its activities. As federal agencies developed performance standards at the program level as well as in the management and administrative functions, state governments and their localities were compelled to adopt the same measures as a method of assessing their activities and enhancing their reporting mechanism under federal programs and mandates. This analysis examines the literature on performance-based management and offers recommendations on how to implement successful performance measurement system. The analysis begins with a historical synopsis. This is followed by a discussion of applications and types of performance measurement, limitations and benefits, and a comparative analysis of performance measurement efforts in the State of Georgia and the City of Kennesaw, Georgia. Additionally, the analysis offers some implementation challenges and solutions.