Performance Measures and Its Pitfalls: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Outcome-based management is not new in the public sector, having been developed by US states and cities over the past three decades. Publicizing the outcome of governmental programs on specific priority indicators has the proven potential to enhance external accountability and improve the overall performance of public agencies. Reporting performance measures become the presentational strategy of pundits who believe that gets measured is what gets valued. Some of the questions raised in this study are: do the performance measures used for management of public organizations reflect only the external concerns of federal and state officials or do they evaluate the internal concerns of the organization as well? Are the external stakehold- ers dictating the performance indicators thereby creating intergovernmental ties or design of performance measures, an organic extension of organizational management efforts? This study examines the different policy types, values, models, and internal/external concerns implemented by a large municipal government agency in the US and what the indicators represent in a collabo- rative network of actors. The findings suggest that type of initiation method reflects the type of indicators that are being used for measuring performance of public organizations.