Impact Of Performance Measures Research Articles

The development and use of performance measures in New Zealand tertiary education institutions

This article provides a 30-year history of the development, use and impact of performance measures on tertiary education institutions in New Zealand. The study reveals that performance measurement emerged from the new public management initiatives and the multiple logics of government reforms to help address efficiency and accountability concerns of the tertiary education sector. The performance measurement culture became central to shaping and reshaping the character of educational politics, government policies and the management of educational outcomes. Performance measurement also created a web of unintended consequences with its own tensions, cynicism and complications. Enacted by the market logic and complemented by the business logic to maximise profits, performance measures compromised academic quality and caused rivalry with the norms of the academic profession. The study recommends that the distorting effects of performance measurement requires profound rethinking and careful management to ensure that it accomplishes what it is intended to accomplish.

The Impact of Performance Measurement on the Selection of Enforcement Targets by Competition Authorities: The Russian Experience in an International Context

ABSTRACTThis article provides evidence about the influence of performance measurement criteria on the choice of enforcement targets by law enforcement authorities, utilizing a rich dataset of decisions by the Russian competition authority in the period 2008–2015. The authors provide a comparative analysis of performance measurement by several competition authorities throughout the world. Then a hypothesis is tested suggesting that a competition authority, motivated by the criterion of “enforcement success,” tends to select relatively easy implemented enforcement targets, which lead to decisions with relatively low probability of being annulled if appealed. This is so, even though other enforcement targets would generate superior welfare effects. Thus, our analysis indicates that putting undue emphasis on “enforcement success” as a performance criterion may not lead to desirable welfare outcomes.

The use of performance measurement information in the work of middle managers

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how middle managers utilize performance measurement information in their work. More specifically, the study gives understanding on the impact of performance measurement, policies and procedures (formal controls), and individual intuition and experiential knowledge (informal controls) on strategy implementation and decision making. The study also identifies hindrances to the use of measurement information.Design/methodology/approachThe study is carried out as a semi-structured interview study in Finnish companies representing five industries and 29 interviewees. Empirical data were analyzed deductively according to the research framework combining informal and formal management controls with two managerial processes.FindingsThe work of middle managers is clearly affected by informal controls. Much of the managerial work relies on individual intuition and judgment based on experience instead of performance information or formal instructions. The study also unveiled that top management sees the status of utilizing performance measurement information in a more positive light than do middle managers. This is the case especially in strategy implementation. Deficiency of measurement information was found to be a key factor hindering the use of measurement information but improper analysis of results is also a challenge.Research limitations/implicationsThis study examined the work of middle managers widely in different positions and industries which means that the findings are rather explorative. Simplification was required in order to operationalize the complex tasks of strategy implementation and decision making. Further, more contextually focused research is required in order to understand better the contextual causes of the findings and to provide more understanding on the appropriate ways of improving the utilization of performance measurement information.Practical implicationsThe practical contribution of this study lies in the detailed description of strategy implementation and decision-making processes based on observations in several large companies representing different industries. The study also suggests areas to which development efforts should be concentrated on in order to improve the use of performance information among middle managers.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the earlier literature by highlighting the usage of performance measurement information as opposed to developing new measures. In addition, the novelty value of the paper relates to the focus in the work of middle managers which has gained less attention in the previous research.

The impact of performance measurement on purchasing group dynamics: The Canadian experience

Purchasing groups were first created in the healthcare sector, which has faced unprecedented challenges in terms of cost control for over two decades. Purchasing groups are indeed supposed to generate additional savings and more efficient purchasing processes. However, although various aspects of purchasing groups have been studied since the early 2000s, both their performance measurement and the influence that this measurement has on inter-organizational dynamics have been neglected. In purchasing groups, the dynamics between the group itself and its members often results in tensions between both parties. Performance measurement within purchasing groups could alleviate those tensions, since “objective” data could then be used to improve communication.Based on a case study, this research sheds light on performance measurement in a purchasing group, on the dynamics between the group and its members, and on the interaction between performance measurement and inter-organizational dynamics. Results indicate that measuring performance impacts the dynamics between both parties, but that the relationship is also the other way around, and that the inter-organizational dynamics is quite complex. In addition, this paper proposes a framework summarizing the research findings.

The impact of performance measures, leverage and efficiency on market value added: Evidence from Iran

The purpose of this paper is to investigate economic value added (EVA), as a performance measurement model, as compared to six traditional accounting performance measures vis-à-vis the market value of firms listed on Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE). The paper also explores the effect of the degree of operating leverage, financial leverage, and efficiency on market value added.The paper uses a sample of 450 firm-year observations from the Iranian market and applies pooled ordinary least square and panel data regression. The results indicate that EVA has no superiority over other performance measures, and that return on sales and return on assets are more powerful than EVA in explaining firm market value. Due to EVA's lack of correlation with market value, investors cannot use it as an internal value creation measure along with the traditional performance measures. This paper is one of the first studies on the relevance of traditional accounting and value-based performance measures in explaining TSE market values. The results extend EVA's role in explaining market values, and address its effect on investors’ decisions in a continental Asian market with characteristics similar to that of Iran.

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE USE OF PERFORMANCE INFORMATION FOR DECISION MAKING IN AUSTRALIAN STATE AGENCIES

Is the state of a performance measurement system the most important element for promoting the utilization of performance indicators (PIs) in the public sector? Or are there other more influential factors, such as organizational culture, or even individual perceptions on the merit of performance measurement for their agency? Through a survey on a small group of managers specializing in performance measurement in 21 Australian state government agencies, this research examines the relative influence of the following factors on the use of PIs for internal decision making: the agency's performance measurement system, stakeholder support for the agency's performance measurement, organizational culture, the external environment, and individual perceptions on the impact of performance measurement in the agency.

Looking for Quality under the Lamppost

Concepts such as clinical complexity, multimorbidity, severity of illness, and disease burden seek to characterize the subset of patients whose severity and/or number of illnesses disproportionately affect their lives. We see many such patients in our clinics and in our hospitals. As the numbers of these patients grow, with escalating health care costs and utilization, it is increasingly urgent to answer the following questions: Are these clinically complex patients receiving quality care? Are they satisfied with their experience with the health care system? How can we best measure these important domains and ensure that quality measures adequately are directing providers and health systems to prioritize attention and resources to the most important areas for these patients? These issues, while important for all patients, are especially critical for clinically complex patients. The paper by Werner and Chang both adds to our understanding of these issues as well as highlights some of the technical problems in attempting to answer questions of quality of care and patient satisfaction 1 . Werner and Chang build on recent work on the impact of performance measurement on clinically complex patients in two important ways. Several recent papers have documented that clinically complex patients are more likely than less complex patients to receive recommended care 2,3 , but in prior research frequency of medical visits was either not assessed or, in at least one study 3 , did not affect the independent relationship between multimorbidity and quality of care. In contrast, Werner and Change found that higher quality of care was mediated by increased frequency of medical visits. In multivariate analyses controlling for visit frequency, higher clinical complexity was associated with lower odds of receiving recommended processes of care more often than expected. Second, they found that satisfaction with care was higher among clinically complex patients with high measured performance of recommended processes of care. This finding suggests that compliance with performance measures was not crowding out other aspects of care valued by these patients. This is an important finding, since as they note, if a patient has needs that lie outside of the measured conditions, performance measures may ‘crowd out’ unmeasured care by creating incentives for physicians to attend to measured medical problems over unmeasured ones. This line of research, however, raises a number of technical issues particularly germane to complex patients and highlights many of the clinical management issues facing such patients and their physicians. We will address a number of the technical issues and then suggest an approach to such patients that we believe will ultimately prove to be of increased value to both the patient and their physicians. The first technical question is the mechanisms by which increased medical visits influence both quality of care and patient satisfaction. As the authors hypothesize, does seeing a single physician frequently give that doctor more opportunities to successfully address all the many competing demands of clinical complexity and still meet performance measures? It is also possible that this observed effect is mediated by seeing multiple physicians, each of whom has a different area of clinical emphasis and potential to ‘catch’ omissions of other doctors. Another possibility is the role of clinical systems beyond the actions of individual physicians. The Veterans Affairs (VA) health system studied in this paper is in the forefront of developing systems to monitor chronic conditions and ensure, through electronic health record alerts, mandatory intake nurse check lists, and other methods that patients with those conditions receive the necessary screening, treatment, and follow-up. Maybe this is a success of more frequent interaction with the infrastructure we are trying to institute under the Advanced Medical Home concept– and not just increased interactions with the physician. As with all good research the results often trigger many more important questions.

A Conceptual Framework for Performance Measurement Development in an Intergovernmental Setting: The Case of Intergovernmental Systems in the USA and Italy

Throughout all levels of government, performance measurement remains an important topic among professional managers and elected officials. The evolution of performance measurement in many cases is driven by professional standard setting bodies, research institutes and occupational associations as much as by state government legislative bodies or governors. At the same time, state and national agencies act as oversight bodies or pass through conduits for sending resources to local government agencies that carry out service delivery functions. This is certainly true in the case of medical care, education and public safety in many countries. The performance of government services in these settings represent a particularly challenging environment from which to assess. The development of and quantification of performance measures in an intergovernmental setting remains an open area for research and examination. In such a setting, the conflicts between principals and agents becomes an important component in the process and potential conflicts over determining the types of performance measures to be used and the process of setting numbers to such measures. Those issues can be considered as being components of the so-called Whole-of-Govenrment (WoG) approach, that is the next generation of the New Public Management. Under the WoG perspective, the public administration is studied and managed under a more holistic strategy, where the focus is not on each single organization, but on the entire network of these organizations and on the integration among them (Bogdanor, 2005; Hood, 2005; Christensen and Laegreid, 2007). This paper seeks to identify the conceptual challenges in measuring and quantify performance in an intergovernmental system. It is believed that such a conceptual framework will guide future empirical research into questions that address the performance of services in an intergovernmental context as well as empirical research into the impact of performance measures in an intergovernmental setting. Two cases studies, one from Italy and the other form the United States, will serve to motivate the framework. In the area of court administration, the US National Center for the State Courts has created a new set of performance management tools called CourTools. The State of Michigan is one of the several states in the United States that is seeking to implement such a system. Michigan will serve as a motivating case study behind the development of the conceptual framework. There are several conceptual challenges in designing and compiling data related to the underlying CourTool measures. For the Italian case, the annual quality-of-life ranking of the 107 Italian territorial provinces published in December each year by Il Sole 24 Ore, the leading national business newspaper, will be analyzed. With its about 40 indicators, it is considered as one of the most important disclosure or, say, moment of truth for local elected officials belonging to the several local government operating at the provincial level. But, after more than twenty years since its first edition, criticism about the way performance indicators are chosen - and changed over time - still remains.

Muddled, massaging, manœuvring or manipulated?

PurposeThis conceptual paper seeks to consider the impact of performance measurement and reporting based around performance indicators and targets within the public sector and to identify that the response to indicators and targets is often gaming which happens at organisational level. It then goes on to present a definition and typology of organisational gaming.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws from a range of documents both government and academic to identify both the process of, and the types of, organisational gaming.FindingsThe paper finds that organisational gaming occurs at both different levels (low and high) and extent (internal and external). It builds on this by presenting a framework (2 × 2 matrix) which presents types of organisational gaming which range in their degree of impact and consequence.Research limitations/implicationsThe concepts within this paper focus around public services on which the framework is built. This may – but it is doubtful – have limitations when considering the ideas within private sector organisations. Another limitation could be levelled at the 2 × 2 typology in that it may be difficult to place a gaming phenomenon into one “box” alone.Originality/valueThe value in the paper and the framework is that a distinction between measurement and reporting is drawn together with identification of a different gaming phenomenon. This, the paper argues, is important to understand, if organisations are to avoid some of the more “dangerous” or high impact consequences of gaming.

Performance Management and the Decline of Leadership within Public Services in the United Kingdom

This article considers the impact of performance measurement and performance management in the public services with particular reference to the police service in the United Kingdom. It suggests that, contrary to the argumentmade withinmuch current managerial literature extolling the values of leadership to effective management, the current emphasis placed on performance measurement serves to reinforce the central importance of management over leadership. This is found to be the case particularly within public service delivery, where the imposition of targets has helped create a tyranny of conformity within public services including the police service. It considers the influence of a target culture and the rise of deliverology in public services, arguing for the development of a more sophisticated ‘systems approach’ to service delivery. This would help sustain a citizen focus based on effective local feedback mechanisms,which might encourage a renaissance of leadership qualities while also encouraging public services to become far less risk averse.

The impact of performance measurement on performance

The impact of performance measurement on performance

The Impact of Performance Measurement on Financial Forecasting in Italian Municipalities

Since the mid-1990s, under the wave of New Public Management reforms around the globe, Italian local governments (LGs) have received growing pressure from the legislature to implement performance measurement systems. With reference to municipalities, data show that there has been a growing diffusion of management control systems (MCSs) and therefore some sort of performance measurement. In 1998, less than one-tenth of about 8,100 Italian municipalities indicated that they had a MCS in place. This number increased during the following four years to about 36% for municipalities with a population less than 60,000 inhabitants, and 77% for larger municipalities (source: Italian Court of Audit, 2003). Other evidence depicts similar trends: an increase in benchmarking projects during the latter half of the 1990s and 2001 (Lucianelli and Tanese, 2002), and a growing attention on cost accounting which led to half of Italian municipalities with some sort of measurement of costs in 2003 (Orelli and Visani, 2004). The general framework of the Italian Local Governments Accounting Standards (Commission for Local Governments' Finance and Accounting - Ministry of the Interior, 2004) emphasize that the annual budget approved by each municipality's council should present the true and fair view of the next year. In other words, municipalities should plan the year after attempting to determine the best feasible picture of it in terms - above all - of revenues and expenses. Toward this end the legislature (Decree no. 267/00, articles no. 162, 196, and 197) suggests the use of performance measures, especially those connected to a MCS. Therefore an important question is whether the growth of performance measurement had a positive impact on Italian municipalities' ability to estimate revenues and expenditures more accurately in their annual budgets. To answer this question we use a quantitative approach based on an analysis of annual budgets and annual reports of Italian municipalities covering financial years 1999-2002.

Policing Performance: The Impact of Performance Measures and Targets on Police Forces in England and Wales

This paper considers the impact of performance management and the application of targets on public services, particularly the police service. It identifies the unintended consequences of targets on the delivery of service and notes that in 1999 HMIC were to raise serious doubts as to the value of this management approach for public policing in England and Wales. It considers the impact of ‘micro-management’ on services that performance management ultimately represents. It goes on to reassess the purported attractions of performance management and presents an alternative in terms of a more holistic and local management approach based on a ‘systems' application which highlights the value of local feedback as a driver for service delivery. It challenges the highly centralised and mechanistic orientation which performance management, as pursued by New Labour, now represents. It concludes by arguing that a ‘systems approach’ would fit well within the planned roll-out of the new Neighbourhood Policing strategy while also providing a sound platform for the Basic Command Unit reform proposals recently identified by an influential police association.

Implementation and impact of performance measures in two SMEs in Central Scotland

This paper describes how performance measures were selected and then implemented in two small to medium size enterprises (SMEs) in Central Scotland. It then goes on to consider the impact of these measures on the performance of those businesses using data generated from an action research approach. A review of academic literature on the barriers to implementation of performance measurement systems in general, and those specifically relating to SMEs, suggested that considerable difficulties can be found in implementing performance measures. These perceived difficulties are considered and discussed in relation to the SMEs in question and the approaches used to minimize and overcome them are described. A systematic approach that is well resourced and focused on measuring variation in performance of entire ‘operate’ processes during execution is found to enable business improvement activity. The impact of using this approach on operations management strategy in each SME is reported. The research suggests that implementation of performance measures in an SME will have considerable impact on business performance if the process for implementation is well structured, resourced and focused on improving the capability of ‘operate’ processes.

Assessing Performance Measurement Impact: A Study of U.S. Local Governments

Assessing Performance Measurement Impact: A Study of U.S. Local Governments

Hypotheses about Performance Measurement in Counties: Findings from a Survey

This research examines hypotheses about the prevalence of performance measurement in counties. It focuses on organizational relationships, structures, and goals that are relevant to theories of management reform in government. Based on a national survey of counties, it finds that legislative and citizen support, the active involvement of central management, and mission orientation further the deployment of performance measurement. While ensuring that professional competency and adequate resources are associated with performance measurement, gaining external support and top management commitment are more important. This study also examines the importance of decentralized decision-making structures and efforts to make government more entrepreneurial. Governments in the United States have a long history of reporting performance indicators (General Accounting Office [GAO] 1997a; Hatry 1978; Poister and Streib 1984; 1989; 1994). Although a considerable amount of literature has recently emerged about performance measurement (Ammons 1996; Behn 1995; Broom 1995; Governmental Accounting Standards Board [GASB] 1990; GASB and National Academy of Public Administration 1997; Tracy and Jean 1993), few studies provide much theoretical analysis with empirical data about these efforts. Some studies describe the characteristics of performance measures currently in use (Poister and Streib 1999; Tigue 1994; Tigue and Strachota 1994), while others examine implementation efforts (GAO 1998; Melkers and Willoughby 1998; Kravchuk and Schack 1996; Radin 1998; Roberts 1997) and their challenges (GAO 1998; Mikesell 1995; Radin 1998; Roberts 1997). By contrast, this research focuses the impact of organizational relationships, structures, and goals on the deployment of performJ-PART 11(2000):3:403-428 ance measurement. It examines hypotheses that are relevant to 403/ Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory at R uers U nirsity on A uust 2, 2010 http://jpaordjournals.org D ow nladed fom Performance Measurement: Findings from a Survey 'This study focuses on the deployment of performance measurement rather than on purposes of performance measurement activities or the impact of performance measurement. Frequently, research utilizes the term use to refer to all these phenomena. By using deployment rather than use we hope to avoid confusion. We thank an anonymous reviewer for this suggestion. the development of theory about management reform, organizational improvement, and accountability in public organizations. The empirical data for diis study are based on a national survey of performance measurement in counties with populations over fifty thousand. County governments are studied because although anecdotal evidence suggests that many counties have increased their activities in recent years, very little systematic research exists about the management capabilities of counties (Cigler 1995; Menzel 1996; Streib 1996; Svara 1993 and 1996; Marando and Reeves 1991). Performance measurement is of particular relevance to counties because of their role in intergovernmental relations and because of a growing need to provide accountability and performance information to their residents. In addition, counties are presumed to vary greatly in their professional competency, centralization of decision making, mission orientation, resource availability, and other factors that we theoretically relate to performance measurement. This study provides empirical evidence about these hypotheses. In this study we define deployment as the prevalence of performance measures in county service functions. Prevalence concerns both the extent of performance measurement (e.g., in which county functions are performance measures most often, and least often, found?) and the nature of such prevalence, that is, whether performance measures include both outputs and outcomes. A caveat of this research is that it does not attempt to assess what the consequences (or outcomes) of deploying performance measurement might be. As a relatively new management practice, it is still too early to tell in many jurisdictions. However, this manuscript does provide additional information about the intended purposes of performance measurement.'

Investigating the impact of performance measurement

Managers are continually under pressure to measure the performance of their organisations, but there is little empirical evidence about the impact of such measurement on performance - it is simply assumed that performance measurement will make a positive difference. Explanations of the costs and benefits of performance measurement are constrained by the lack of clear theoretical foundations to many measurement tools and techniques, and an apparent preference for description and prescription in much of the literature. This paper proposes investigations into neglected aspects of organisational performance measurement, reflecting the experiences and concerns of managers and illustrating the potential for theoretical developments to have an impact on practice.