Use Of Performance Management Research Articles

GPRA’s Incomplete Institutionalization: A Story of Roots and Branches

ABSTRACT This study proposes explanations for GPRA’s incomplete institutionalization, and how it has influenced and continues to affect the use of performance management in the US Government. It evaluates the evolving institutionalization of GPRA, PART, and GPRAMA resulting from tensions in three sets of competing PM reform values: 1) performance-performative communications, 2) discretion-accountability, and 3) politics-administration. The study concludes that experiential learning from GPRA’s incomplete institutionalization set the stage for today’s evidence and data movements and increased instrumental use of performance information in federal agencies.

Towards A Framework for Performance Management and Machine Learning in A Higher Education Institution

Performance management is a process that helps an organisation to manage its performance. Therefore, there are three stages of performance management such as coaching, corrective action, and then termination. A proper performance management process is very important for the development of a higher education institute. Apart from that, machine learning is another important process that is based on software technology. Therefore, machine learning helps to predict the outcomes of learning. There are a total of four types of algorithms of machine learning such as unsupervised, supervised, semi-supervised, and reinforcement. Furthermore, the use of performance management helps to enhance the productivity of the students of higher education institutions. In addition to that, the use of machine learning in higher education institutions is also helpful to enhance the productivity of the students. As both of the processes are efficient to gain knowledge about several things, therefore it helps to enhance the productivity of the students of higher education institutions.
 On the other hand, the purpose of this particular research study is to create a framework for machine learning and performance management in a higher education institution. Therefore, the framework is efficient and effective to understand the concept of research topics. Furthermore, the Framework for machine learning and performance management will help the students of higher education institutions to understand the impacts of these processes on their productivity. Apart from that, the researcher has used several types of methods and techniques for collecting and analysing all the data about the particular research topic. Thus, the researcher has adopted secondary methods for gathering more information and data about the research topic. Along with that, the researcher has used qualitative techniques for analysing all the data in this particular research study.

Framing the use of performance management in universities: the paradox of business disciplines

PurposeThis paper explores how performance-management systems are understood and framed through the use of rhetoric and language within universities, where not-for-profit, charitable goals are (or should be) central. It addresses the issues of: how strategic rhetorical frames are used by university actors; and how these relate to actors' primary frames and reactions to performance-management practices. The study focuses on the case of UK universities, taking into consideration both old and newer institutions.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a case-study approach, relying on 28 interviews with key-academic actors involved in the design and implementation of university performance-management systems in four UK universities.FindingsThe research highlights the important effect of primary frames over the strategic frames that are mobilised to achieve desired outcomes or individual advantage. In Business disciplines, the consistency between actors' primary frames and managerial and performance-management tools introduced into universities makes such disciplines a fertile ground for these practices to be embraced. This is not the case with Natural Sciences.Practical implicationsWhile framing a new practice consistently with existing/prevailing primary frames may be a winning strategy in the short term, in the long term, those tasked with introducing new practices should consider that the prevalence of a certain view of the world has the potential to hamper innovation and learning.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to advance our understanding of the interaction between individual primary and strategic frames, as well as academic staff's reactions and interpretations of performance-management practices in universities as knowledge-intensive, not-for-profit organisations.

The perception of employees on performance‐based budgeting reforms in developing countries: The perspective from Ghana

AbstractIn the last few decades, the use of performance management to correct state finances has led to the (re)emergence of performance‐based budgeting (PBB), with the belief that it will reveal where scarce resources should be concentrated. The efficacy of PBB, however, continues to be debated. This paper attempts to contribute to the discussion, by examining the case of Ghana from the perspective of budget officers. How do budget officers perceive the PBB? It is argued that while PBB is professed as a useful budgetary mechanism, there are challenges that need to be addressed if it is to achieve its objectives.

Sustainability of Evaluation Function in Lithuanian Public Administration

This article sets out to examine the public policy evaluation model, which is applied for evaluating public policy in Lithuania. The data was collected from the papers published by local researchers, official documents available at the ministries and agencies web sites and other printed materials. Qualitative data for this paper was taken from the series of individual interviews with public officials and evaluators (conducted 200–2010). The data was supplemented with quantitative data from the survey about the scope and significance of evaluation in Lithuania (conducted in 2010). It was found that monitoring system was weak designed and required significant reinvention. The reinvention of the monitoring system will built base for the future evaluation of the results. It is suggested that that the greatest demand for the effectiveness, efficiency and productivity in the government leads to the highest use of performance management and evaluation as a tool for decision-making.

Performance management as a mediator for work engagement and employment relationships in the public sector in South Africa

Orientation: To improve service delivery to its citizens, the South African public sector should aim to improve employees’ performance by implementing effective performance management that would impact positively on work engagement and employment relationships.Research purpose: The primary objective of this study was to determine whether performance management could be a mediator for work engagement and employment relationships in the public sector in South Africa.Motivation for the study: The success of the public sector relies primarily on performance management that strengthens work engagement and employment relationships, which in turn positively influence employee performance. Managers need to understand the influence of performance management on work engagement and employment relationships.Research approach/design and method: A quantitative approach was employed. Non-probability purposive sampling was used to select 400 permanent employees with more than 5 years of experience at job levels 1–12 in eight national departments based in Gauteng. A structured questionnaire was utilised as a data collection method in this study. The questionnaire for the study was divided into four sections and consisted of 74 Likert-scale questions.Main findings: This study showed a moderate correlation between performance management and work engagement and a strong correlation between performance management and employment relationships. This study indicated that performance management was indeed a mediator between work engagement and employment relationships.Practical/managerial implications: Management should ensure that employees understand the function of performance management as a whole, display a positive attitude towards the implementation of performance management, ensure that employees’ Key Performance Indicator (KPIs) adequately reflect their areas of responsibility, motivate the use of performance management through the reward structure and finally, training and orientation on performance management should also be provided to newly appointed and existing staff members to ensure strong work engagement and good employment relationships.Contribution/value-add: Contribution of the study to knowledge and practice surrounding performance management, work engagement and employment relationships. The contribution of this study is to impress on managers and leaders the influence of performance management on work engagement and employment relationships.

Does removing default retirement ages benefit individuals? A comparative empirical case study of the university sector

In 2011, the UK government abolished the national default retirement age. While this could support extended working lives and promote individual choice, it could also be a neoliberal ‘ploy’ to individualise the risks of old age. The question, then, is what impact does the removal of mandatory retirement have in practice: does it help to promote individual choice and autonomy? Or does it lead to work intensification and the individualisation of the risks of demographic change? Or both, perhaps simultaneously? Drawing on original qualitative and quantitative empirical data from UK and USA universities, this article considers the impact of removing mandatory retirement ages on individual workers in higher education. It argues that legal reform may have prompted or encouraged work intensification in universities, including through an increased focus and use of performance management. Thus, in practice, the consequences of removing retirement ages for individuals are mixed.

Too rich to learn – when action researchers work against senior management and their use of performance management

ABSTRACT We analyse and self-reflect on an action research project conducted in a financial organisation twelve years ago. The research question was: What are the challenges of initiating an action research project in a financial organisation with top-down control that uses the Balanced Scorecard? The data came from action learning seminars with line managers, observations, interviews, and meetings in a Norwegian bank (Bank) with approximately 800 employees. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. This study’s findings indicate that performance management and top-down senior management control may unintentionally hinder the possibilities for proceeding with action research projects. The researchers lacked open communication with senior management about the purpose of the project, and the managers who participated in the action learning found it difficult to explain to colleagues and senior management what they learned from the processes. Action research did not fit with the Bank’s strategic use of performance management. The project may have increased the stress on the line managers as we identified problems without providing the opportunity to make real changes in their organisation. As a result, we determined that action researchers should be cautious in initiating action research without concrete support, active participation and ‘common ground’ dialogues with senior management.

Policy Adoption, Innovation, and Performance Management: The Case of Performance-funding Policies in State Postsecondary Education

Since the 1980s, nearly every state government has implemented some form of performance management. This article turns to the context of public higher education where the use of performance management has been popular but highly controversial and unstable. Using the Cox conditional gap time model for repeating events and state-level panel data, this article investigates the factors associated with the adoption and readoption of performance-based funding policies for public higher education. Results indicate that state higher education governing structures, increases in public tuition, and educational attainment are important predictors of whether a state adopts performance-based funding.

Does excellence matter? National quality awards and performance of Czech municipalities

The purpose of this study is to discuss the influence of excellence in the use of performance management and quality improvements tools on performance of Czech municipalities, and especially their cost efficiency. Municipalities' performance is analyzed using data envelopment analysis focused on inputs. A quasi-experimental design is utilized and excelling municipalities are compared with two control groups. The first is represented by municipalities that use excellence models and quality improvement tools but have not been awarded a national excellence prize; the second by municipalities which do not use them. The results do not indicate any significant difference between the three groups of municipalities. This means that the excellence in utilization of performance management and quality improvement tools does not produce performance approaching that of cost efficiency.

Is Cost Accounting Used with Other NPM Practices? Evidence from European Countries

Cost accounting has not been studied extensively in the context of European central governments. This article looks at the use of cost accounting with two New Public Management practices: performance management and decentralization. The research finds that there is an increasing use of cost accounting for central government ministries that make greater use of performance management, which follows the theoretical prediction that cost accounting information and performance information can be used together to address agency problems. Greater decentralization is associated with a greater use of cost accounting, but the relationship between decentralization and cost accounting does not vary by agency or ministry.

Performance management that works? Improving public services by making use of intrinsic motivation

AbstractOne of the central features of public governance in the 2000s was an extension in the use of performance management (PM), but research has suggested that the “gaming” of PM systems became commonplace and that measured performance data was often unreliable. However, PM is necessary in some form, and has fared better in some settings than others. This article presents a systematic comparison based on two case studies where success has been claimed, from English local government and the Quality and Outcomes Framework in the National Health Service, as a means to generating insights into how PM systems can be made to work better. It links its analysis to Frey's and Deci's work on intrinsic motivation in order to theoretically explain its findings before exploring how the insights generated can be applied to other service settings.

Performance management and job-goal alignment

PurposeThe use of performance management (PM) tools is a defining characteristic of public sector management. However, while research on PM is extensive, comparatively little focuses on how the practice shapes the attitudes and behavior of employees. The purpose of this paper is to address this question and develop a conditional process model that links PM to turnover intention. The model predicts that the PM-turnover relationship is mediated by job satisfaction and moderated by job-goal alignment.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use a unique data set drawn from the Russian public sector to test the model empirically. Conditional process modeling is used to test for moderated mediation. The effects are further explored using bootstrapped bias-corrected confidence intervals.FindingsThe analysis suggests that PM has an indirect effect on turnover intention via job satisfaction in the average case. However, the indirect effect is stronger for employees who perceive that their work contributes directly to organizational goals. In contrast, for employees whose work lacks organizational goal alignment, PM has no significant effect.Originality/valueDespite being an instrument to manage organizational (including human) resources, few studies have linked PM to employee-level outcomes. By doing so, this study implies promising research paths that can help generate a more complete picture of how PM shapes organizational processes in the public sector.

Transformational Leadership and Mission Valence of Employees: The Varying Effects by Organizational Level

ABSTRACTOriginally developed to explain the leadership styles of political leaders and societal reformers, the theory of transformational leadership is increasingly used to explain organizational performance in public administration. Transformational leaders supposedly use their inspirational abilities, motivational skills, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration to change employee aspirations and behavior, resulting ultimately in improved organizational performance. Using Bayesian SEM on survey responses of 2,786 employees of a state transportation department, this article examines the impact of transformational leadership on mission valence at three organizational leadership levels, with organizational goal clarity and performance management hypothesized as intervening mechanisms. Results show transformational leadership having the strongest impact on organizational goal clarity at the topmost leadership level, and on the use of performance management at the lowest leadership level.

Performance Management: Confronting the Challenges for Local Government

Performance management, the use of performance information in strategic daily decision making, has not infiltrated local governments to the same degree as state or federal agencies. This article uses the capacity/performance paradigm as a framework to build a theoretical synthesis of the obstacles to local government use of performance management. It identifies and elucidates a series of challenges local governments face in successfully implementing performance-based management approaches. Among the obstacles identified are: insufficient administrative capacity, limited fiscal resources, insufficient economies of scale, absence of comparable entities for benchmarking, inadequate use of strategic planning, complex implementation environments (intergovernmental, intersectoral, cooperative, and collaborative), strings attached to state or federal grant awards, the illusion of control created by proximity to decision makers and citizens, task simplicity, and the cacophony of reform expectations (strategic planning, program evaluation, performance measurement and management, evidence-based practice). Because of these challenges, these small local governments are less likely to encounter demands for performance information, or to develop an a priori appreciation for its value to day-to-day administration. The essay concludes with a look at what can be done to inspire increased attention to performance in local government administration.

Will Performance Management Restore Citizens’ Faith in Public Education?

ABSTRACT:Over the past decade, policymakers have expanded the use of performance management in public education in the United States. Education researchers have focused heavily on the ways these practices and policies shape teaching and learning, but have given much less attention to other expected outcomes of performance management. This article explores two specific areas where more research is needed: whether performance management improves public satisfaction and trust in public education, and whether it improves public oversight of education. We provide background on relevant educational issues and context for the study of performance management in education scholarship. Our goal is to draw additional researchers into this important line of inquiry.

The Implementation of Performance Management in European Central Governments: More a North-South than an East-West Divide

Abstract This article presents the first country-comparative evidence on the importance and use of performance management in European central governments, based on an executive survey conducted in 17 countries. The data confirm that performance management has made its way into European central governments and continues to constitute a major reform trend. At the organizational level of ministries and agencies we find a consistently strong use of strategic planning, performance appraisal and management objectives, along with only a partial institutionalization of a performance-management logic. Scepticism towards measurement and the difficulty of acting upon performance information are persistent challenges. We also find that performance-management implementation is significantly stronger in agencies and larger organizations, and that it varies strongly between different countries. Implementation is substantially higher in Scandinavian countries and Anglo-Saxon countries than in Continental and Southern European countries, with a rather varied pattern for Central and Eastern European countries. The findings thereby confirm the need for a more context-sensitive understanding of performance management, along with the need for more extensive research and evidence to further develop this cross-comparative European perspective.

Use and Utilization of Performance Information in Hungary: Exemplary Cases from the Local- Government and the Higher-Education Sectors

Abstract Performance information and performance management are usually seen as tools to promote the efficiency and effectiveness of different public-policy programs. Performance management is a hot topic in the post-NPM discourse, however most of the debate is centered on the Western European and Anglo-Saxon models of measurement and evaluation of public services. This paper examines how a Central European country with a strong Rechtsstaat tradition can adapt to the use of performance management, and what patterns we can identify in the actual manifestations of measurement and use of data. The authors argue that even though performance management is not known in Hungary as per defined in the academic literature, there are signs on the ground that PM ideology and actual use are gaining traction in every field of public services, both in central and local governments.

Performance in Complex, Hierarchical Government Organizations: What Can We Learn from a Comparative Study of Defense Organizations?

Performance management, a management model with a long history (Van Dooren, 2008), has been used internationally to promote better government (OECD, 1996) and has been shown to be difficult to adopt (Laegreid et al., 2006) and more difficult to implement. Adoption of performance-based management systems (PBMSs) has been more successful than implementation (De Lancer Julnes and Holzer, 2001). Over the last thirty years, government practice has at its foundation New Public Management (NPM), which promotes managing for results in public sectors worldwide (OECD, 2005). The U.S. and Italian governments embraced this NPM tenet and introduced PBMSs in parts of or entire organizations. We assess the adoption and use of performance management practices in these hierarchical and complex public organizations, in particular how and to what extent the Italian Army (IA) and the U.S. Navy Surface Warfare Enterprise (SWE) implemented PBMSs. By analyzing the cases, we find that both organizations have encountered some benefits and difficulties in implementation. We address these critical factors and contribute to the literature and to practical use of performance management in government organizations by demonstrating some key factors of hierarchical, complex government organizations that enable or hamper successful implementation and use of a PBMS.

Redefining retirement: age equality and the rise of performance management

AbstractHow do individuals retire when there is no default retirement age? The changes to the retirement regulations were aimed at extending individual choice, but with the use of performance management, employers have a new tool with which to control the time and manner of retirement. Employees who fail to perform as required are now to be ‘managed out’. Therefore, retirement needs to be treated as an outcome of workplace employment relations with consequences for all age groups.