No abstract

In recent years, the hotel industry has recognized the need to have more environmentally friendly operations. The main focus, however, has been on improving environmental management practices in developed countries. Furthermore, most attempts to develop assessment tools for green practices have come from such countries as well, which have a different socioeconomic situation from developing countries. Therefore, to capture a <br />more accurate picture of environmental management practices from the developing country context, specifically a Malaysian context, the authors in this paper created an index to measure the level of green practices among<br />Malaysian hotels. Doing so, however, resulted in a search for green index development methods. This lead to the discovery that existing tools such as the Delphi method were not appropriate tools that could be used to develop a Malaysian green index. To address the above, the authors propose a green index development method that can be used for a  Malaysian and developing country context. Hence, in this paper, the method of developing a green practice index for the Malaysian hospitality industry, the differences and advantages of this method compared to the commonly used Delphi method and finally the Malaysian Green Practice Index for the hotel industry are presented.<br /><br />

No abstract

PurposeThis paper investigates the extent to which externally led benchmarking may have facilitated performance management design and use in Malaysian local authorities.Design/methodology/approachA longitudinal qualitative study of local authorities in Malaysia was undertaken, comprising interviews with key officers during the introduction of process-based key performance indicators (KPIs), and following the imposition of benchmarking (i.e. relative performance evaluation) on local authorities. Complexity theory was used in the analysing and theorising of data.FindingsExternal benchmarking mechanisms facilitated only operational performance management, with strategic performance management merely ceremonially adopted. As the focus was on mainly operational KPIs, strategic goals were not translated into detailed action plans and outputs at departmental level. In addition, operational and strategic performance management packages were decoupled. Thus, the efforts of external actors resulted in operational controls suppressing rather than facilitating strategic processes.Research limitations/implicationsThere is a need to transition from purely externally led benchmarking to internally driven benchmarking in local government, whereby benchmarking forms part of the interactive performance management mechanisms that lead to institutional learning and improvement.Practical implicationsBenchmarking activities should be based on comprehensive analyses of performance management design and use. A reflective approach to continuously identify gaps or weaknesses in performance management systems will enable local government administrators to improve systems and processes in a timely manner to meet stakeholder needs.Originality/valueThis paper explains the impact of central government policy and benchmarking initiatives on other levels of government. We have built on previous literature by examining the connection between external benchmarking and internal performance management design and use in local government. In relation to this, and following calls for research on holistic performance management, the integration between operational and strategic performance management packages was also examined.

Performance management systems are crucial to the achievement of goals, particularly in the public sector, which typically has greater institutional complexity than other sectors. The rise of sustainability in many nations adds to the inherent complexity in government institutions, necessitating the reshaping of performance management systems to balance economic, social and environmental goals. The potential of performance management systems to meet such goals in the public sector is greatly dependent on how they are integrated across vertical and horizontal governmental structures. However, it is unclear whether public sector literature addresses the interconnections between performance management elements. This paper provides an overview of public sector performance management from selected literature published during the period of 2008 to 2017. The review is aimed at capturing practices from empirical studies, and is specifically focused on the interconnectedness of performance management elements. The content analysis approach used in this study is guided by five main performance management elements derived from the frameworks of Otley and Ferreira and Otley. As it was found that most studies concentrate on less than three elements, the paper concludes with a call for researchers to align future studies with the underpinnings of performance management holistically.