Performance Management as an Alternative Tool for Local Governance: Evidence from Ghanaian Local Government Sector

Abstract

The benefit of performance management is to have value for money and make local authorities more responsive to the needs of the grassroots. Therefore, the study addresses the perceived challenges which have been taken-for-granted in institutionalising performance culture at the local level in the context of sub-Sharan Africa. The purpose of this research is to investigate the progress and challenges affecting the institutionalisation of performance management in local government authorities to understand how these impediments impacts on performance culture in local governance. Using two major secondary data sources from Local Government Service, the study analyzes the contents of four key performance areas and the performance rating of local government authorities in Ghana . The study finds evidence to support that performance management may be an alternative tool to enhance the performance of local authorities. However , insufficient resource allocation, the absence of performance improvement programs and involvement of employees remains a challenge.

The relationship between organizational environment antecedents and performance management in local government: evidence from Ghana

“…Subsequently, in 2012, the government of Ghana decided to implement a PM system in the public service and in particular the Local Government Service which sought to institute PM in the country to improve performance and service delivery [1]. The new policy considered stakeholder participation because the framers felt that the environment of organizations is important determinants in policy outcomes.…”

“…Ghana has 260 local government authorities in 16 administrative regions, which are responsible for the management and implementation of the government's policies and programs. The purpose of choosing the Greater Accra Region and the eleven (11) MMAs was informed by the performance evaluation results of the LGS annual performance monitoring in 2015 [1]. Out of the 850 questionnaires administered, 655 were completed and received providing a 77.0% response rate.…”

“…Ghana implemented its performance management (PM) policy at the local level in 2012 followed by the firstever performance evaluation assessment conducted in 2015 for all the 216 metropolitan, municipal, and district assemblies (MMDAs) in the country [1]. Abane and Phinaitrup's study observed that stakeholder participation was absent and that affected MMDAs performance.…”

“…At the same time. PM has been described as a developmental that provides organizations the opportunity to tailor their training to specific areas of employee task performance skill-gap [1,4,35] PM effectiveness is also linked to several factors that enhance its importance in the public sector. Factors such as quality of goals [33], measurement, and performance improvement [57].…”

Performance Management Practices and Motivation in Developing Countries: A Further Validation of the Public Service Motivation Construct in Ghana

“…Performance management (PM) is a vital tool for organizations and their employees to achieve their goals, increase value to citizens, and deliver quality public services. Although PM has been an old organizational performance tool in the private sector, recent developments suggest a widespread adoption by local governments in the public management literature (Abane & Phinaitrup, 2017;Ammons & Roenigk, 2015). Similarly, research on PM over the years have concentrated on the measurement system (Ammons & Rivenbark, 2008;Hoontis & Kim, 2012), metric difficulty (Cavalluzzo & Ittner, 2004), goal clarity (Hoontis & Kim, 2012;Moynihan et al 2012), and political support (Moynihan et al 2012;Yang & Hsieh, 2007).…”