Performance Management in Local Government: The Application of System Dynamics to Promote Data Use

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how system dynamics can be used to enrich performance management in local government, focusing specifically on how the development of conceptual and simulation system dynamic models can foster a shared view of the relevant system among stakeholders to overcome factors that limit data use. Responding to this purpose, we present a normative case study on how key drivers can be used to foster a shared view of the residential refuse collection system for supporting policy and process changes. A major finding from our research, however, is that performance management cannot overlook the broader forces of citizenship outcomes that impact the community.Keywords: local government, performance management, system dynamics, data use INTRODUCTIONWhile some scholars have suggested that the forces of New Public Management are now in decline (Hughes, 2003), a clear success story of this reform is the use of performance measurement in the public sector for tracking the outputs and outcomes of service delivery. In fact, research has demonstrated that well-managed performance measurement systems are critical for accurately and systematically demonstrating operational accountability in governmental organizations (Rivenbark, 2007). However, we must be cautious in how we think about the use of performance measurement systems because of their two distinct parts as described by de Lancer Jules and Holzer (2001). The first part involves adoption, where public officials develop performance measures, track them over time, and report them on a periodic basis. The second part involves implementation, where public officials actually use performance information to make policy and process changes for improving service delivery.Correspondence should be addressed to Carmine Bianchi, Via Ugdulena, 1 -90100 Palermo, Italy. E-mail: bianchi.carmine@gmail.com Color versions of one or more figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/lpad. The problem is that success is clearly more associated with adoption rather than implementation.Ammons and Rivenbark (2008) addressed this issue by studying the patterns of implementation from 14 municipalities associated with the North Carolina Benchmarking Project. While the authors concluded that the record of these municipalities actually using performance data remains modest, certain factors did emerge that promoted the move from adoption to implementation of performance measurement systems. These included the focus on the higher order measures of efficiency and effectiveness, the willingness to benchmark against other organizations, and the need to imbed performance measures within other management systems. A more recent study also suggests that managerial involvement in the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 and the Program Assessment Tool has produced relatively few aspects of performance information use in federal agencies (Moynihan & Lavertu, 2012). This research, however, identified a number of organizational factors that incr...

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