Performance Management in the Public Sector: The Ultimate Challenge

Arnaboldi, Michela; Lapsley, Irvine; Steccolini, Ileana

doi:10.1111/faam.12049

Cited by 279 publications

(331 citation statements)

References 51 publications

(53 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

311

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…entrepreneurial thinking (Osborne and Gaebler 1992;Arnold 2013) where managers are expected to have generic knowledge about governance and organizations (Lapsley 2008(Lapsley , 2009Pollitt 2000;Hood 1991). Together with dominant ideas about separating policy and administration (Aberbach, Putnam, and Rockman 1981;Frederickson et al 2012), it has created disaggregated (Rhodes 1994;Milward, Provan, and Else 1993;Frederickson 1999b) and complex political organizations (Lapsley and Skaerbaek 2012;Lapsley and Knutsson 2017) where performance measurement (Arnaboldi, Lapsley, and Steccolini 2015;Speklé and Frank Verbeeten 2014), accountability, and discretion have become key factors (Kaboolian 1998;Hood 1995). This undoubtedly affects all actors in the public sector, even though I argue that it has especially affected individuals in managerial positions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Searching for managerial discretion: how public managers engage managerialism as a rationalization for increased latitude of action

Karlsson

2018

Public Management Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article focuses on the managerial discretion that public managers experience. More specifically, it discusses how managerialism is an embedded ideological stance that influences understandings of public sector governance. I argue that managers' perceptions of discretion are affected by these understandings. The analysis draws on empirical data from a longitudinal study, demonstrating how public managers engage discourses emanating from managerialism in order to rationalize increased discretion. The findings suggest that customer perspectives functions as a rationalizing factor for engaging public managers' transition towards increased discretion. As such, this article contributes to knowledge about managerial discretion as well as managerialism.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Searching for managerial discretion: how public managers engage managerialism as a rationalization for increased latitude of action

Karlsson

2018

Public Management Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There are many ways in which this complexity can show itself (Daft 1992); however, even if the concept of complexity abounds in the public sector, the application of this theory is neither self-evident nor as straightforward as it might appear (Arnaboldi et al 2015). In the specific case of health care organizations, the complexity relies on the phenomena's dynamism, which unfolds in unpredictable ways; these unfolding events are often unique, and it is interesting that a number of complexity theory advocates have identified health care as a suitable context for study (Arndt and Bigelow 2000).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance Management Uses, Outcome Measures and Mechanisms-Based Explanations. The Case of the Judicial Sector

Vecchi

2017

System Dynamics for Performance Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The public sector performance management (PM) literature is particularly rich as this topic is one of the most appealing for public sector scholars (Pollitt, J Public Adm Res Theory 6:25-44, 2005). However, organizational performance (OP) has been neglected across the world (Andrews et al. J Public Adm Res Theory 21:i301-i319, 2011) as well as in the Italian public administration (Martin and Spano, Public Money Manag 35:303-310, 2015). This chapter investigates how OP is defined, measured, and evaluated in the Italian health care sector. Our analysis showed the limited use of performance management in Italian public health organizations and a high variability in the way OP is defined and measured. This makes it difficult to compare the results of different organizations. For this reason, future standardization could allow policy makers to improve the accountability.Keywords Organizational performance Á Health care Á Italian public sector IntroductionThe issue of OP is of particular relevance in the healthcare sector, where the impact of health organizations on individuals' lives is significant and measures of OP are required to understand the extent to which these organizations are effective. Even though significant progress has been made in building more advanced performance measurement systems in the health care sector, more work is needed (Smith et al. 2008). In fact, the literature on performance management in the health care sector reports several cases of incorrect uses and, even misuses of performance measures and targets with the introduction of a kind of "governance by targets" and a Traditionally, performance in health care has been measured using specific indicators such as incidence of pathology, mortality measures, and measures of mortality after a specific treatment. Other measures are increasingly attractive, including those that focus on patient health status, which are often in the form of outcome measures (Smith et al. 2008). However, there is a limited "understanding of how performance measurement can be organized to support improvement initiatives in health care practices" (Elg et al. 2013).In the Italian public sector, the role of OP has been largely neglected, and more importance has been given to individual performance (Martin and Spano 2015). As far as the healthcare sector is concerned, OP is attracting increased attention in Italy, but there is still a lack of extensive research on this topic. For example, there is a high variation in the way OP is defined and, consequently, measured. In particular, a comprehensive analysis of the current OP practices as measured by Italian health care organizations is still missing. For this reason, our research aims at addressing the following research questions (RQs):RQ1: How do Italian health care organizations define OP? RQ2: Is OP measured by Italian health care organizations, and if so, how?This chapter is organized into six sections: (1) literature review on OP with specific reference to the health care sector; (2) the Italian health ...

show abstract

“…It is generally recognised that pressure to do "more with less" has sprang up public sector reforms as well as the development of the Resource-Based Management in any public context (Arnaboldi et al, 2015;Cepiku et al, 2016). In order to face the austerity in creating public value, any municipality has to be able to manage a system of internal factors and external conditions affecting the efficiency and effectiveness of the public service provision.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The joined-up strategic planning of cultural service provision: What are the routes of accountability?

Magliacani¹

2018

Afr. J. Bus. Manage.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The debate on accountability in collaborative working for public service delivery is still opened. However, the literature shows research challenges in extending knowledge on critical issues on routes in which accountability are adopted in the Joined-Up Government. This is the reason why public management literature focused on case studies within joined-up services provision. Notwithstanding, an extended understanding on joined-up strategic planning and delivery in culture heritage sector is also needed. More specifically, this research aims at investigating how the Resource-Based Management Theory can affect the accountability effectiveness of the strategic planning within the Joined-up cultural heritage provision. In order to achieve this aim, a case study on an Italian Strategic City was carried out. The evidences demonstrate how the Resource-Based Management in joined-up cultural service strategic planning and delivery fosters accountability. The new conceptual model provided by this case study opens up new research streams on performance measurement and management aligned to the routes of accountability in the joined-up strategic planning and delivery. Considering the social-economic implications of a good management of cultural heritage, these investigations could contribute to improve the quality of life and the welfare of the society.

show abstract

Performance Management in the Public Sector: The Ultimate Challenge

Cited by 279 publications

References 51 publications

Searching for managerial discretion: how public managers engage managerialism as a rationalization for increased latitude of action

Searching for managerial discretion: how public managers engage managerialism as a rationalization for increased latitude of action

Performance Management Uses, Outcome Measures and Mechanisms-Based Explanations. The Case of the Judicial Sector

The joined-up strategic planning of cultural service provision: What are the routes of accountability?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About