Managing Performance International Comparisons

In recent years, concerns over the effectiveness of public administration have encouraged the widespread measurement and management of ‘performance’. But is performance management an appropriate model for public sector organizations, and has it proved successful? Moreover, how do the principles of performance management affect how public bodies operate, and the way they relate to the wider community? In this important text, the viability of performance management in public sector organizations is systematically assessed across a number of international case studies. The book provides a framework through which models of performance management can be understood in terms of both their impact within a public sector organization, and the effects that have been seen in countries with contrasting administrational contexts. Managing Performance – International Comparisons critically examines the effects of performance management models in the public sector, and assesses their future evolution. It is an important book for all students and researchers with an interest in management, public administration and public policy.

Acknowledgements Introduction Part I Concepts, Approaches and Explanations1. What is managing performance? 2. Performance and management: approaches to analysis 3. Managing performance: contexts and explanations Part II Performance Types 4. Performance administration 5. Managements of performances 6. Performance management Part III Comparative Performance and Evaluation 7. Managing performance: comparing country models and practice 8. Paradoxes and disconnects in managing performance 9. Towards performance governance: a new agenda? 10. Conclusion and next steps Appendices i. Methodological introduction to the country models ii Ideal types of managing performance: synthetic overview iii OECD checklists iv List of glossaries v Country models vi. Notes vii. Bibliography viii. Index

Geert Bouckaert is a Professor of Public Management and Director of the Public Management Institute at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. He is also President of the European Group of Public Administration. John Halligan is Research Professor of Government and Public Administration at theSchool of Business and Government at the University of Canberra, Australia, and Director of the National Institute of Governance at the same institution.