In times of rising expectations and decreasing resources for the public sector, performance management is high on the agenda. Increasingly, the value of the performance management systems themselves is under scrutiny, with more attention being paid to the effectiveness of performance management in practice. This new edition has been revised and updated to examine: performance in the context of current public management debates, including emerging discussions on the New Public Governance and neo-Weberianism; the many definitions of performance and how it has become one of the most contested agendas of public management; the so-called perverse effects of using performance indicators; the technicalities of performance measurement in a five step process: prioritising measurement, indicator development, data collection, analysis and reporting; and the future challenges and directions of performance management Performance Management in the Public Sector 2nd edition offers an approachable insight into a complex theme for practitioners and public management students alike.

The Third Edition of this successful textbook introduces students to the major concepts, models, and approaches surrounding the public sector. Now fully updated to include coverage of the New Public Management (NPM), The Public Sector is the most comprehensive textbook on theories of public policy and public administration. The Public Sector is introduced within a three-part framework: public resource allocation, redistribution and regulation. Jan-Erik Lane explains the basic concepts of each of these broad areas, and goes on to examine their consequences for various approaches to the making and implementation of public policy. The book explores models of management, effectiveness and efficiency, and evaluates the contribution, among many, of public choice and neo-institutionalist approaches, organizational theory, models of normative policy-making and, expanded in this edition, the theory of fiscal federalism. The New Edition retains chapters on public sector reform and continues to contrast the logic of the new management state with that of the old administrative state before introducing the basic ideas of New Public Management. The Public Sector will be essential reading to all students seeking a deeper understanding of the modern state and government across political science and public policy, administration and management.

A host of promising public sector reform efforts are underway throughout the world. In governments challenged by budget deficits and declining public trust, these reform efforts seek to improve policy decisions and public management. Along the way, program efficiency and effectiveness help rebuild public confidence in government. Whether through regular measurement of program inputs, activities, and outcomes, or through episodic one-shot studies, performance monitoring plays a central role in the most important current reform efforts. Monitoring Performance in the Public Sector, now available in paperback, is based on experiences derived from comparative analysis in different countries. It explains why there is interest in perfor!mance monitoring in a given setting, why it has failed or created uncertainties, and identifies criteria for improving its design and use.One of the challenges this book offers is the need to consider dimensions of performance beyond the traditional ones of economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. With an increasingly diverse, interdependent, and uncertain public sector environment, for some stakeholders meeting objectives fixed some time ago may not be as important as the capacity to adapt to current and future change. In this vein, the contributors address a number of themes: the criti!cal importance of organizational support for performance monitoring and making it consistent with the organizational culture, the need for active and effective leadership in defining criteria and implementing practical performance monitoring, the value of linking ongoing measurement with more than the traditional, strictly quantitative aspects of public sector performance.As we gain experience with performance monitoring and its uses, such systems should become more cost effective over time. This book will be of deep interest to public managers, government officials, economists, and organization theorists, and useful in courses on p

Regardless of where we live, the management of the public sector impacts on our lives. Hence, we all have an interest, one way or another, in the achievement of efficiency and productivity improvements in the activities of the public sector. For a government agency that provides a public service, striving for unreasonable benchmark targets for efficiency may lead to a deterioration of service quality, along with an increase in stress and job dissatisfaction for public sector employees. Slack performance targets may lead to gross inefficiency, poor quality of service, and low self-esteem for employees. In the case of regulation, inappropriate policies can lead to unprecedented disasters. Examples include the decimation of fish stocks through mismanagement of fisheries, and power blackouts through inappropriate restrictions on electricity generators and distributors. Efficient taxation policies minimise the tax bill for citizens. In all of these cases, efficient management is required, although it is often unclear how to assess this efficiency. In this volume, several authors consider various aspects and contexts of performance measurement. Hence, this volume represents a unique collection of advances in efficiency assessment for the public sector by leading researchers in the field. Efficiency in the Public Sector is divided into two sections. The first is titled "Issues in Public Sector Efficiency Evaluation" and comprises of chapters 1-4. The second section is titled "Efficiency Analysis in the Public Sector - Advances in Theory and Practice." This division is somewhat arbitrary, in the sense there are significant overlapping themes in both sections. However, it serves to separate chapters that can be characterised as dealing with broader issues (Section I), from chapters that can be characterised as focusing on specific theoretical problems and empirical cases (Section II).

Systems analysis, which is also called cost/benefit analysis, the planning-programming-budgeting system, risk analysis, and technology assessment, has become the major planning and policy tool of government at all levels. Indeed, it is still gathering momentum in addressing the uncertainties associated with everything from the safety of nuclear energy to the effects of microelectronics. Examining this phenomenon critically, Ida R. Hoos reviews systems analytic techniques in their own circumscribed, simulated world and in the real one, drawing on a wide range of studies in health, education, welfare, crime, and many other areas of public concern, and giving special attention to information systems and databanks. In a new introduction and a new final chapter, Hoos expands her 1972 discussion to consider the ways in which systems analysis, now dominant, governs our present and determines our future. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1972.

Private Sector Strategies for Public Service Leaders No corner of the government or public sector has been spared from budget turmoil in recent years. Among budget cuts, increased requirements, and new threats and challenges, governments typically balance the scales through (1) increased funding and/ or (2) rationalizing services or service levels. This book gives you a third option. It’s called high performance, and it’s been implemented in the private sector—with great success—for more than two decades. This hands-on guide, written by the global consultants from Accenture, shows you how to apply these business principles in any public organization. Learn how to: Improve the outcomes you deliver—while lowering the cost to deliver them. Streamline your operations—by increasing speed, agility, and efficiency. Build a high-performance “anatomy” to strengthen your organization. Manage assets, decrease risks and losses, and deliver true excellence. Featuring case studies from the public sector, including federal, state, local, agencies, bureaus, and departments, this unique guide takes you inside government organizations, where high performance “anatomy” is already making a difference. You’ll discover low-cost techniques deployed by the Naval Air Systems Command and the IRS, as well as high-performance solutions for problems as diverse as homeland security, disaster response, health care costs, and dwindling resources. High Performance Government provides a proven method for adapting to the “New Normal” of lower budgets by showing you how to do even more with even less—creating a learning, working environment that reacts to change. This is how the top companies in the world increase productivity and profits through any market conditions. From Wall Street to Washington and Main Street, real success is driven by execution excellence. This book gives you the solutions you need to lower cost and create a leaner more efficient organization. Praise for Building High Performance Government “Building High Performance Government is a fast read with a big message. It explains how the inevitable downsizing of governments at all levels—federal, state, local—doesn’t have to also mean fewer or lower-quality services. This book highlights viable strategies already in use today to create better alignment and greater productivity in government.” —Graham Richards, Former Mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana “Every level of government is experiencing a budget crunch these days, and that always results in slashing services. This book can help public sector leaders find another option—how to deliver on their core mission at a much lower cost.” —Sean O’Keefe, CEO , EADS North America, former Administrator of NASA, former Secretary of the Navy and former chancellor of Louisiana State University (LSU) “A solid read for federal, state, and local government leaders wondering how to ‘do more, without more.’ Building High Performance Government focuses on the main things that leaders can do to help their organization get more out of each tax dollar while also improving quality and speed—an absolutely essential requirement in today’s fiscally constrained environment.” —David Melcher, Senior Vice President, ITT Corporation; President, ITT Defense & Information Solutions, US Army Lieut enant General (Ret.) formerly the Army’s Military Deputy for Budget and Deputy Chief of Staff for Programs in the Pentagon

This report, produced by the OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation, explores how systems approaches can be used in the public sector to solve complex or “wicked” problems.