Measuring the Performance of Public Services
Principles and Practice

Shows how the principles, uses and practice of performance measurement differ from those in for-profit organisations.

Michael Pidd (Author)

9781107004658, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 February 2012

332 pages, 54 b/w illus. 20 tables
25.4 x 18 x 1.9 cm, 0.8 kg

'This is a well written and clearly argued book with a solid empirical and theoretical base. It brings a set of insightful questions to the fraught area of performance measurement in public services. It does not lose the reader in either conceptual or numerical confusion but generally focuses their attention on the basic core issues in the field. The central focus on the different uses of performance measurement and the nature of the choices in terms of practical methods is both useful and illuminating.' Robin Wensley, Professor of Policy and Marketing, Warwick Business School, and Director, Advanced Institute of Management Research

Measuring the performance of public agencies and programmes is essential to ensure that citizens enjoy quality services and that governments can be sure that taxpayers receive value for money. As such, good performance measurement is a crucial component of improvement and planning, monitoring and control, comparison and benchmarking and also ensures democratic accountability. This book shows how the principles, uses and practice of performance measurement for public services differ from those in for-profit organisations, being based on the need to add public value rather than profit. It describes methods and approaches for measuring performance through time, for constructing and using scorecards, composite indicators, the use of league tables and rankings and argues that data-envelopment analysis is a useful tool when thinking about performance. This demonstrates the importance of allowing for the multidimensional nature of performance, as well as the need to base measurement on a sound technical footing.

List of figures
List of tables
Part I. Principles of Performance Measurement: 1. Measuring public sector performance
2. Why measure, what to measure and what can go wrong
Part II. Different Uses for Performance Measurement: 3. Measurement for improvement and planning
4. Measurement for monitoring and control
5. Measurement for comparison
6. Measurement for accountability
Part III. Practical Methods for Performance Measurement: 7. Measuring performance through time
8. Scorecards and multidimensional indicators
9. Composite indicators
10. League tables and ranking
11. Data envelopment analysis
Index.

Subject Areas: Organizational theory & behaviour [KJU]