It's Time for High-Performance Government by Risher Howard;Wilder William;Wilder William; & William Wilder

Author:Risher, Howard;Wilder, William;Wilder, William; & William Wilder [Risher, Howard & Wilder, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2016-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

9

Managing Agency and Executive Performance

It was more than twenty years ago that the National Performance Review and Vice President Gore raised the prominence of performance management in government. In 1993, Congress passed the Government Performance and Results Act that required agencies to define strategic goals, measure performance, and report to Congress, The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the public. Since then, additional laws have been enacted relevant to the management of performance, but the history makes it clear that effective performance management cannot be mandated. There are no silver bullets.

The progress by state and local public employers has been mixed. Compared with federal agencies, the smaller size and geographic proximity mean leaders are not as distant from where the work is done. Specialized offices to track performance—Compstat in the New York City Police Department and Citistat in Baltimore are frequently cited—were created as far back as the mid-1990s and have been replicated in a number of jurisdictions.

Agencies at all levels have invested repeatedly in new versions of the systems to manage goals and metrics. Everyone appears to agree it’s the right answer. Focusing on achieving performance goals effectively is the universal practice for managing performance in business and has been for half a century. But government’s experience with management systems, goal setting, and performance measurement has been disappointing.

A recent column by David Ammons (“Getting Real about Performance Management,” ICMA website, 2015) discusses the reality that is at the heart of the problem. In a nutshell, his point is that the metrics have been used for reporting but not used in day-to-day management.

The obvious fact is that whenever performance does not satisfy expectations, something needs to change. To quote from the column,

Performance management doctrine declares the rules governing the optimum practice of performance management. Among the key rules are these: goals must be clear; performance measures must be relevant, actionable, and used for management purposes, not just for reporting; and executives must engage in responsible oversight while granting important decision authority to program managers and supervisors.

In other words, an organization can adopt systems to track metrics and tell its managers how to collect and monitor performance data, but Ammons’s research shows the data are not being used to initiate the changes needed to improve performance. Ammons argues that is not performance management—since performance is not being managed!

The problem is compounded, according at Ammons, by the reluctance of government leaders to delegate the authority to front-line managers and employees to initiate changes in work systems. They are in the best position to understand the nature of problems and develop solutions. It contributes to a sense of pride and accomplishment, and ownership of making the changes a success.

Business leaders have shifted dramatically away from a top-down control management style over the past decade or so. Ammons’s point is that the public sector has not accepted the change of management philosophy—and that will continue to be a barrier to improved performance.

The Starting Point—Goals and Measures

Defining goals with measures to monitor progress is the starting point.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.