SECTION 7: SUSTAINING ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
Section introduction
7.1 The objective of organisational performance management in a government context is to ensure that public policy is effectively implemented. In recent years Governments globally have set out clear public policy objectives in terms of outcomes and are committed to the pursuit and attainment of these societal outcomes. Governments will be held accountable periodically to their electorates for their performance including the extent to which they have made progress towards the attainment of these outcomes.
7.2 Organisational performance management in a central government context will only be sustainable where it achieves its key objectives of enhancing the performance of governments in the attainment of its policy objectives and keeping the electorate and key stakeholders satisfied.
Characteristics of sustainable organisational performance management systems
7.3 The lessons for best practice have been summarised by global organisations such as the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development ( OECD) and the United Nations ( UN) who advocate performance management systems for governments which incorporate certain pervasive characteristics: high level public policy aspirations expressed as outcomes; strategic business plan; performance measurement tools and techniques; targets; implementation; monitoring; measuring results; verification; communication; review and evaluation; continuous environmental sensitivity; and ongoing commitment at all levels. It is these pervasive characteristics that serve as a model for sustainable organisational performance management in the public sector.
The Commonwealth of Virginia: A sustainable model?
7.4 The Virginia Model provides an excellent example of strategic direction and comprehensive monitoring and performance review and its merits are evidenced by the fact that Virginia is consistently in the top three performing states in the USA. A recent report from the Pew Center (2008) highlights the particular strengths of the Virginia Model in that the state avoids formulas and focuses on the harder work of asking why goals and targets are not being met, then seeks to address the underlying problems (the tin-opener approach). Virginia Performs tracks measurable societal outcomes as well as the agency goals and management benchmarks that will help achieve them. The focus on managing performance has permeated most of the public service agencies in Virginia who make use of their own performance dashboards and scorecards. These approaches create a 'unity of direction and process' whereby organisational performance management systems are complementary and there is a performance management ethos across the state's government and public services. The Commonwealth of Virginia has organisational performance management approaches which incorporate both intra-organisations and extra-organisation feature thus allowing for management decision making to improve and for the data on organisational performance to be transparent and in the public domain.
Key points
- In democratic societies, Governments are periodically held accountable to the electorate for their performance in government.
- The pervasive characteristics of public sector organisational performance management systems should be present if the system is to be sustained.
- The system of organisational performance management found in the Commonwealth of Virginia is a good example of a sustainable organisational performance management system.