Organizational Performance and Measurement in the Public Sector

Legislative initiative, in response to public demands for more accountability, require public agencies at all levels of government to measure organizational performance and to report on service efforts and accomplishments (SEA). What considerations should managers use in developing performance measurement protocols? What is the experience to date in the U.S. and abroad? This collection of original articles does not represent a consensus about the one best way for developing an SEA reporting system. Rather, it aims to put performance measurement in perspective by relating it to the budgeting, auditing, and policy making processes. Towards that end, the issues managers need to consider are examined in a critical way and from various points of view.

This book addresses the issues involved in developing Service Effort and Accomplishment (SEA) reports from various points of view. It addresses the context of SEA reporting and relates performance measurement to the budgeting process, auditing process, and policy making. It provides examples of successful performance measurement protocols from the U.S. and abroad.

ARIE HALACHMI is Professor of Public Management at the Institute of Government at Tennessee State University, and is affiliated with the Netherlands Institute of Government and the University of Twente. He is the Rapporteur of the International Working Group on Public Sector Productivity of the Brussels Based International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS) and the author or coauthor of several books and numerous articles on public sector management and productivity issues. He is also the managing editor of Public Productivity and Management Review.

GEERT BOUCKAERT is Professor at the Public Management Centre of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, in Leuven, Belgium. He holds graduate degrees in Business Engineering, Political Sciences, and Philosophy, and earned his Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Bouckaert's fields of research are public sector productivity and financial management.