Public Sector performance in a time of flux

Abstract

This paper discusses recent research into performance measurement and management practices within a range of New Zealand’s public service agencies that has revealed six criteria by which organisational performance is defined and directed, namely: economy, efficiency, effectiveness, equity, organisational capital and public capital. However, the research also showed that the emphasis placed on each of these criteria varied significantly between the formal model of external accountability concerned with the management of the public service and the models in use within individual agencies. While the former places significant emphasis on ex-ante specification and ex-post measurement of performance the latter also employs a more substantive rationality and value-based criteria.