3rd Edition
The Public Productivity and Performance Handbook
A productive society is dependent upon high-performing government. This third edition of The Public Performance and Productivity Handbook includes chapters from leading scholars, consultants, and practitioners to explore all of the core elements of improvement. Completely revised and focused on best practice, the handbook comprehensively explores managing for high performance, measurement and analysis, costs and finances, human resources, and cutting-edge organizational tools. Its coverage of new and systematic management approaches and well-defined measurement systems provides guidance for organizations of all sizes to improve productivity and performance. The contributors discuss such topics as accountability, organizational effectiveness after budget cuts, the complementary roles of human capital and “big data,” and how to teach performance management in the classroom and in public organizations. The handbook is accompanied by an online companion volume providing examples of performance measurement and improvement manuals across a wide variety of public organizations. The Public Performance and Productivity Handbook, Third Edition, is required reading for all public administration practitioners, as well as for students and scholars interested in the state of the public performance and productivity field.
Acknowledgements
List of Contributors
Introduction
Marc Holzer and Andrew Ballard
Section I: What Works, What Does Not, What to Avoid
1. Three Parallel Movements to Improve Government Decision Making: Performance, Evidence, and Behavioral Public Administration
John M. Kamensky
2. Approaches to Improving Performance in Government: Making Sense of Where We’ve Been and What’s Next?
Kathryn Newcomer and Clint Brass
3. Public Performance: Some Reflections and Lessons Learned
Geert Bouckaert
4. How to Judge the Quality of a Government Performance Management System
Prajapati Trivedi
5. Launching and Sustaining a Performance Management System: Some Suggestions
Lyle D. Wray
6. Performance Management: Back to Basics
Mark D. Abrahams
7. Winning Hearts and Minds for Performance Management
Chris McMillan
8. Why Strategic Initiatives Fail - Lessons from a Practitioner
Van Badzik
9. Performance-Informed Management: Lessons Learned
Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene
10. Learning from Performance Improvement: The New Zealand Experience and Insights on How a Performance System Survives
Barbara Allen
Section II: Managing for High Performance
11. Sustaining Performance in the Public Sector: What is Needed from Public Managers
Evan Berman
12. Management Things We Never Tell
Brian Elms
13. Linking Strategic Planning and Performance Management in Government Agencies and Impacts on Organizational Performance
Åge Johnsen and Stephen Affleck Reid
14. Accountability: What Does It Mean, Constructively Managing It, and Avoiding the Blame and Claim Game
Shelley H. Metzenbaum
15. A Shotgun Marriage? Performance Management in the Hybridized Government
Jarmo Vakkuri, Jan-Erik Johanson et al
Section III: Measurement and Analysis to Guide Performance Programs
16. Evaluation Guide for Public Service Program Managers
Harry Hatry
17. Evidence-Based Practice and Performance: You Can’t Always Get What You Want, but Sometimes You Get What You Need
Jeremy L. Hall
18. Data Science Contributions to Performance Management
Gregory Dobler and Maria P. Aristigueta
19. The Psychology of Information: Pitfalls and Potential in the Use of Performance Data
Andrew Ballard
Section IV: Financing Performance20. Allocation Tools, Productivity, and Performance
Donijo Robbins and Andrew Crosby
21. Organizational Effectiveness after Budget Cuts: Disentangling the Effects of Performance Measurement and Performance Management
Hala Altamimi and Benedict S. Jimenez
22. Performance Budgeting: Linking Administrative Strategies to Budgetary Outcomes
Jingyuan Xu and XiaoHu Wang
23. Best-Practice Cases on Performance Budgeting in German and Dutch Local Government
Jan van Helden and Christoph Reichard
24. Sector Specific Financial Indicators for Improved Productivity and Performance
Andrew Crosby and Donijo Robbins
Section V: Managing Human Resources for Peak Performance
25. Harnessing Human Capital for Peak Performance: How Emotion Work Strengthens the Citizen-State Encounter
Mary E. Guy
26. The Effects of Pay, Education, Training, and Working Hours on Public Sector Performance
Jeannette Taylor, Thuy Hang Duong et al
Section VI: Applying Twenty-first Century Organizational Tools27, The Effects of Pay, Education, Training, and Working Hours on Public Sector Performance
Alan Shark
28. Public-Private Partnerships: Promises, Productivity and Performance Lessons from Infrastructure Technologies
Graeme Hodge and Carsten Greve
29. Applying Competencies: State Capability Enhancement Project
Sampath Kumar, Aroon P. Manoharan, and Jayasharadha Chandrakalatharan
Section VII: Accessing and Adapting Best Practices
30. Benchmarking for Performance Improvement
David N. Ammons
31. Best Practices: Adapting Award-Winning Performance Innovations
Patria de Lancer Julnes and Marc Holzer
32. Teaching Performance
Marc Holzer and Andrew Ballard
Biography
Marc Holzer has been a leader in the public productivity and performance field since the early 1970s. He is the founder of the National Center for Public Performance and the editor-in-chief of the international journal Public Performance and Management Review. His more than 600 scholarly publications address a wide range of strategic approaches to the measurement and improvement of public services. Dr. Holzer is distinguished professor at the Institute for Public Service at Suffolk University–Boston, and was the founding dean of the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University. He is a past president of the American Society for Public Administration.
Andrew Ballard is a research fellow and instructor at the Rutgers University–Newark School of Public Affairs and Administration and a contributing fellow at the Suffolk University National Center for Public Performance (NCPP). Andrew’s research focuses on the organizational and psychological barriers to the use of performance information in public organizations. He regularly teaches courses on performance management, applied research design, and public management. Andrew received his doctorate in public administration at the Rutgers University–Newark School of Public Affairs and Administration.
