Techniques and paradoxes in performing performance measurements: concluding reflections

ABSTRACT

Performance measurement has an implicit performance theory embedded within its practice; performance measurement perforce performs. Performance measurement has a performative effect on performance. Drawing together and building on the various empirical observations from the preceding papers in this collection, this concluding paper firstly examines the circumstances in which performance measurement performs, that is, when it produces ‘authentic’ performance improvements, compared to when performance measurements misfire. The paper secondly explores several paradoxes of performance measurement – such that performance measurement measures only part of the performance it seeks to be performative on, incentives to perform incentivise poor performance and so on. These paradoxes, contradictions and ironies must be apprehended and appreciated in discovering, discerning and deciphering the diverse dynamics of measuring performance. They also demonstrate that analysing and working with performance measurement requires a perspective that eschews absolutes and clear directions, and embraces the uneasy and potentially destabilising tension of Escher’s performative art.     

Hitting the target without missing the point: New Zealand’s immunisation health target for two year olds

ABSTRACT

The use of health targets as a form of performance measurement has become more prominent internationally as governments have sought to control public expenditure, produce greater efficiency and improve accountability. However, health targets have faced criticism for their potential to produce negative outcomes within a health system. This paper examines how a health target was used as a policy instrument within the New Zealand health system to improve immunisation coverage at two years of age. It explores how the immunisation health target was implemented within four case study sites and discusses the effectiveness of the health target as a policy instrument for improving immunisation coverage and addressing persistent immunisation inequities. Measuring and monitoring performance towards the immunisation health target improved accountability for immunisation coverage within the New Zealand health system and focused attention on improving immunisation coverage in a way that previous policy attempts had failed to do. Health targets may be an effective policy instrument for creating change within specific areas of a health system if their potential for dysfunctional consequences are taken into consideration at the outset.     

非正式控制对销售人员绩效和客户关系质量的影响

正式控制的局限性、企业对客户关系的重视以及销售人员素质的提高,使得企业越发重视销售人员的非正式控制,但是关于非正式控制对销售人员绩效和客户关系质量影响的研究还较少,非正式控制时销售人员绩效和客户关系质量的作用机制与作用效果还没有得到有效验证.本文在理论分析的基础上,建立了非正式控制影响销售人员绩效和客户关系质量的概念模型和研究假设,并进行了实证检验.结果表明:非正式控制对绩效既有直接影响,也有间接影响,其中间接影响的中介变量为角色明晰性:非正式控制只能通过角色明晰性和情感性承诺对客户关系质量产生间接影响,而对客户关系质量的直接影响不显著.非正式控制对角色明晰性、情感性承诺、绩效、客户关系质量影响的总效应分别为0.38、0.51、0.48、0.48.实证研究结果为企业强化销售人员的非正式控制提供了理论支撑,对其他员工管理控制的研究与实践也具有借鉴意义.     

Thinking About Stakeholders of Public Agencies: The Georgia Department of Transportation Stakeholder Audit

Practitioners and scholars have grown increasingly interested in recent decades in how public administrators should and can work with the constituencies they serve. To date, most of this conversation has focused on citizens and broader communities rather than on stakeholders more generally, but these other stakeholders, ranging from oversight policy-making bodies to private sector and nonprofit contractors to governmental partners, are no less important than the general public. The purpose of this paper is to propose a first step that many agencies might take in thinking about their range of stakeholders, a step that we term a “stakeholder audit.” A stakeholder audit entails (1) mapping the universe of an agency’s stakeholders, (2) assessing the agency’s perceived needs for additional information relative to various stakeholder groups, and (3) developing suggestions on how to obtain that information. After first discussing the more general idea of stakeholder analyses, we describe the stakeholder audit technique, and illustrate how it has been applied to a particular agency, the State of Georgia’s Department of Transportation. We conclude by considering how a stakeholder audit could represent a first step for an agency in improving relationships with its stakeholders.

《艺圃撷余》新论——从当下研究中的问题说起

王世懋的《艺圃撷余》一书向有赞誉,但在当下的研究中,因对文献的误解或误用,我们的理解并不符合王氏原意。详考其书,王世懋坚持七子派观点的立场并未改变,但他同时也反对机械地看待格调,并从更高的立场上指示了该如何理解格调,从而对七子派的观点进行了有益的补充与修正。同时,我们在认识王世懋的身份时,除了观点上的倾向性,更要注意他作为文人所具有的特殊情趣与意蕴。     

Lessons from a project to create performance measures for public health

This paper uses a specific example to illustrate complications that arise in formulating and implementing performance measures. The context of this demonstration is a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-funded project to explore the feasibility of performance measures developed at the national level for local sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention and control programs. Grantees provided local data and reported on their experience in eliciting the data and using the results for program development. The experience of this project suggests that measures can be made operationally feasible and programmatically useful only if terminologies are subjected to extensive definition and clarification activities. These activities must include development of common language, mapping of workflows, and clarification of spheres of influence. Finally, performance measures must be used with some caution, as they often unintentionally capture extraneous program elements.     

拒绝职场边缘化:模型与检验

初入职场,大学生员工希望被组织接纳而不是被边缘化。本文试图建模表现在如同"政治舞台"的职场中员工努力避免被边缘化的过程。为达到以上研究目标,执行了两项研究:预研究在国务院11个部委机关的公务员群体中收集数据,开发了职场边缘化的测量工具;主研究对16家制造型企业中的343个员工、662个同事及343个直接领导的配对数据进行实证分析,发现员工工作绩效、公民行为以及与上司的私人关系(Guanxi)与职场边缘化之间呈负向关联。相对而言,在政治氛围淡漠的企业中,上司关系与职场边缘化之间的负向关联更强。     

高校学生党建工作绩效评价指标体系研究

目前,高校在学生党建过程中普遍存在重视过程管理、忽视结果管理和评价管理,这在一定程度上影响了高校学生党建工作的成效。本文结合高校党建实际,探索构建一套具有科学性和可操作性的绩效评价指标体系,来加强高校学生党建工作绩效管理。     

宁夏女性领导绩效影响因素与提升路径研究

习近平主席在全球妇女峰会上强调,中国将更加积极贯彻男女平等的基本国策,发挥妇女"半边天"作用,支持妇女建功立业、实现人生理想和梦想。通过接受高质量的培训发展项目,女性领导可以促进自身发展和有效提升领导绩效。特别是在优秀组织文化的影响和加持下,女性领导的领导绩效可以得到更为出色的发挥,从而助力女性领导和组织实现双赢,最终实现她们的人生理想。