Performance Measurement in Public Administrations: A Methodological Framework

Abstract

This paper is intended to give a contribution to the debate on the measurement of performance in public administrations, proposing a methodology aimed at reconciling the high structural complexity of some specific types of public administrations with the requirements of measuring the efficiency of their administrative action. The study is focused on the specificities of some peculiar entities characterized by special distinguishing features, such as a poor capacity to standardize processes, the use of specialist skills provided with a high level of autonomy, and a marked problem-solving attitude, and an organizational structure characterized by the expansion of the support and staff functions. The proposed methodology deals with the assignment of resources to the activities implemented in the structures, resulting in a system intended to weigh outputs as the expression of the effort connected with their achievement, as well as of their potential correlation with the institutional objectives of the administrations, thus linking the current dimension to the multi-year dimension. The assumptions of such an approach stem from the awareness that, in providing public services, the problem to measure outcomes, and therefore the public value generated, seems to be still topical and perhaps still far from being completely resolved. However, a quali-quantitative methodology is proposed to extend a consistent measurement model to all the organizational structures without debasing their different functions and simultaneously ensuring a unitary evaluation metrics. The main criticality of the methodology consists, on the one hand, in the need to accurately define the items to be considered as outputs and those that should not and, on the other hand, in the definition of a closed taxonomy of outputs for each organizational structure in order to outline the individual discretion in identifying outputs, so as to prevent their excessive parcelling out from undermining the density and reliability of the measurement.

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