Journal Article: Provoking Debate and Learning Lessons

05/11/2012

Provoking debate and learning lessons: What the Performance Improvement Framework challenged us to think about (2012)

In this 2012 article, Kevin Guerin and I ask what the first 21 Performance Improvement Framework reviews, published in the framework’s first three years, suggest about public management in Aotearoa when they are read together as a single data set. We set out what the framework is, why the central agencies introduced it in 2009, and the limits on aggregating ratings that were designed as contextual judgements rather than comparable scores. Read with those limits in mind, the reviews tend to show that agencies deliver well on what ministers ask of them, with engagement with ministers and financial management rated strongest. By contrast, purpose, vision and strategy, the management of people performance, information management and efficiency rate lowest. We also find that results and capability are positively associated, that agency size makes little difference to performance, and that agencies with a clear purpose and aligned structures tend to achieve stronger results. We connect these findings to the Better Public Services programme and the four-year excellence horizon. We conclude that integrity is necessary but not sufficient for public trust and confidence, and that much of the work of demonstrating consistent performance across the state sector was still ahead of the central agencies and senior leaders.

Read the article: https://doi.org/10.26686/pq.v8i4.4430

Reference
Te Kawa, D., & Guerin, K. (2012). Provoking debate and learning lessons: It is early days, but what does the Performance Improvement Framework challenge us to think about? Policy Quarterly, 8(4), 28–36. https://doi.org/10.26686/pq.v8i4.4430

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5129-5218

Download