Table of Contents

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, and Tomi Rajala

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 Performance

20. 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 and Saul Taylor

Section VI: Applying Twenty-first Century Organizational Tools

27. 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

About the Author

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.