Measuring for a purpose: trends in public-sector performance measurement and management practices.(Government Finance Officers Association research on performance management)

Two clear trends emerged from a recently completed Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) research project on current practices in performance measurement and management (1) in North American local governments. First, more governments are practicing these techniques, and many more stakeholders are involved than ever before. In fact, whether it is done well or is merely a token effort, performance measurement--although not necessarily performance management--is now an expected part of a manager's job in most local governments. Second, rather than simply creating a set of measures and reporting them, state and local governments are increasingly using measurement to ...