If you are not content to merely declare performance goals in mission statements or to rest your hopes on performance measurement to bring about change, find out how to lead an active strategy to push your organization toward improved performance. Leading Performance Management in Local Government walks you through a brief overview of performance measurement, and then delves into successful performance management practices. This collection of readings on performance measurement and management is packed with strategies and guidance from noted experts on leadership in government. Book jacket. ICMA Press is a leading publisher of books, reports, survey research, training materials, and other resources used by local government management professionals, municipal and county associations, and colleges and universities. Book jacket.

Local Government faces major challenges today. These include the management of increasingly scarce resources; the provision of modern services in reponse to public needs; competition for services from outside local government; increasingly complex issues of political control and direction; and the challenge to local government autonomy by central government.

Tackling the key topics of reform and modernization, this important new book systematically examines performance in public management systems. The authors present this seminal subject in an informative and accessible manner, tackling some of the most important themes. Performance Management in the Public Sector takes as its point of departure a broad definition of performance to redefine major and basic mechanisms in public administration, both theoretically and in practice. The book: situates performance in some of the current public management debates; discusses the many definitions of ‘performance’ and how it has become one of the contested agendas of public management; examines measurement, incorporation and use of performance information; and explores the challenges and future directions of performance management. A must-read for any student or practitioner of public management, this core text will prove invaluable to anyone wanting to improve their understanding of performance management in the public sector.

Confronted with rising citizen discontent, the Reinventing Government movement, and new technological challenges, public organizations everywhere are seeking means of improving their performance. Their quest is not new, rather, the concern with improving the performance of government organizations has existed since the Scientific Management Movement. Public Sector Performance brings together in a single volume the classic, enduring principles and processes that have defined the field of public sector performance, as written in the words of leading practitioners and scholars. Taken as a whole, this volume provides a performance compass for today's public managers, helping them to reconstruct the public's confidence in, and support of, government.Defined here as managing public organizations for outcomes, performance is examined in all its varied dimensions: organizing work, managing workers, measuring performance, and overcoming resistance to performance-enhancing innovations. The selected articles are interesting, thought provoking, and instructive. They are classics in that they have been widely cited in the scholarly literature and have enduring value to public managers who seek to understand the many dimensions of performance. The book is organized into three sections: Performance Foundations, Performance Strategies, and Performance Measurement. Excerpts from additional selected articles feature special topics and wisdom from performance experts.