Changes employed in order to improve dimensions of performance not mutually exclusive

The changes employed in order to improve dimensions of performance describe levers that administrators often manipulate to change their organizations. Naturally, they are not mutually exclusive. More than one type of modification may be involved in a given change effort. In addition, there may be other types of changes.

The present list, however, emerged empirically from the improvements most often mentioned by administrators. These findings help us to understand a great deal about the process of improving organizational performance. Naturally, such an initial description leads to many additional questions about the change process, and our ongoing research efforts hopefully will provide answers.

For example, what are the relationships between the means and ends? Are there certain types of changes that tend to result in certain kinds of outcomes? If certain relationships do occur regularly in given situations, knowledge of such patterns would be most helpful in planning the change process. Because of the exploratory nature of the study, and because there were no controls (for specific types of work, unit size, etc.), the relationships must be seen as very tentative. However, they are provocative and illustrate the potential for continuing research.

For example, considering just a few of the relationships, suppose the following hypothetical statements proved to be consistently recurring phenomena:

• The primary means for improving effectiveness of outputs is to modify work methods.
• Modifications in work methods negatively affect motivational climate.
Use of information-sharing mechanisms leads to improved motivational climate.
• Reorganizations negatively affect coordination and savings are not related to effectiveness.
• Retraining and replacement are not directly related to any positive outcomes.
• Sharing authority is positively related to motivational climate, coordination, and stability.

Such facts would have a powerful influence on our thinking and planning process. At this point they are simply provocative illustrations of the kind of information that might be generated. We are currently working on theories, measures, and designs that will allow us to discover if such patterns do exist.

As public-sector productivity gets increasing national attention, state and local governments seek more ways of improving their performance. Performance measurement systems may be helpful tools for improving both productivity and accountability. This paper identifies issues that governments should consider before implementing a performance measurement system.