How interest groups view productivity

Various interest groups can use performance information as political ammunition to support or attack specific programs. Therefore, while managers at any level of the agency want unbiased information about the performance of programs for which they are responsible, they also want to control the information (and how that information is interpreted) once it moves to a higher level within or outside the agency. Once performance in- formation is collected, it is hard to limit the public's access to it or to control the way that information is used in the political process.

The competitive edge of modern-day business emerges from creation or discovery of a performance management. A system that increases efficiency, decreases cost or enhances quality confers immediate competitive advantage on its creator and sets a standard for the rest of the industry to follow. But once disseminated across the field of competition, it becomes the standard. Now a new, yet more innovative, high performance system must be discovered that once more creates competitive advantage for its inventors.

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.