Performance Management Purpose, Executive Engagement, and Reported Benefits among Leading Local Governments

The authors of this article examine a pair of organizational factors for their contributions to the levels of performance management success among a set of seventy-two U.S. local governments, all of which enjoy reputations for good performance management. The factors examined are, first, the purpose accorded to performance management in each organization and, second, the engagement of senior managers in reviewing the performance of operating units. The authors find that local governments that regard performance management to be their management philosophy perceive greater benefits on particular dimensions of performance than those regarding it to be a system or simply a means of upgrading performance measurement. Greater benefits are also reported by organizations whose executives routinely review the performance of operating units.