FACTORES PARA LA COMPRENSIÓN LECTORA

The term ‘performance’ attracts different meanings depending on the nature of organisations and context in which it has been used. Rogers (1994) defines performance as an outcome of the interaction between organisational goals, customer satisfaction and the economic contribution which the organisation plays. To Otley (1999), performance is the degree of outcomes achieved in undertaken activities. In public sector, the term ‘performance’ is usually associated with the effectiveness, economy, and efficiency in the delivery of the public services (Hood, 1995; Otley, 2001). On the other hand, Mwita (2000) raises the issue about whether performance

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entails result, or outcome, behaviour, or both. He reiterates the importance of the organisation to be clear about the measurement and argues for the need for the organisation to state clearly whether it intends to measure outcome (result/output), behaviour (process), or both (outcome and behaviour). Regardless of what constitutes performance, the need for performance measurement is claimed to be high in the public sector in general, as opposed to its private counterparts (Lapsley & Mitchell, 1996). This is attributed to the nature of the service offered, and to the ownership structures of the public sector organisations. Because public sector entities are mainly deal with intangible products, and accountable to multiple stakeholders, performance measurement increases their ability to discharge accountability obligations. Likewise, as Ševic (2005) noted, consumers of public services rarely pay the market price for the service offered. Therefore, there is an immense need for the public sector organisations to continually measure performance in order to assess the capacity of providing them outside the market conditions. Since local governments occupy a middle position between central government and the general public, they are highly involved in the delivery of public services. As a result, there are increasing trends towards the adoption and implementation of performance measurement practices in local government organisations (Brignall & Modell, 2000; Ghobadian & Ashworth, 1994; Modell, 2009).

Using four government departments in Australia as a case study, Hoque (2008) concludes that performance measurement practices not only enhance organisational performance, but also shape the strategic plan and management framework of organisations. Also, performance measurement provides important information for budgetary decision making and other operational aspects of local governments (Melkers & Willoughby, 2005). Therefore, when performance measurement practices are successfully adopted and implemented, they have the potential to foster organisational management and accountability (Coates, 2004). However, there are cases where the use of performance measurement to enhance organisational efficiency is questionable. For example, Heinrich and Marschke (2008) argued that the complexities of public sector entities make performance measurement a difficult exercise to undertake. They also raised the possibility that the performance games to be played by the public sector entities made the entire exercise to be worthless. Also,

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Kurunmäki and Miller (2006) found that public sector performance assessments are limited and fail to take into account the multiple issues involved in organisations. In general, these concerns suggest that there are operational difficulties associated with the development, implementation, and evaluation of performance measurement in public sector in general, and local governments in particular (see Bowerman et al., 2001; Johnsen, 1999; Pollanen, 2005).

Also, studying performance measurement in Canadian municipalities, Pollanen (2005) observed that the municipalities put more emphasis on the efficiency criteria and ignored effectiveness, which is important to public sector entities. The study also identified the gap between the actual and the desired use of the performance measures, and therefore, the performance measures were of little use to improve the organisational performance. Furthermore, Hernandez (2002) claims that performance measurement practices in the public sector in general, and local government in particular, are normally misused. As a result, the exercise becomes a data collection tool and a normal reporting exercise with little use to the strategic management of the organisations. As Bowerman et al. (2001) noted, the application of benchmarking as performance measurement tool in the UK local governments is “frequently limited to a compulsory and defensive mode rather than an improvement one” (p. 322). In general, despite the importance of performance measurement practices to local governments, its implementation is surrounded by numerous challenges and difficulties. As a result, local governments, like other public sector organisations, merely adopt and implement performance measurement for external legitimacy and have little relevance for improving internal organisational efficiency (Robinson, 2003).

The review of performance measurement practices in local government organisations reaches three main conclusions. Firstly, there has been an increasing trend of studying performance measurement practices in public sector in general, and local governments in particular. The studies mainly focus on the development, adoption, implementation, and evaluation of performance measurement as applied to public sector organisations. Secondly, the literature records different and opposing views about the outcome of the exercise for the public sector in general and more

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particularly in local governments. Despite the claimed benefits of the exercise, the majority of the studies show that performance measurement has not successfully achieved its claimed benefits. Poor involvement of the key stakeholders, inadequate technical capacity, and weak institutional arrangements represent major obstacles. Lastly, little is known about the performance measurement of local governments located in emerging economies. There have only been a few performance measurement related studies undertaken in emerging economies, and these have focussed on state owned enterprises (Abdel Aziz, Dixon, & Ragheb, 2005; de Waal & Augustin, 2005; Uddin & Tsamenyi, 2005), public sector banks (Kumar & Gulati, 2009), and education colleges (de Waal, 2007). The few local governments’ studies tend to concentrate on financial analysis and managerial performance (Jaber & Sabri, 2010; Sabri & Jaber, 2007). As a result, it is not known, for example, how performance measurement is practiced and what factors influence its undertaking? As local governments in emerging economies depend heavily on central government and donors (Devas & Grant, 2003), little has also been recorded about the manner in which officials justify their performance, in order to accrue resources from these, and other sources. These concerns are addressed in the current study.