Relative balanced measurement of trainee civil servants: a case example from Greece

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present the concept of relative balanced measurement as benchmarking tool for public training centers and public services.

Design/methodology/approach

Borrowing the concept of balanced scorecard we have modified the perspectives to reflect the special circumstances of Civil Service. Each perspective is assigned a number of key performance indicators, which are ranked in a Linker scale, in order to create rankings for each perspective. Then the rankings of each perspective are averaged in order to create a unique final ranking, which sets the performance frontier.

Findings

The real case example for Civil Servants Trainee's Work Unit (TWU) validates the relative balanced measurement conceptual framework.

Research limitations/implications

One of the limitations of this paper is that the conclusion is drawn from a single Training Center at Greek Ministry of Economy and Finance and a limited number of TWUs. A linked research should follow, with field researches for trainees and supervisors of the trainees (Heads of Trainee Work Units) in order to enrich and validate further the concept.

Practical implications

In the proposed concept the establishment of performance frontier, consisting of the best performing TWUs, could be used as a guide of inefficient TWU compare to the other in order to undertake their own improvements.

Originality/value

This paper provides a new concept for relative balance measurement of TWU of Public Services Training Centers. No such concept or method has been proposed and implemented to date.

Citation

Vasilakis, A.G. (2008), "Relative balanced measurement of trainee civil servants: a case example from Greece", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 15 No. 6, pp. 677-692. https://doi.org/10.1108/14635770810915896