Public sector reform and the state of performance management in Portugal: is there a gap between performance measurement and its use?
International Journal of Public Sector Management
ISSN: 0951-3558
Article publication date: 27 October 2020
Issue publication date: 4 November 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyse the state of performance management in the Portuguese public sector as part of the efforts towards public administration reform.
Design/methodology/approach
Theoretically, the authors took Bouckaert and Halligan's (2008, pp. 35–39) approach into consideration to analyse the adoption of performance management practices. This approach was supplemented by an adaptation of Pollitt and Bouckaert's (2011, p. 33) framework to analyse the context for administrative reforms. The used data analysis techniques include documentary analysis (namely legislation and evaluation reports of reform efforts), secondary data analysis and a survey conducted with 296 Portuguese top public managers.
Findings
The findings show that Portuguese public sector organisations adopted several tools to measure performance over the years, but failed to incorporate performance information into their management practices or to properly use it for either internal or external purposes. Concerning the ideal types proposed by Bouckaert and Halligan (2008, p. 36), Portugal is considered to fit the “performance administration” ideal type, even though it is moving closer to the “managements of performance” ideal type.
Originality/value
This is one of the first comprehensive studies on the state of performance management in Portugal framed within the broader context of public sector reforms. The findings will be of interest both to scholars who study public administration reforms and performance management and to Portuguese policy makers and public managers who are interested in understanding and improving the way performance information is measured, incorporated and used in that sector.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the comments from the reviewers and editor. The second author wishes to thank the support from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, the Portuguese Agency of Science and Technology, through a post-doctoral fellowship (SFRH/BPD/115117/2016) he was receiving when the first version of the paper was written. This work was also financially supported by the research unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policy (GOVCOPP-UA, project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-008540), funded by FEDER funds through COMPETE2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) - and by national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia.
Citation
Melo, A.I. and Mota, L.F. (2020), "Public sector reform and the state of performance management in Portugal: is there a gap between performance measurement and its use?", International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 33 No. 6/7, pp. 613-627. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPSM-12-2019-0325
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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