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An organization’s ability to navigate uncertain conditions hinges on its members generating timely and productive responses to ongoing changes in their local task environments. Since less healthy employees are less productive, organizations stand to gain from fostering their physical and mental health. Little knowledge, however, exists as to whether and how an organizations’ internal control systems affect employee health. In the following the authors, therefore, shed light at this relation drawing on an empirical study with 179 employees. Results suggest that the design of control systems has an impact on employee health. This has important implications for ongoing theory-building efforts on the effects of organizations’ internal control systems and for business practice.

Drawing on the pay-for-performance (P4P) and job satisfaction literatures through an analysis of qualitative studies published on the topic, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of a P4P-based system on job satisfaction and dissatisfaction among health care workers.

A meta-synthesis of the qualitative literature was conducted to investigate health care workers' opinions, perceptions and behaviors and fully understand what processes generate job satisfaction or dissatisfaction under P4P systems.

The findings suggest that P4P systems impact the job (dis-)satisfaction of health care workers based on the institutional, organizational, geographic and cultural context of reference. Specifically, job satisfaction – and thus motivation, occupational well-being and work engagement – can occur when the context is supportive, whereas job dissatisfaction – and thus work stress and pressure, burnout and work-life balance issues and distraction – is generated in the case of unsupportive contexts. Moreover, the findings suggest a virtuous/vicious circle whereby job satisfaction leads to positive performance and further fuels job satisfaction, while conversely job dissatisfaction generates worse performance, and this further worsens worker satisfaction.

There is a lack of studies comparing and analyzing current evidence on the job (dis-)satisfaction of health care workers operating in different contexts based on the reward system. This is the first research to analyze a significant number of studies with reference to the relation between P4P and job (dis-)satisfaction, which are topics in need of further study and investigation in health care settings around the world.

The pupose of this paper is to present an overview of the main conceptual and methodological issues that underlie our current understanding of benchmarking initiatives in the field of health.

The paper is based on a pragmatic review of the literature and policy reports. It outlines some of the major conceptual problems associated with the use of benchmarking indicators and discusses how health policy research and practice is evolving to address the challenges raised, drawing examples from national and international benchmarking initiatives.

Benchmarking has become an intrinsic part of most developed health care systems, yet the impact of benchmarking initiatives on improvements in system performance and their integration within existing policy processes still need to be elucidated. Several methodological challenges remain in the field of benchmarking, many of them related to the selection and quality of indicators used to make comparisons both within and between health care systems. Further research and applications are needed to ensure that benchmarking in health fulfils its objective, namely to further our understanding of where to focus policy efforts in order to improve the performance of health care systems.

This paper poses the timely question of whether benchmarking initiatives are in fact guiding health policy towards the improvement of health care system performance. It draws from the policy literature and existing frameworks to offer an outline for the future evaluation of benchmarking initiatives by policy‐makers.

Purpose – Health system performance depends on production and use of quality health data and information. Routine health information systems (RHIS) are defined as systems that provide information at regular intervals of a year or less to meet predictable information needs. These include paper-based or electronic health records and facility- and district-level management information systems. RHIS are receiving increasing attention as an essential component of efficient, country-owned, integrated national systems. To guide investment decisions on RHIS, evidence is needed on which types of RHIS interventions work and which do not.

Design/methodology/approach – This chapter is a systematic review of the literature on the evaluation of RHIS interventions in low- and middle-income countries, starting from the premise that investments in RHIS could be better understood and so produce greater benefits than they currently do.

Findings – We describe the conceptual literature on the determinants of RHIS performance and its role in improving health systems functioning, discuss the evidence base on the effectiveness of strategies to improve RHIS performance, provide an overview of RHIS evaluation challenges, and make suggestions to improve the evidence base.

Originality/value – The goal is to help ensure that (a) RHIS interventions are appropriately designed and implemented to improve health systems functioning and (b) resulting RHIS information is used more effectively.

Public health strategies and activities are intrinsically complex. According to the literature, this “wickedness” depends on the different interests and expectations of the stakeholders and the community, the fragmented governance of the related services and the challenges in measuring and assessing public health outcomes. Existent performance measures and management systems for public health are not designed to cope with wickedness since they are mainly focused on inputs and outputs, neglecting broader outcomes because of their long-term impact and the poor accountability of results. This research aims to tackle this shortfall by adopting a dynamic performance management (DPM) approach.

This research explores the case of the vaccination campaign of a Regional Health System. Through the analysis of an illustrative case study, the research discusses both opportunities and limits of the proposed approach.

This research highlights that DPM supports performance management (PM) in wicked contexts, thanks to the adoption of a system-wide perspective and the possibility of using simulation to experiment with alternative strategies and benchmarking performance results with simulated trends.

This article tackles a gap related to the management of wicked problems both from a theory and a practical perspective. In particular, this research suggests the adoption of DPM as an approach that may support policymakers in tackling social pluralism, institutional complexity and scientific uncertainty all at once.

The purpose of this paper is to exemplify the evolving applications of balanced scorecard and strategy map in the healthcare sector. This paper seeks to describe a number of innovative approaches adopted by healthcare organizations and health systems in their implementation of Kaplan and Norton's strategy map and balanced scorecard. Although strategy map and balanced scorecard are useful strategic management tools, policy makers and decision makers should be well‐informed about implementation issues and challenges of their adoption in healthcare organizations and health systems.

The paper is based on a literature review of the applications of strategy map and balanced scorecard in healthcare organizations and health systems. Also publications of the Ministry of Health and Long‐Term Care and its agencies are examined to assess the strategic priorities and plans for Ontario's health system.

From the literature review and case studies cited, an increasing use of strategy map and balanced scorecard was found in the healthcare sector. The implementation is both unique and innovative. Moreover, strategy map and balanced scorecard are effective communication and strategic management tools in aligning and integrating the strategic goals of various levels within the health system.

The paper gives an account of the different implementation approaches of strategy map and balanced scorecard in the healthcare sector; thereby providing policy makers and decision makers with choices on how to implement the strategic management tool in their organizations.

The literature review and case studies described here highlight the value and applications of strategy map and balanced scorecard in the healthcare sector.

The purpose of this article is to analyze and compare between the frameworks of performance measurement in primary health care in the world. The subject of search is to compare if the frameworks of performance measurement in primary health care have an influence on performances of health centers.

We conducted a systematic review of the literature to (1) identify the conceptual framework for measuring quality management systems, (2) assess the effects of conceptual framework on quality improvement and quality of care outcomes. We opted for the frameworks that are more cited in the literature and we analyzed and compared between these frameworks.

Eight dimensions were identified for assessing performance in Primary Health Care Facilities “PHCF” in more than 50% frameworks: Effectiveness, Safety, Accessibility, Equity, Efficiency, Acceptability, Patient Centeredness and Timeliness.

The limits of this study can be represented by the following elements: (1) lack of exhaustiveness with regard to the current Frameworks. (2) The evaluation of reliability and validity of the qualitative studies remains difficult to appreciate. (3) Most of the evaluation tools of the primary health care are not validated yet. (4) The difference in performance levels between countries, especially for the developed countries and the multitude of the frames of measure of performance, limits the comparability of the results.

This study provides a conceptual and descriptive literature on the different conceptual frameworks for performance measurement in primary health care, and a practical and useful tool for comparison between the different conceptual frameworks. Several organisations of accreditation or certification introduced, developed, incorporated and checked the indicators of clinical quality in the organizations of health care. Some studies revealed links with the governance, the access, the continuity, the coordination, the efficiency and the strength primary care (Dionne Kringos, 2018). Improvements in the quality of care have been observed in the results of accreditation and certification bodies regarding hospital infection control infrastructure, organization and performance.

Even if the links are not established within the framework of a scientific research, quality approaches are generally recognized as an essential tool to help establishments to improve the quality and the safety of the patients. Until now, it is not still common to make evaluation of the quality of care in the “PHCF” to obtain the relevant information. The necessity of having performance measurement tools, which puts in coherence the piloting of the operational level with the strategy, to integrate the organizational objectives into the measures of operational performances and make estimate its structures towards a real management by the quality.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the appropriation of control rooms based on value-based integrated performance management tools implemented in all publicly funded health organizations in Quebec (Canada) as a form of legitimate sociomaterial work.

Multi-site organizational ethnographic case studies in two Integrated health and social services centers, with narrative process analysis of triangulated qualitative data collected through non-participant observation (163 h), individual semi-structured interviews (N = 34), and document review (N = 143).

Three types of legitimate sociomaterial work are accomplished when actors appropriate control rooms: 1) reformulating performance management work; 2) disrupting accountability work and; 3) effecting value-based integrated performance management. Each actor (tools, institutions and people) follows recurrent institutional work-paths: tools consistently engage in disruptive work; institutions consistently engage in maintaining work, and people consistently engage in creation work. The study reveals the potential of performance management tools as “effective integrators” of the technological, managerial, policy and delivery levels of data-driven health system performance and improvement.

This paper draws on theoretically informed empirical insights to develop actionable knowledge around how to better design, implement and adapt tool-driven health system change: 1) Packaging the three agents of data-driven system change in health care: tools, institutions, people; 2) Redefining the search for performance in health care in the context of value creation, and; 3) Strengthening clinical and managerial relevance in health performance management practice.

The authors aim to stimulate new and original scholarship around the under-theorized concept of sociomaterial work, challenging theoretical, ontological and practical conceptions of work in healthcare organizations and beyond.

In 2016, New Zealand's Ministry of Health introduced the System Level Measures Framework which marked a departure from health targets and pay-for-performance incentives towards an approach based on local, collaborative approaches to health system improvement. This exemplifies an attempt to “overwrite” New Public Management (NPM) institutional practices with New Public Governance (NPG). We aim to trace this process of overwriting so as to understand how attempts to change institutional practices were facilitated, blocked, translated and edited.

We develop a conceptual framework for understanding and tracing institutional change towards NPG which emphasises the importance of discursive strategies in policy attempts to overwrite NPM with NPG. To analyse the New Zealand case, we drew on policy documents and interviews conducted in 2017–18 with twelve national key informants and fifty interviewees closely involved in local development and/or implementation of the SLMF.

Policy sponsors of collaborative approaches to health system improvement first attempted formal institutional change, arguing that adopting collaborative, quality improvement (NPG) approaches would supplement existing performance management (NPM) practices, to create a superior synthesis. When this formal approach was blocked, they adopted an approach based on informal persuasion of local organisational actors that quality improvement should supplant performance improvement. This approach was edited and translated by local actors, and the success of local implementation varied considerably.

This article offers a novel conceptualisation of public management institutional change, which can help explain why it is difficult to completely erase NPM practices in health.

This paper explores the rhetorical practices that are used in the introduction of a New Public Governance policy framework.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the concerns and factors that impact on hospital quality and safety, particularly related to use of performance data, within a setting of devolved governance.

This qualitative study used thematic analysis of interviews with public hospital medical directors. For additional context, findings were framed by themes from a review of hospital safety and quality in the same jurisdiction.

Varying approaches and levels of complexity were described about what and how performance data are reviewed, prioritised, and quality improvements implemented. Although no consistent narrative emerged, facilitators of improvement were suggested relating to organisational culture, governance, resources, education, and technologies. These hospital-level perspectives articulate with and expand on the system-level themes in a state-wide review of hospital safety and quality.

The findings are not generalisable, but point to an underlying absence of system-wide agreement on how to perceive, retrieve, analyse, prioritise and action hospital performance data.

Lack of electronic medical records and an inefficient incident reporting system limits the extent to which performance and incident data can be analysed, linked and shared, thus limiting hospital performance improvement, oversight and learning.

Variable approaches to quality and safety, standards of care, and hospital record keeping and reporting, mean that healthcare consumers might expect inconsistency across Victorian hospitals.

The views of medical directors have been little researched. This work uses their voice to better understand contextual factors that situate and impact on hospital quality and safety towards understanding the mixed effectiveness of hospital quality improvement strategies.