Are Changes Effective in Performance Management? An Analysis of Japanese Agencies

Abstract

Agencies are key organizations for implementing and studying performance measurement and management (PMM). This article explores the implementation and effect of PMM in Japanese agencies. In Japan, design of the agency system included New Public Management elements, such as independence and delegation of powers, but also traditional ones, with a strong system of controls. The discourse about the soundness and ambitions of the PMM system permeated the agencies but not so much their effort toward PMM. The performance improvement attained by agencies depends on their agency characteristics, organizational culture, and organizational factors, with a remarkable influence of the organizational culture.

Keywords:

• agencies
• Japan
• organizational culture
• performance management

Notes

¹ General government expenditures as a percentage of the GDP for Japan in 2010 was 40.7%, compared with 50.9% in the EU area, and the average income tax rate (%) per single person at 100% of average earnings with no children in 2010 was 7.72% for Japan compared with 15.2% in the EU area (OECD statistics; Retrieved December 2012, from http://stats.oecd.org).

FIGURE 1 Evolution of expenditure in welfare by function.

Source: National Institute of Population and Social Security Research (Retrieved December 2012, from http://www.ipss.go.jp/ssj-db/ssj-db-top.html).

² OECD. Retrieved December 2012, from http://stats.oecd.org.

³ Data from the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research. Retrieved December 2012, from http://www.ipss.go.jp/ssj-db/ssj-db-top.html.

⁴ Data from the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research. Retrieved December 2012, from http://www.ipss.go.jp/ssj-db/ssj-db-top.html.