Measuring Performance in US Municipalities: Do Personnel Policies Predict System Level Outcomes?

Abstract

This article makes the case for a more considered approach to reformulating public personnel policies. It does so by contending that the impacts of reforms need to be measured using system level performance outcomes in order to assess their value. Otherwise a linkage between a reform and an outcome is only assumed. Moving beyond the difficulties of linking management practices with government outcomes, an argument is made that an uninsured municipal bond rating shows promise as a measure of system level performance. A linkage between personnel management and bond rating is established in an analysis of 366 US municipalities where certain practices were found to be strong predictors of higher ratings. The conclusions support a reform process which minimizes “deadly combinations” and maximizes “powerful connections” rather than simply transplanting personnel practices from the private sector onto the public sector.

Notes

1. Ratings below Baa3 (Moody's as found in Mergent) and BBB (Standard and Poor's) are considered to be “highly speculative”. None of the municipal bond ratings in the sample fell below this level. Therefore, these categories are excluded.

2. Human capital describes the intangible collective resources possessed by individuals and groups in a given population. Wright et al. (2001) contend that how this wealth of human capital is developed and managed may be one of the most important determinants of performance.

3. See afme/Investing in Bonds Europe website available at: http://www.investinginbondseurope.org.

4. See, for example, Ukraine, at US Agency for International Development (USAID), available at: http://www.usaid.gov/locations/europe_eurasia/press/success/2007-09-07.html.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Richard F. Huff

Richard F. Huff is Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Administration at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, where he teaches policy analysis and public personnel management. He also has experience in government where he served in a number of executive positions in the US and Europe during a career in the federal civil service. He now serves as a member of the Management, Policy and Sustainability Component Team at the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to help develop a plan for enhancing internal and external collaboration, participation and transparency as part of the President's Open Government initiative. His continuing research interests include governmental reforms and performance, comparative politics, policy and administration with a particular focus on issues of civil service reforms in developed and developing democracies.