Public Managers’ Skills Development for Effective Performance Management: Empirical evidence from Italian local governments

Abstract

Performance management has become an important element of the reform agenda of public sector around the world. However, scholars and practitioners highlight that many public administrations do not manage performance very well. A ‘litmus test’ of the success of a performance-based reform is observing whether public managers use performance information to make better-informed decisions. Having said that, the aim of this article is to see whether public managers of Italian local governments in the Apulia region (the South of Italy) use performance information after the last performance-based reform (Brunetta’s Reform: decree No. 150/09). The learning purpose is analysed and discussed. The research may suggest scholars, practitioners and policy makers the routes for developing performance utilization in difficult organizational contexts where performance management systems do not work.

Key words:

• Performance management
• performance measurement
• use of performance information
• organizational learning
• local governments

Notes

1. Mr. Brunetta was the Italian Minister of ‘Public Administration and Innovations’ in 2009.

2. The following municipalities were involved in the project: Andria, Barletta, Bisceglie, Bitonto, Brindisi, Canosa, Casarano, Cerignola, Foggia, Francavilla Fontana, Lucera, Manfredonia, Nardò, and San Severo.

3. The project was funded by means of PON ‘governance and system actions’, ‘Objective n. 1–Convergence, Institutional Capability’. For additional information, see the website of the project: www.qualitapa.gov.it/iniziative-in-corso/valutazione-performance.

4. According to the last performance-based reform (Brunetta’s Reform: decree No. 150/09), municipalities can replace the internal appraisal group with an ‘independent performance evaluation unit’. However, municipalities should guarantee that the unit satisfied all the requirements of decree No. 150/09. In particular, the decree extends its missions and assignments compared to the pre-existent internal appraisal group and attributes the role of ‘performance auditor’ to the unit. Moreover, a ministerial Commission (the Independent Commission for Valuation, Transparency and Integrity of public administrations) established compulsory professional requirements for people who wanted to fill this role.

5. The mean of group ‘0’ (small town) equals 3.2 and the mean of group ‘1’ (large/medium entities) equals 3.5. The equality of variances in each group (‘0’, ‘1’) is assumed by means of the Levene’s Test (p_Leven > 0.05).

6. There were no particular problems of multicollinearity (the variance inflation factors – VIF – never exceed the value of 2.0; the condition index test is satisfactory). Moreover, it is possible to accept the assumption of ‘homoschedasticity’ of the regression model. In fact, the White test (cross terms) is not significant (Obs × R² = 14.22; p = 0.36).

7. The following municipalities were involved in the project: Andria, Barletta, Bisceglie, Bitonto, Brindisi, Canosa, Casarano, Cerignola, Foggia, Francavilla Fontana, Lucera, Manfredonia, Nardò, and San Severo.

8. We refer to the project called ‘Performance evaluation, benchmarking and citizens involvement to improve public services’ and funded by means of PON ‘governance and system actions’, ‘Objective n. 1 – Convergence, Institutional competences’. The aim of the project is to support municipalities of Italian Regions of the ‘Convergence Objective’ (Calabria, Campania, Apulia and Sicily) in the process of implementation of performance management cycle. For additional information, see the website of the project: www.qualitapa.gov.it/iniziative-in-corso/valutazione-performance

9. Andria, Bisceglie, Bitonto, Brindisi, Cerignola, Francavilla Fontana, Manfredonia, Nardò, and San Severo.