Government Performance Measurement Comes of Age

Abstract

Government performance measurement is not a new phenomenon. Basic measures of government performance have existed for decades, and some for even longer. Nevertheless, over the last 20 years or so governments at all levels have become almost fixated on systematic and scientific measures of performance. The inspiration for this focus has come in part from the private sector. Like many private sector firms, a majority of which now routinely dissect nearly every aspect of their company’s production processes, supply chain, service quality, customer relationships, customer satisfaction, and so forth, through oftentimes complex systems of performance measurement, governments have followed suit and devised innumerable methods for measuring, monitoring, and benchmarking the performance of their various programs, agencies, and departments.