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4.personnel MGT - 2

The document discusses performance management in the traditional model of public administration and reforms under New Public Management (NPM). Under the traditional model, performance was inadequately measured and there were no clear objectives. NPM introduced systematic performance indicators, individual performance appraisals, and linking rewards to objectives. However, these reforms face issues like the difficulty measuring public sector performance and potential distortion of goals. Critics argue it reduces job security and increases scrutiny of public servants.

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Mohamad Faris
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
38 views20 pages

4.personnel MGT - 2

The document discusses performance management in the traditional model of public administration and reforms under New Public Management (NPM). Under the traditional model, performance was inadequately measured and there were no clear objectives. NPM introduced systematic performance indicators, individual performance appraisals, and linking rewards to objectives. However, these reforms face issues like the difficulty measuring public sector performance and potential distortion of goals. Critics argue it reduces job security and increases scrutiny of public servants.

Uploaded by

Mohamad Faris
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Section B;

PERFORMANCE
MANAGEMENT
Dr Ahmad Faiz Yaakob, FSPPP UITM Seremban 3 5/9/2020 1
Traditional model of administration
• By any standard, performance management in the traditional model of administration
was inadequate, and this applies to both the performance of individuals and the
organization. Measures which did exist were ad hoc and far from systematic. It is true
that there are difficulties in measuring performance in the public sector when
compared to the private sector, but it seemed that little effort was made. Perhaps it was
assumed that results would follow from bureaucratic organization, so that any explicit
measure was unnecessary.
• There was often no idea what was produced, how well it was produced, who was to
take the praise or blame, or even who was a good worker. In any case, an administrator
does not need to worry about performance as all he or she is doing is carrying out
instructions, and performance measurement is the problem of those giving the
instructions. Evaluation of program or people was infrequent and inadequate, with no
ideaDr Ahmad
of progress towards objectives, if indeed there were any clear objectives.
Faiz Yaakob, FSPPP UITM Seremban 3 5/9/2020 2
Performance management in NPM
• Reforms to performance management are a particularly important part of the managerial
programs. Agencies in many parts of government are now expected to develop ‘performance
indicators’, that is, some way of measuring the progress the organization has made towards
achieving declared objectives.
• Statistical measures can be developed in any organization, although there are more difficulties
in practice in the public sector than usually experienced in the private sector. Performance of
staff is also to be measured more systematically than before.
• The performance appraisal system aims to measure the performance of individual staff, even
to the extent of defining the key contributions expected over the year, which are then
compared with actual achievement at the end of the year.
• can extend to rewarding or sanctioning staff according to progress towards agreed objectives.
Informal methods of appraisal are considered to be ineffective and lead to inferior
organizational outcomes.
Dr Ahmad Faiz Yaakob, FSPPP UITM Seremban 3 5/9/2020 3
• There is a general aim to monitor and improve the progress of staff and agencies
towards achieving objectives. One of the starting points was the Financial Management
Initiative (FMI) in the United
• Kingdom that aimed at promoting in each department (UK Treasury and Civil Service
Committee, 1982):
• an organisation and a system in which managers at all levels have: ● a clear view of their objectives;
and means to assess, and wherever possible, measure, outputs or performance in relation to those
objectives; ● well-defined responsibility for making the best use of their resources, including a critical
scrutiny of output and value for money; and ● the information (particularly about costs), the training
and the access to expert advice which they need to exercise their responsibilities effectively.

Dr Ahmad Faiz Yaakob, FSPPP UITM Seremban 3 5/9/2020 4


• This had implications for financial management, but also for personnel and
performance. Indeed, all three were linked together in a new management system
which involved the specification of objectives for all government policies and for
individual units within the bureaucracy; precise allocation of costs to activities and
programmes; and ‘the development of performance indicators and output measures
which can be used to assess success in achieving objectives’ (Carter, Klein and Day,
1992, p. 5).

Dr Ahmad Faiz Yaakob, FSPPP UITM Seremban 3 5/9/2020 5


• Carter, Klein and Day argue that the FMI in the United Kingdom represented ‘a move
to institutionalise the search for efficiency and to generalise the attempts to change the
management culture of Whitehall’.
• Performance indicators became a new movement within the public services with the
express aim of finding out how hard government activity was to measure. As a result,
FMI was ‘intended to challenge the way in which the public sector has gone about its
business for a century or more’ (ibid., 1992, pp. 22–3). Performance indicators were
established for all kinds of activities. Indeed, in some offices, a bewildering number of
them were used, often far too many. Carter, Klein and Day argue (1992, p. 181) that
different indicators can be developed for different purposes:

Dr Ahmad Faiz Yaakob, FSPPP UITM Seremban 3 5/9/2020 6


Issues of performance measurement/ management
• Governments have increased the use of performance indicators, as the managerial system takes hold
and such data becomes the subject of public debate. If central government ‘is to maintain control over
the implementation of policies while at the same time decentralising day to day responsibility, the
performance indicators become an essential tool: it is necessary to centralize knowledge about key
aspects of performance in order to be able to decentralize activity’ ---centralization vs decentralization???
• Performance indicators are open to criticism for trying to specify the unspecifiable, given the inherent
difficulties of measuring performance in the public sector. Managers will argue that the benefits brought
by their particular organization cannot be quantified, or that empirical measurement distorts what it
does by focusing only on those things that can be quantified and are able to be processed by the
information system (Bellamy and Taylor, 1998).
• This may be a danger, but can be overcome by settingmeasures directly related to the organization’s
overall success. Also, once objectives are set they should not be set in concrete. Since the objectives of
public organizations frequently change, ‘management indicators must be flexible and continually open to
re-examination and modification’
Dr Ahmad Faiz Yaakob, FSPPP UITM Seremban 3 5/9/2020 7
• It is unlikely that any one measure will be as good as profit, but there are several
reasons why performance measures will continue to be used.
• First, individual public servants may see the use of indicators of appraisal as a threat,
but it can be an opportunity by pointing to good practices and good performance,
both of which may be rewarded.
• Secondly, as any public activity is under threat of being cut or removed altogether in
the current climate, a function or position in which measures of performance are
inadequate is much more vulnerable.
• Thirdly, there is little point in setting clear objectives, or funding programmes
accordingly, unless there is some means by which progress towards objectives could be
monitored. There has been so much capital invested in these other changes that
performance measures will be insisted upon.

Dr Ahmad Faiz Yaakob, FSPPP UITM Seremban 3 5/9/2020 8


Some problems of the personnel and performance changes
• The various changes to internal management have been criticized and, given they have
affected everyone, this is rather unsurprising. Some have argued that a public service
career is not what it was. The notion of career service is disappearing, as is lifetime
tenure or the inability to be dismissed. Promotion prospects are less certain and there
has been a bewildering series of reforms affecting morale.
Personnel arrangements
• There are several points made by critics as to the changes in personnel systems. Pollitt
and Bouckaert (2000, pp. 162–3) refer to a contradiction in the personnel sense
between motivating public employees and reducing their conditions of service. There
is some point to this. At the same time as it is claimed that the public management
reforms will liberate managers and allow them to take responsibility, tenure is being
removed as are many of the special conditions of service once given to administrators
Dr Ahmad Faiz Yaakob, FSPPP UITM Seremban 3 5/9/2020 9
• Some problems of the personnel changes
• The review of personal performance becomes an instrument of control. Horton
argues that ‘civil servants are now more obviously managed, with the personal review
acting as an instrument of control, although it is more often presented as an
instrument of consultation and individual empowerment’ (1999, p. 153). Pollitt and
Bouckaert also argue that managers have more freedom but are simultaneously under
greater scrutiny

Dr Ahmad Faiz Yaakob, FSPPP UITM Seremban 3 5/9/2020 10


• Some problems of the personnel and performance changes
• Public servants have greater scope to do things and to achieve results, but with this has
come increased attention as to whether or not results have been achieved. By itself this
may not be a big problem, but it is very difficult for public managers if they are
expected to achieve results while following the same detailed procedures as in the
bureaucratic model. Management freedom to act does need to be meaningful, but no
one can escape verification after the fact that results have been achieved.
• Another problem has been the idea of providing incentives by means of extra pay.
Even if performance pay is a good idea in the abstract, it has been hard to implement
in a fair and reasonable way. It could be used to reward favourites and may cause
resentment in those who consider themselves worthy of extra reward but get none.

Dr Ahmad Faiz Yaakob, FSPPP UITM Seremban 3 5/9/2020 11


• Some problems of the personnel and performance changes
• Finally, it still remains difficult to measure the performance of personnel in the public
sector, so that problems of unfairness are not likely to be solved. On the other hand, it
could be argued that ‘fairness’ in reward structures is a peculiarly public service view of
the world, that the private sector hardly has ‘fair’ reward structures and that some
unfairness may be the price to be paid for greater flexibility.

Dr Ahmad Faiz Yaakob, FSPPP UITM Seremban 3 5/9/2020 12


• Performance management problems
• Performance management has attracted a series of criticisms. While it is no longer
tenable for there to be no performance indicators, there is the hope that improvements
can be made.
• Even the bottom line measure of financial performance in the private sector is not a
perfect measure of organizational performance. Performance measurement is not easy
anywhere and it is certainly the case that private organizations use a variety of
measures other than simply profit.
• Competition is probably a more effective driving force than any form of measurement.
Yet public organizations are also competitors. competitors for scarce budgetary
resources. Governments wish to have some means for deciding which parts of their
operations are using resources well.

Dr Ahmad Faiz Yaakob, FSPPP UITM Seremban 3 5/9/2020 13


Performance management problems, and addressing issues..
• There are problems in the implementation of performance measurement. It is difficult to design
adequate measures of performance but as the remainder of the managerial program depends on this,
making some progress is necessary.
• There have also been problems in the type of performance indicators that have been used thus far.
Measures need to be meaningful but parsimonious and to have a direct impact on the operations of that
part of the public sector.
• Poorly chosen performance measures may result in management being focused on achieving satisfactory
results by the measures used instead of the best possible performance by the organization as a whole. In
addition, despite the attractions of a rigorous system of performance appraisal of staff in identifying
both good and bad performers, it is difficult to design a system that provides reliable comparisons and is
accepted by those involved.
• In many parts of the public service it is hard to compare the performance of individual people in a fair
and comprehensive way. There are problems with implementation of performance measures, as there
are for any changes which affect so many staff, but rather than abandon the use of performance
indicators,
Dr Ahmad FaizitYaakob,
is suggested that3 more work should provide better measures.
FSPPP UITM Seremban 5/9/2020 14
• Performance management problems…addressing the issues
• A pattern seems to occur in which performance measures are initially both opposed and poorly
conceived. Osborne and Gaebler argue ‘this pattern – adoption of crude performance measures, followed by protest
and pressure to improve the measures, followed by the development of more sophisticated measures – is common wherever
performance is measured’ (1992, p. 156).
• Not measuring performance is now inconceivable, but there are many better ways in which performance
indicators can and should be used. As Carter, Klein and Day argue, ‘the real challenge is to move from
an exclusively managerial view of accountability and the role of performance indicators, to a wider,
political definition’.
• As well as indicators of overall progress towards objectives or the achievement of financial targets, there
should be indicators of customer or client satisfaction or the speed and level of service delivery.
Indicators should aim at measuring effectiveness and quality, rather than efficiency and outcomes
instead of outputs.

Dr Ahmad Faiz Yaakob, FSPPP UITM Seremban 3 5/9/2020 15


• Performance management problems
• Problems of morale
• The series of unrelenting attacks on government and bureaucracy, followed by a series of bewildering
changes including those of performance measurement and personnel changes, have caused problems of
morale.
• Public administration in its Golden Age was a valuable and valued profession. This was no longer the
case by the 1980s and individual bureaucrats had to cope with antipathy from the citizenry. Weber
wanted bureaucrats to be respected as an elite group, but increasingly, they have been vilified as wasting
scarce taxpayer money.
• The lack of regard from the public for the bureaucracy has undoubtedly made the managerial reform
process easier to accept, but has probably exacerbated the problem of public service morale. Managerial
changes and reforms have imputed the motives of public servants and taken away many of their hard-
fought benefits, such as the expectation of a job for life.

Dr Ahmad Faiz Yaakob, FSPPP UITM Seremban 3 5/9/2020 16


Performance management problems
• Problems of morale
• Pollitt appears surprised that lower level staff ‘show less enthusiasm for enacted reforms than do the
“mandarins” at the top’ (2001, pp. 476–7). This should not be a surprise. The old administration was
comfortable and easy, a great place to work for those valuing stability. The managerial workplace is more
difficult; it is more rewarding for those who are capable but less comfortable for those that want an easy
life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_(bureaucrat)

Dr Ahmad Faiz Yaakob, FSPPP UITM Seremban 3 5/9/2020 17


Performance management problems
• Then, what we are supposed to do?
• There might be a gradual improvement of morale inside the system as the expectations of workers
change to resemble those of private sector employees. If public servants do not expect to be employed
for life, they should have fewer morale problems than those earlier employees who thought they would
be.
• As the reforms proceeded, expectations of staff did seem to change. This has positive effects in that
flexibility in staffing could result. Flexibility, however, works both ways. Without an expectation, or even
desire, for long-term employment, good staff would stay for a short time and then leave for another job
in the private sector or a different part of government.
• Perhaps the result of all the changes will be improved quality in the public sector and this development
will satisfy both citizens and public employees. It will be necessary, however, to treat staff as the valuable
resources they are. Old-style authoritarianism is most often counterproductive in dealing with good
staff, as they will simply leave.

Dr Ahmad Faiz Yaakob, FSPPP UITM Seremban 3 5/9/2020 18


• Conclusion
• And yet, of all the areas of managerial change, there have been greater problems in
internal management and a feeling that there is still a long way to go. Most of the
problems have concerned implementation. It is not easy to institute a new personnel
system or to persuade staff that it is better than the previous one.
• Changes have been so frequent that many staff do not know where they stand. This
causes problems of morale, exacerbated by the feeling that a public service career is
less attractive. If once it was a permanent career, valued by the community, it certainly
is no longer.
• The implementation of performance indicators is similarly difficult. They should be
simple, parsimonious but still meaningful. In theory, all these changes make much
sense, but have been difficult to bring into effect.

Dr Ahmad Faiz Yaakob, FSPPP UITM Seremban 3 5/9/2020 19


• Conclusion
• There are two points to be made in looking further ahead.
• First, even if there have been problems in setting up new systems, the direction of
reform in internal management is quite clear. So if particular changes are difficult they
will be superseded by further changes in the same direction, rather than going back.
• Secondly, comparisons or studies should not look at how well the reforms work in the
abstract, but rather how well they compare with what went before. In this regard, all
the changes mentioned here are far better than those that existed under the traditional
model of administration. In that model, personnel and performance management did
exist but were of such dubious quality that any change at all should prove to be a
significant improvement.

Dr Ahmad Faiz Yaakob, FSPPP UITM Seremban 3 5/9/2020 20

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