Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

The issue of performance measurement has been a focus of scholars and practitioners for the past 25 years. Although the pressure to focus on performance and results has been documented, and efforts to measure performance have been established, performance data continues to be inadequately used. Even more, there is lack of research on whether the use of performance data has actually increased the government performance.

This study examines the factors that influence government performance and focuses on the link between performance measurement and use of performance information with organizational performance. The study examines the following research questions: What are the predictors of government performance?, Whether and to what extent performance measurement and use of performance data influence the government performance?.

The study focuses on cities and counties, members of the Florida Benchmarking Consortium, and surveyed departmental administrators whose tasks are related with collection and/or reporting of performance data. In order to examine the research questions, an online survey was administrated and the results were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. As performance measurement is not an end in itself, but rather a process towards increase of organizational performance, this study makes several contributions. First, the study contributes towards the understanding of the extent of influence of performance measurement and use of performance data on local government performance. Second, the study distills lessons and provides practical recommendation to public managers interested to increase the use of performance data and improve organizational performance. Lastly, this study focuses on proper use of performance data and answers the question whether better data leads to better decisions.