How Organisations Measure Success : The Use of Performance Indicators in Government

Throughout the 1980s the British Civil Service devoted much time and energy developing indicators to measure the performance of government. Never before had so much stress been placed on accountability and performance; a trend which will be reinforced as government continues to devolve activities to agencies and looks for methods to assess their performance. How Organisations Measure Success analyses existing methods from their origins in the 1960s to their revival in the 1980s as part of the Financial Management Initiative and its apotheosis in the 1990s Next Steps Initiative. How Organisations Measure Success reports on two years of field research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and will be of great interest to students of social policy and public administration as well as professionals working in government and public sector management. Social Sciences Book Cover 1 Title 4 Contents 5 List of tables 7 List of abbreviations 8 Introduction 10 Revolution or resurrection? The history of a concept 14 Models, measures, and muddles: organisational and conceptual dimensions of performance indicators 34 The criminal justice system: police, courts, and prisons 61 The welfare system: Social Security and the National Health Service 98 The private sector: banks, building societies, and retail stores 127 Managing monopolies: railways, water, and airports 147 Performance indicators in the 1990s: tools for managing political and administrative change 174 References 193 Name index 201 Subject index 203 Reports on two years of field research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. Examines performance indicators across a variety of government departments and public agencies as well as private businesses. Just as the start of the French Revolution is conventionally taken to be 14 July 1789, so the start of the Thatcher managerial revolution can be dated with some precision, 17 May 1982.