Performance Management Compared across Public Services

In the last three decades performance management systems has been widely adopted across Western countries. Comparative research has already demonstrated diversity in the application of performance management systems in different contexts. Yet, studies rarely pay attention to differences between service areas and draw lessons from these differences. On this backdrop this paper investigates theoretical assumptions on performance management systems through a cross-comparison of two public service areas (technical and social services) which differ in theoretically important dimensions. Drawing on extent literature we expect performance management systems to be operationalized more tightly, freed from definitional conflicts and with more rigorous and quantitative measures in areas with low governance complexity (technical services) while performance management systems will appear with opposite characteristics in areas with high governance complexity (social service). We find that the performance management systems unexpectedly converged in characteristics across the two service areas, and even appeared with more rigid monitoring and control functions in social services compared to newer developments within technical services. Based on these observations, we conclude that research on performance management systems and the underlying advancement of theory will benefit from further cross-comparisons of various public services.