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Beyond New Public Management: Does Performance Measurement Drive Public Value in Networks?

Public Value Management, Measurement and Reporting

ISBN: 978-1-78441-011-7, eISBN: 978-1-78441-010-0

Publication date: 11 November 2014

Abstract

Purpose

This article focuses on the role of accounting performance measurement in the creation of public value in the context of the network associated with the justice portfolio within the Australian Commonwealth.

Design/methodology/approach

We use concepts of bonding and bridging social capital to theorize the use of performance measurement in government networks.

Findings

We find that there is relatively little use of performance measures that reported network level performance and the primary emphasis was on building social capital with funders rather than across network partner agencies. We therefore conclude that existing Australian public sector performance measurement practices are not supportive of intra-governmental networks and therefore the notion that improvement in performance measurement will deliver public value needs further reflection.

Research limitations/implications

The research scope is restricted to governmental network performance measures from a justice portfolio budget perspective. Despite the focused attention of the research, the application of the findings has relevance across all government portfolios and broader public management more generally.

Practical implications

Despite calls for accountability and governance innovation where public value is delivered across organizational boundaries through dependency and collaboration, the case environment offers little evidence that forms of performance measurement over the period examined recognize this practicality. The research primarily adds considerable weight to the argument that the delivery of public value by networks requires an evolution in accountability and performance reporting away from traditional institutional forms of performance representation.

Originality/value

The research is highly novel in its unveiling and examination of contemporary performance measurement reporting from a network perspective.

Keywords

Citation

Cuganesan, S., Jacobs, K. and Lacey, D. (2014), "Beyond New Public Management: Does Performance Measurement Drive Public Value in Networks?", Public Value Management, Measurement and Reporting (Studies in Public and Non-Profit Governance, Vol. 3), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 21-42. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2051-663020140000003000

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2014 Emerald Group Publishing Limited