Why do we need to measure performance? A local government perspective.

Performance measurement is always an interesting and emotive topic to discuss. Many people are comforted by calculating key performance indicators and feel that they are successful if they count everything they can. However nothing grows just by counting it. In this chapter we will look at what performance measurement is and some of the main theories used, like the Balanced Scorecard. We take a particular look at the public sector and specifically Local Government. Local Government has a more complicated “business model” since many of their service users are also taxpayers and they need to demonstrate that taxpayers’ funds have been spent fairly and responsibly. The conclusion of the chapter shows that more research is needed to see how performance measurement impacts performance overall.