European Group of Public Administration Study Group on Performance What Does it Mean to Perform? Defining Performance in the Public Sector

Dates: 3-6 September 2008
Call for Papers Deadline: 1 May 2008
Location: Rotterdam (NL)
Website: www.publicsectorperformance.eu 

The EGPA Study Group on Performance in the Public Sector studies aspects of public sector performance. Public sector performance topics in the past have included the use of trust and satisfaction indicators, case studies of organisational performance, measurement issues and the utilisation of public sector performance information.

‘Performance’ is an often-used and often-abused word. It is general and flexible enough to communicate many meanings. ‘Performance’ conveys notions of improvement, progress, good governance, wise use of resources, commitment, leadership, value-for-money, public value, or community. At the same time, performance of public organisations finds expression in technical terms using performance indicators, rankings, scorecards and ratios, thereby suggesting that performance is neutral and value-free.

What does it then actually mean when we say a public organisation, or the public sector, is performing? When we say an organisation performs, does this then mean we agree about how performance is to be defined? And if we don’t agree, what determines which definition of public sector performance will prevail? How do we deal with conflicting definitions of public sector performance, and how are such conflict recognised or suppressed in performance measurement systems and metrics? What values do performance measurement systems reflect?

How do our views of public sector performance change? How does a national consensus on performance differ from that in other countries? What factors explain these changes and these differences?

We are looking for papers of an empirical, conceptual or theoretical nature that analyse and discuss:
• definitions and ideologies of public sector performance;
• how performance is used as a concept in the political and policy debate;
• how societies and public sector organisations deal with conflicting definitions of performance;
• how definitions of performance change;
• how administrative cultures reflect different meanings of performance;
• how definitions of performance are socially constructed.

We are not looking for technical or consultancy-oriented papers on specific performance measurement systems, or statistical analyses or comparisons of organisational performance.

Practicalities

The EGPA Permanent Study Group on Performance in the Public Sector held its first meeting in 1986. Papers from recent conferences have been published in symposia and special issues of the International Journal of Public Administration, Public Performance and Management Review, and the International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management. A symposium in the International Review of Administrative Sciences is in preparation. An edited volume on the use of performance information in the public sector will be published by Palgrave in October 2008.

Study Group website: http://www.publicsectorperformance.eu

Practical information on the EGPA 2008 conference, and the other Study Groups, can soon be found on the dedicated conference website www.egpa2008com.

Please submit a short abstract outlining (max 2p.)
- the title of the paper
- the argument and contents of the paper
- the research method of your contribution, and the empirical material to be used (if applicable)
- name, affiliation, and contact information of the author(s)

The deadline for the submission of abstracts is May 1st, 2008. Papers will be selected by the chairpersons no later than June 1st 2008. Authors whose abstracts have been accepted should dispatch their completed text to the relevant chairpersons and to maron@iiasiisa.be, by 31 July 2008 at the latest.

Papers will be made available on the Study Group Website. Due to time restraints, a maximum of 15 papers will be accepted.

Please e-mail paper proposals/abstracts in .doc, or .rtf format (not .pdf!) to the study group convenors:

Dr. Steven Van de Walle
INLOGOV, School of Public Policy
University of Birmingham
Birmingham B15 2TT
United Kingdom
and
Department of Public Administration
Erasmus University Rotterdam
The Netherlands
s.vandewalle@bham.ac.uk
Dr. Wouter van Dooren
Department of Political Sciences
University of Antwerp
Sint Jacobsstraat 2
2000 Antwerpen
Belgium
wouter.vandooren@ua.ac.be