Recently, my paper “Performance measurement in the public sector: Mapping 20 years of survey research” was published in Financial Accountability and Management, a scientific journal dedicated to study management practices in governments, charities and public services.

In the paper, the findings from 32 papers on performance measurement (PM) published in leading accounting journals are mapped (see for instance the figure below) and synthesized.

The findings highlight that PM use and attributes such as fairness, subjectivity, and clarity significantly impact the outcomes yielded by PM systems. Furthermore, the paper identifies research gaps, areas of debate, and avenues for future research. Findings from this review have the potential to add nuance to the sometimes-polarized debate on the acclaimed “benefits” (e.g. motivation, performance) and “costs” (e.g. stress, loss of trust) of PM in the public sector.

Click here to download a PDF version of the paper (open access).