In Pursuit of Performance

Based on five years of extensive research by the Government Performance Project, this volume offers a comprehensive analysis of how government managers and elected officials use management and management systems to improve performance. Drawing on data from across the nation, it examines the performance of state, county, and city governments between 1997 and 2002 within the framework of basic management systems: financial information, human resources, capital and infrastructure, and results evaluation. Key issues addressed:

How governments strategically select elements of management to emphasize the role of leadership

How those governments that aim to improve performance differ from those that do not

What “effective management looks like Through this careful, in-depth investigation, the contributors conclude that the most effective governments are not those with the most resources, but those that use the resources available to them most carefully and strategically. In Pursuit of Performance is an invaluable tool for government leaders and the scholars who study them.''An important and valuable report about an important and valuable project. The information and statistics about procedural variations in governments around the nation and the status of their management systems have never been compiled and presented before with anywhere near this level of detail and analytical rigor.''—Hal G. Rainey, University of Georgia, author of Understanding and Managing Public Organizations, 3rd ed., and Modernizing Human Resource Management in the Federal Government