An underlying tension exists between the fundamental elements of accountability, government decision-making, performance management, evidence-based policy and the measurement of results. This article considers this through three lenses: evaluation of government policies and programs; program structures and performance indicators; and the challenges of big data. While use of new technologies and big data opens up opportunities for strengthened evidence-based policy, this does not address the tension between a disciplined results-based approach to government decision-making and the inherently political nature of these decisions. There remain also important challenges to the effective development and use of big data in government.
The significant rise of distrust in public institutions is a disturbing trend in advanced democracies. There are two emerging world-wide patterns of government reform to address this: promoting greater equity and producing an economically efficient government. But equity and efficiency are often considered as a trade off against each other. By exploring the experience of Japan, this article argues that local governments can make considerable progress towards democratic benefits-oriented partnership models of conciliation with economic efficiency by engaging civil society groups in co-governing partnership arrangements and, as such, positively contribute to building social capital and trust.
The question of how employee performance can be improved has intrigued both academics and practitioners for many years. Management theorists have come a long way through trial-and-error from performance appraisal and performance management to a competency-based performance management system (PMS) in an attempt to better manage the performance of employees. Despite the popularity and prevalence of the competency-based PMS in recent years, it has neglected the essential “moral” issue in the subject matter and thereby resulted in a flawed system of performance management. This moral element is particularly important in the field of policing because of the extensive authority conferred on police officers. Only by incorporating organisational values into the competency-based PMS will employees truly “live” those values and ensure an appropriate alignment between the vision statement of the organisation and the PMS at the individual level. Accordingly, the Hong Kong Police Force embarked on a project to revise its performance appraisal system into a value-driven competency-based PMS. After comprehensive research and consultation within the Force, the system was introduced in 2001, commencing with the officer cadre and ultimately extending to junior officers as well. The experience has proved to be rewarding, though the full benefits of the system are likely to be reaped only when it is extended to include a human resource management framework and capability.
This article examines the bewildering array of reforms of the Malaysian public sector launched since the 1980s under the heading of Excellent Work Culture. Taking as the point of departure Michel Foucault's analytics of government and ethics, it is argued that these reforms should be seen as a specific Malaysian neoliberal problematic of government seeking to recast norms of bureaucratic self-conduct so as to make way for an ethos of responsiveness informed by Malaysian values.
