Views from the executive suite : lessons from the introduction of performance management

Performance management introduced to the senior health executive levels in the New South Wales public health care system included the senior executive service in 1989 and, as a key element of that service, performance agreements in 1990. This is the first qualitative study examining senior health executives' personal experiences of these changes. In consideration of what has been learnt from the most relevant literature and this study, this paper concludes that the introduction and implementation performance management is a continuous process. This process includes the key steps of planning, measuring, monitoring and evaluating. It can be used as a means to achieve overall effective organisation performance by bringing in a two way management process for the organisation and its senior health executives.

The impact of sports on team performance management

Purpose – The purpose of this editorial is to introduce the special issue on the relationship of performance management to sports teams.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper explains the importance of performance management to sports teams and justifies the need for the special issue.

Findings – The paper finds that there are a variety of different types of teams that operate in the sports context, including professional league teams, college teams, teams at the workplace, volunteer teams and coaching teams.

Originality/value – This editorial provides an overview of this special issue, which comprises eight original papers that are best practice examples of the latest developments in the research on teams in the sports context. Each of these articles is briefly discussed in terms of its contribution to the literature.

An empirical study of BI-based corporate performance management in North America and East Asia

Managing corporate performance is an important yet challenging process. Recently, many enterprises have adopted business intelligence (BI) tools to facilitate more effective corporate performance management. Based on a survey with 290 organizations across North America and East Asia, this paper presents empirical evidence on the key benefits of and barriers to BI-based corporate performance management (CPM). The study reveals that the implementation of BI-based CPM faces multi-dimensional challenges. Organizations in East Asia perceived higher CPM benefits as well as higher CPM barriers than their counterparts in North America. Cultural, economic and environmental differences between the two regions explain these issues. The research findings offer important insights for multinational organizations that are planning or are in the process of implementing or reviewing their BI-based CPM, as well as for consulting companies that are assisting with CPM implementation in different countries.

Rhetoric and reality : an examination of performance management in Australian universities

This paper reports on a survey of academics in the Business School of four Australian universities and explores their attitudes to performance management in general and their experience of performance management in their own university. Results indicate an apparent disconnect between the rhetoric of performance management and the reality being experienced in universities.

An empirical study of business intelligence impact on corporate performance management

Business intelligence technologies have received much attention recently from both academics and practitioners. However, the impact of business intelligence (BI) on corporate performance management (CPM) has not yet been investigated. To address this gap, we conducted a large-scale survey collecting data from 337 senior managers. Partial least square method was employed to analyse the survey data. Findings suggest that the more effective the BI implementation, the more effective the CPM-related planning and analytic practices. Interestingly, size and industry sector do not influence the relationships between BI effectiveness and the CPM. This research offers a number of implications for theory and practice.

An era of governance through performance management - New Labour's National Health Service from 1999 to 2010

In 1997, the New Labour government inherited a ‘crisis’ in the UK National Health Service from the outgoing Conservative government. To address this perceived crisis, New Labour offered investment and, contrary to expectations, further neo-liberal health service reforms. In particular, the government extended the scope of performance management beyond financial numbers to encompass all aspects of managerial and organisational performance. Drawing on an analytics of government framework, this paper demonstrates how reforms were framed and given meaning through a framework of hierarchical accountability and centralised control. These panoptical arrangements relied on performance-management technologies of targets and ratings, which were linked to patient choice and a prospective funding system called ‘Payment by Results’. In turn, these top-down technologies disciplined knowledge, identity, and visibility and control of practice.