Criterion-related Validity Analysis of Performance Management in Local Government

Abstract: Advocated by the New Public Management movement, performance management has been increasingly adopted in local government agencies, aiming to improve government performance and accountability. The purposes of this dissertation are trying to investigate the current practice of performance management and its effectiveness, and find out whether there are differences between Sweden and China, and between different agency levels in terms of performance management and government performance. According to theoretical review, we combine two performance management models into a new one with four stages, and establish a three-dimensional government performance model based on the Balanced Scorecard, with which questionnaires are designed. The results, carried out mainly in China, show that to a large extent the models are consistent with the theory. Nevertheless, a new stage of performance management, named as performance appraisal, emerges combining performance measurement with parts of performance report. It is found that the four stages of performance management are received different attentions in local government agencies. The results also display that two stages of performance management (performance improvement and performance standard-set) have strong causal relations with government performance. Meanwhile, there are significant differences between three agency levels in terms of some performance management stages and one performance dimension, according to the results. As far as the two nations are concerned, Sweden is much better than China at all the four stages of performance management, but only much better at one performance dimension—learning and growth—than China.