Prelims
ISBN: 978-1-83982-149-3, eISBN: 978-1-83982-148-6
Publication date: 3 March 2021
Citation
Schulz, R., Sense, A. and Pepper, M. (2021), "Prelims", Customer Development of Effective Performance Indicators in Local and State Level Public Administration, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. i-xviii. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83982-148-620211007
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2021 Emerald Publishing Limited
Half Title Page
Customer Development of Effective Performance Indicators in Local and State Level Public Administration
Title Page
Customer Development of Effective Performance Indicators in Local and State Level Public Administration
by
Rebekah Schulz
Georges River Council, Australia
Andrew Sense
University of Wollongong, Australia
Matthew Pepper
University of Wollongong, Australia
United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China
Copyright Page
Emerald Publishing Limited
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First edition 2021
Copyright © 2021 Emerald Publishing Limited
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-83982-149-3 (Print)
ISBN: 978-1-83982-148-6 (Online)
ISBN: 978-1-83982-150-9 (Epub)
Contents
| List of Figures and Tables | ix |
| About the Authors | xi |
| Foreword | xiii |
| Preface | xv |
| Acknowledgements | xvii |
| Chapter 1 Introduction | 1 |
| 1.1 Chapter Introduction | 1 |
| 1.2 Why Take a Quality-oriented Perspective to Performance Indicator Development in the Public Administration (PA) Context? | 1 |
| 1.3 Why Have Customers Collaborate in the Development of Performance Indicators? | 3 |
| 1.4 Performance Indicators and Measuring Performance in PA | 4 |
| 1.5 Our Customer Approach to Performance Indicator Development (Pida) | 6 |
| 1.6 Important Background Information Concerning the Contents of this Book | 8 |
| 1.7 The Structure of the Book | 10 |
| 1.8 Chapter Summary | 10 |
| Chapter 2 What Is a Quality Perspective Towards Developing Performance Indicators? | 13 |
| 2.1 Chapter Introduction | 13 |
| 2.2 Our Quality Perspective and Why it is Useful in Developing Performance Indicators in PA | 13 |
| 2.3 Quality Function Deployment | 14 |
| 2.4 House of Quality (HoQ) | 15 |
| 2.5 Performance Indicator House of Quality (PIHoQ) | 18 |
| 2.6 Chapter Summary | 20 |
| Chapter 3 The Key Elements of the Pihoq Framework | 21 |
| 3.1 Chapter Introduction | 21 |
| 3.2 Voice of the Customer (VoC) – What the Stakeholders Want | 21 |
| 3.3 Technical Requirements (TRs) – How to Implement the VoCs in the Administering Authority | 24 |
| 3.4 TR Relationship Matrix | 27 |
| 3.5 VoC and TR Relationship Matrix | 29 |
| 3.6 Performance Indicators: Outputs and Outcomes | 32 |
| 3.7 Importance and Satisfaction Ratings | 34 |
| 3.8 Critical Decision | 35 |
| 3.9 Areas of Deployment | 39 |
| 3.10 Utilisation of Tangible and Intangible Performance Indicators | 44 |
| 3.11 Chapter Summary | 48 |
| Chapter 4 A Guide to the Development of the PIHoQ | 49 |
| 4.1 Chapter Introduction | 49 |
| 4.2 Stakeholder Selection and the VoC Development | 51 |
| 4.2.1 Stakeholder Selection and Analysis of the Participants | 51 |
| 4.2.2 External Stakeholder Focus Groups | 57 |
| 4.2.3 Internal Stakeholder Focus Groups | 67 |
| 4.2.4 Consolidation of the VoC Lists | 68 |
| 4.3 Development of the TRs | 71 |
| 4.4 Confirmation of the VoC and TR | 73 |
| 4.5 Mapping Exercise and the TR Relationship Matrix | 76 |
| 4.6 Further Mapping of the VoC and TR Relationship Matrix | 78 |
| 4.7 Performance Indicators: Outputs and Outcomes | 82 |
| 4.8 Surveying the Importance and Satisfaction Ratings | 88 |
| 4.9 Plotting of the Critical Decision | 96 |
| 4.10 Confirmation of the PIHoQ and its Components and Deciding Areas of Deployment | 100 |
| 4.11 Utilisation of Tangible and Intangible Performance Indicators | 105 |
| 4.12 Chapter Summary | 106 |
| Chapter 5 Benefits, Challenges and the Road Ahead | 107 |
| 5.1 Chapter Introduction | 107 |
| 5.2 Potential Benefits of PIDA | 107 |
| 5.3 Potential Challenges and Opportunities | 111 |
| 5.4 The Key Messages about PIDA | 112 |
| 5.5 Some Questions to Stimulate Your Thinking on this Topic | 113 |
| 5.6 Chapter Summary | 114 |
| References | 117 |
| Recommended Supplementary Readings | 121 |
| Performance Measurement/Management | 121 |
| Traditional House of Quality (HoQ) | 121 |
| Performance Indicator HoQ (PIHoQ) | 122 |
| Action Research (AR) | 122 |
| Participative Action Research (PAR) | 123 |
| Community Engagement | 123 |
| Other Sub-processes/Tools Utilised in the PIDA | 124 |
| Index | 125 |
List of Figures and Tables
| Figures | ||
| Fig.1. | A Typical House of Quality (Adapted from Evans & Lindsay, 2008). | 16 |
| Fig.2. | The PIHoQ Framework. | 22 |
| Fig.3. | PIHoQ Including the Sample VoCs for a Cultural Precinct. | 25 |
| Fig.4. | PIHoQ Including Sample TRs for a Cultural Precinct. | 28 |
| Fig.5. | PIHoQ Including the Sample TR Relationship Matrix for a Cultural Precinct. | 30 |
| Fig.6. | PIHoQ Including the Sample VOC and TR Relationship Matrix for a Cultural Precinct. | 31 |
| Fig.7. | PIHoQ Including the Sample Performance Indicators for a Cultural Precinct. | 34 |
| Fig.8. | PIHoQ in Focus Including the Importance and Satisfaction Ratings. | 36 |
| Fig.9. | PIHoQ Including the Sample Importance and Satisfaction Ratings for a Cultural Precinct. | 37 |
| Fig.10. | Critical Decision Categories and Corresponding Actions. | 38 |
| Fig.11. | Quadrant Graph Showing the Critical Decision. | 38 |
| Fig.12. | PIHoQ in Focus Including the Critical Decision. | 41 |
| Fig.13. | PIHoQ Including the Sample Critical Decision for a Cultural Precinct. | 42 |
| Fig.14. | PIHoQ Focus VoCs Areas of Deployment. | 45 |
| Fig.15. | PIHoQ Including the Sample Areas of Deployment for a Cultural Precinct. | 46 |
| Fig.16. | In focus: A Complete PIHoQ Framework for Cultural Precincts. | 47 |
| Fig.17. | Signposts. | 51 |
| Fig.18. | Flowchart: Development of the VoC. | 52 |
| Fig.19. | Stakeholder Analysis Rainbow (Adapted from Chevalier & Buckles, 2008, p. 167). | 55 |
| Fig.20. | Stakeholder Analysis Rainbow of Council X Participants (Anonymised). | 56 |
| Fig.21. | Focus Group Suggested Room Layout. | 58 |
| Fig.22. | International Cultural Precincts. | 59 |
| Fig.23. | Flowchart: External Stakeholder Focus Group Sessions. | 60 |
| Fig.24. | The Customer VoCs from an External Stakeholder Focus Group. | 64 |
| Fig.25. | Flowchart: Consolidation of VoC Outputs into Primary VoCs. | 65 |
| Fig.26. | Confirmation of the VoC from a Combined External–Internal Stakeholder Session. | 74 |
| Fig.27. | Confirmation of the TRs from a Combined External–Internal Stakeholder Session. | 76 |
| Fig.28. | A Completed TR/TR Relationship Matrix from a Combined External–Internal Stakeholder Session. | 79 |
| Fig.29. | A Sample Completed VoC/TR Relationship Matrix from a Combined External–Internal Stakeholder Session. | 80 |
| Fig.30. | Performance Indicators Associated with the Customer TRs – Example from Cultural Precinct Research. | 83 |
| Fig.31. | Cultural Precinct PIHoQ with PI Inclusions. | 87 |
| Fig.32. | A Sample Importance Rating on the Cultural Precinct Study – Instructions for Completion. | 89 |
| Fig.33. | A Sample List of VoCs for the Importance Rating. | 90 |
| Fig.34. | A Completed Sample Importance Rating. | 91 |
| Fig.35. | Sample PIHoQ for Cultural Precincts with Importance and Satisfaction. | 95 |
| Fig.36. | Example Completed Critical Decision Quadrant Graph. | 97 |
| Fig.37. | Assigning the VoCs to the Critical Decision Quadrant Graph. | 98 |
| Fig.38. | Sample PIHoQ with the Critical Decision. | 99 |
| Fig.39. | Sample PIHoQ Highlighting the ‘Focus’ Critical Decision VoCs. | 103 |
| Fig.40. | Sample PIHoQ with the Areas of Deployment. | 104 |
| List of Tables | ||
| Table 1. | Representative TRs for a NSW Local Government Authority. | 26 |
| Table 2. | Sample Performance Indicators for Customer-related TRs. | 33 |
| Table 3. | Critical Decisions. | 40 |
| Table 4. | Demographics of Council X. | 53 |
| Table 5. | External Stakeholder VoC Consolidation Sample. | 65 |
| Table 6. | Sample Consolidated VoCs for Cultural Precinct Stakeholders. | 69 |
| Table 7. | Representative VoCs for Cultural Precincts. | 70 |
| Table 8. | Representative TRs for Cultural Precincts. | 72 |
| Table 9. | Cultural Precinct Stakeholder Comments Related to Performance Indicators. | 85 |
| Table 10. | VoCs Prioritisation Scoring System. | 89 |
| Table 11. | A Sample Participant’s Importance Ratings for Cultural Precinct VoCs. | 92 |
| Table 12. | VoC Importance Ratings and Average Rating. | 93 |
| Table 13. | VoC Satisfaction Ratings and Average Rating. | 94 |
About the Authors
Dr Rebekah Schulz is the Director Community and Culture at a local government organisation in the NSW State of Australia (Georges River Council). In this senior role, she has the primary responsibility for the customer experience, community property portfolio, cultural facilities, early learning centres, major events, library services, and public art production. She has worked in local government administration in numerous roles for 20 years where she received a Prime Minister’s Achievement Award. She has also worked in State and Federal government positions. She has undertaken study tours of local government services in Connecticut, USA and Kathmandu, Nepal. She recently completed her doctoral studies on performance measurement at the University of Wollongong.
Dr Andrew Sense is an Associate Professor within the Faculty of Business at the University of Wollongong, Australia. His research and professional activities and publications over a 23-year academic career span a range of management discipline areas but principally involve local government operations and project management. He has received a number of awards from Universities, academic publishers, and industry professional bodies for the quality of his teaching, research, reviewing, or publication activities. Prior to joining academia, he successfully pursued an extensive industry career for 19 years in operations and production management within Australia. Previous book publication: Sense, A. J. (2007). Cultivating Learning Within Projects, Palgrave Macmillan.
Dr Matthew Pepper is a Senior Lecturer within the Faculty of Business at the University of Wollongong, Australia. His primary research interests are operations management and the application of continuous improvement and systems thinking within organisations – both public and private. He has undertaken research and consultancy across a range of industry sectors, including the manufacturing and process industries as well as local government.
Foreword
Public administrations operate in an age of increased public scrutiny, growing, and understandable expectations of transparent governance and a heightened obligation to demonstrate the public value of government-managed services and facilities. Furthermore, communities are comfortable in challenging the decisions of public administrations and look for opportunities to participate in decision-making. Consequently, public administrations seek out more considered, informative, and highly relevant approaches to measuring the performance of their services and facilities.
Critical to effectively measure performance and to continuously improve those operations or services are the performance indicators in use. Unfortunately, until now, the attention towards and the development of performance indicators seems more like a black art than a coherent process of transparent development. Many books provide lists of performance indicators or theories for performance measurement, but this publication is significantly different. This book provides practitioners in the public administration sector (and the communities which they serve) with the necessary steps and processes to collaboratively engage with their stakeholders, establish priorities, and determine relevant performance indicators that represent their local needs or desires. In short, the authors provide a practical, user-friendly guide to performance indicator development that is driven by external and internal stakeholder engagement.
I call on government administration leaders, intent on really understanding the performance of their government agency, to prescribe this as the only relevant approach to community engagement around performance indicator development. This is essential reading for their staff, and for those in their communities that seek a more active participation and involvement in government.
Gail Connolly
General Manager
Georges River Council
Preface
Welcome to our practitioner guidebook on the customer development of effective performance indicators in public administration!
This book addresses a real gap in academic knowledge and in practice knowledge about how public organisations’ and their communities may jointly develop performance indicators for the public organisation’s operations that are highly context relevant, useful and understood by those affected, and which successfully integrate diverse customer expectations/desires with organisational strategic objectives. In pursuing those outcomes, the instructive contents of our book will also support continuous improvement efforts and the practical enactment of genuine community participation. It will help increase operational transparency to external customers in the community, which in turn assists the development of public trust.
Currently, we would suggest that the locally relevant and customer-oriented development of performance indicators is not generally a topic of focal attention by local public administrators or by State level government authorities. Current processes used to determine performance indicators and the resultant performance indicators in use are often highly variable across contexts, focus on outputs rather than outcomes, and can be imbued with or represent authority operational and/or political bias, formulaic ignorance or incompetence, and simple policy compliance. As a result, performance indicators can lack relevance and utility to those managing or seeking to improve operations and also lack relevance and value to external members in the communities which the operations seek to serve.
As industry practitioners (current or past) and also as academics intensely interested in how organisations may better measure and improve performance, we were deeply concerned that there was a lack of any systematic and process guidance provided to practitioners confronting these performance indicator development dilemmas. Hence, our focus in this book is deliberately on informing and practically guiding practitioners (which for our purposes include external and internal customers – both public entity staff and community representatives) and is not concerned with providing an academic treatise on the subject. That being said, the contents of this book are nonetheless grounded in a major academic study by the authors on the subject matter concerned and, therefore, are underpinned by robust academic research in the field.
This book guides practitioners through an innovative, approachable, and structured performance indicator development framework (built on quality management principles), and outlines a participative process to implement that framework, constituting what we term as our approach to the customer development of effective performance indicators in public administration. Our approach places the customers’ front and centre in the performance indicator development process which promotes mutual learning and joint ownership through the co-production of outcomes, and fosters relationship building between diverse customer groups.
It is our hope that public administration organisations worldwide become aware of and adopt this book as a source of inspiration and guidance to help construct performance indicators relevant to their contexts and local needs, enhance their community engagement processes, encourage learning, and improve their operational decision-making.
Happy reading!
Acknowledgements
My husband, David Begley, and daughter, Ella Schulz-Begley, are my greatest support. Nothing in this world is possible without them. My parents, Lew and Laurel Schulz, gave me the determination, work ethic, and courage to study and write. To my brother, Greg who taught me to make the most of the time I’ve got. To them, I say thank you.
I also wish to thank the team at Emerald for their support in the development of this book.
Rebekah Schulz
Thanks, as always to my family for their ongoing support of my many and varied projects – yet another one brought to fruition! Thanks also to the editorial team at Emerald for their professionalism and assistance in completing this particular project.
Andrew Sense
Without the love, support, and humour of my family, things would be very different. Thank you always. To my co-authors, it has been a pleasure to work with you. Thank you and congratulations on bringing this idea to fruition. My thanks also to the team at Emerald for their ongoing support.
Matt Pepper
Dedication Page
‘The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measure every time he saw me, whilst all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me’.
From ‘Man and Superman: a comedy and a philosophy’ (Shaw, 1903).