Title: Implementing a component approach to productivity measurement in a large public service organisation

Authors: Aki Jääskeläinen

Addresses: Department of Industrial Management, Tampere University of Technology, P.O. Box 541, FIN-33101, Tampere, Finland

Abstract: Productivity measurement efforts in the public sector are complicated by two fundamental issues: 1) the role of qualitative factors in service provision; 2) the underdevelopment of measurement culture. This paper describes and implements a new approach for measuring productivity of large public service organisations. The qualitative multiple case study utilises data obtained through interviews and action research studies. It presents the main experiences from a large and intense research and development project carried out in the City of Helsinki, Finland during 2007 to 2010. The contribution of the paper relates to two issues. First, it presents a new measurement approach. The main idea is to first develop appropriate component measures for the operative level, after which the results can be aggregated for the purposes of decision-making at upper organisational levels. Second, the study illustrates factors that facilitated the success of implementing a new measurement and management control system.

Keywords: development projects; productivity measurement; performance management; public services; Finland; public sector organisations; component measures; management control.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBPM.2013.052941

International Journal of Business Performance Management, 2013 Vol.14 No.2, pp.111 - 128

Received: 18 Oct 2011
Accepted: 01 Jun 2012
Published online: 28 Nov 2013 *

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