Performance Improvement and Performance Leadership

… a core concept in Governance and Institutions and Atlas100

Concept description

Wikipedia (reference below) defines performance improvement as measuring the output of a particular business process or procedure, then modifying the process or procedure to increase the output, increase efficiency, or increase the effectiveness of the process or procedure.

Wikipedia notes that:

“Performance improvement can be applied to either individual performance such as an athlete or organizational performance such as a racing team or a commercial business.

“In organizational development, performance improvement is organizational change in which the managers and governing body of an organization put into place and manage a program which measures the current level of performance of the organization and then generates ideas for modifying organizational behavior and infrastructure which are put into place to achieve higher output. The primary goals of organizational improvement are to increase organizational effectiveness and efficiency to improve the ability of the organization to deliver goods and or services. A third area sometimes targeted for improvement is organizational efficacy, which involves the process of setting organizational goals and objectives.”

Bob Behn on performance leadership in the public sector

Bob Behn at the Harvard Kennedy School is perhaps the most sophisticated and practical academic writer on improving organizational performance in the public sector. He has, since September 2003, produced a highly readable free “Bob Behn’s Performance Leadership Report” (report archive at: http://thebehnreport.hks.harvard.edu/archive, full website above right).

Topic, subject and Atlas course

Modernizing Government in Governance and Institutions and Atlas100.

Sources

Wikipedia, Performance improvement, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_improvement, accessed 20 November 2016.

Page created by: Ian Clark, last modified on 22 November 2016.

Image: Bob Behn’s Performance Leadership Report, at http://thebehnreport.hks.harvard.edu/about-bob-behn, accessed 20 November 2016.