Government Performance Measurement

Government performance measurement is the systematic, ongoing collection of quantitative and qualitative indicators about what public agencies put in, do, and achieve. Rather than treating measurement as a single number that grades an agency, the discipline — crystallised by Robert Behn's argument that different managerial purposes require different measures — asks first what a measure is for: evaluating, controlling, budgeting, motivating, promoting, celebrating, learning or improving. It draws heavily on Harry Hatry's practical handbook tradition of distinguishing inputs, outputs and outcomes and building measurement into routine operations. The output is not a verdict but a feedback system that ties day-to-day activity to public results.