International Handbook of Practice-Based Performance Management

"The orientation of this text, the variety of applications examined, and the grouping of chapters around concepts such as the role of citizens, quality measurement, and performance budgeting makes this an ideal book for the classroom as well as for reference."
—PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW

The International Handbook of Practice-Based Performance Management presents the latest scholarship in performance measurement strategies in the field of evaluation. This important resource combines cutting-edge theory and practice of performance management in the United States and abroad. The book includes contributions from internationally known scholars and practitioners who present chapters that introduce the literature on key topics and provide clear guidance on practical skill building.


Key Features:

• Offers an international perspective: Though most of the chapters deal with performance measurement in the United States, the text represents the most notable examples of performance measurement in Canada, Latin America, Asia, Oceania, and Europe.
• Integrates theory and practice: The book's unique structure links literature-based conceptual knowledge with the lessons from practice and specific applied skills.
• Puts theoretical discussions into context: Case examples and lessons learned connect concepts to the real world while discussion questions allow for further deliberation.

Intended Audience
An excellent addition to any academic library, this resource is ideal for practitioners, academics, and researchers in public administration, non-profit organizations, management, public policy, health care services administration, and health care planning and policy. It can also be used as a text for graduate courses such as Performance Management, Management Reforms, International Performance Management, and Performance Improvement in Public Administration.

It may sound cliche, but I always wanted to help government do better. I've always felt that government's role is to ensure a good quality of life for citizens. Otherwise, what's the point of government? But to do this, government (everywhere) needs tools. In particular, government needs tools that can provide adequate knowledge to improve decisions that will impact the quality of life of citizens. My profession and my field have allowed me to contribute to this knowledge through my contact with students and colleagues and through my research.

But more recently, as I′ve reflected on my life growing up in the Dominican Republic, my efforts to establish a public administration program there, my travels around the world and the situation in the United States, I've become convinced that ethics is the most critical tool that government needs. Although I don't teach a course on ethics, I include the concept in all my classes. Also, I've started a line of research that looks for ways to integrate ethics in every aspect of government and especially in program performance measurement. In my mind, the more ethical government is, the more likely it is to succeed in providing a good quality of life for all citizens.

Maria P. Aristigueta is the president of the American Society for Public Administration, the Charles P. Messick Professor of Public Administration, the Associate Director of the School of Public Policy and Administra-tion, and the Senior Policy Fellow in the Institute of Public Administration at the University of Delaware. Her teaching and research interests are primarily in the areas of public sector management and include performance measurement, strategic planning, and organizational behavior. She has published numerous journal articles, book chapters, and books, including Managing for Results in State Government, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations, Managing and Measuring Performance in Public and Nonprofit Organizations: An Integrated Approach, and Organizational Behavior, and she was coeditor of the International Handbook of Practice-Based Performance Management. Her doctorate is from the University of Southern California.