Attempts to measure and manage performance have been a long standing feature of the public services, despite the inherent difficulties. Much less however gets discussed about the application of the indicators and their effects, or what has been learned by the managers and officials about devising, implementing and using them (Radnor and Barnes, 2007; De Bruijn, 2007). In actual practice, this has often been carried out in ways which proved dysfunctional; for example, by concentrating on a single dimension of performance, leading to perverse incentives and unintended consequences (Bevan and Hood, 2006).
The paper explores the performance management systems within the ambulance services which is an important and growing subject of management inquiry (Andrews and Wankhade, 2015; Wankhade and Mackway-Jones, 2015; Wankhade, 2011; 2012). The previous performance measurement regime for the English ambulance service was held to be a classic example of this, since it concentrated on response times at the expense of other aspects of performance such as the outcomes of treatment at the scene (Heath and Wankhade, 2014). English ambulance services are thus faced with two new performance measurement regimes; both of which seem, in principle, an improvement on the old regime, but which, in some respects, seem contradictory in their 'philosophies (IBID, p. 1).
The paper reviews existing evidence on performance indicators in the context of public sector organisations. Drawing from the evidence from the ambulance performance regime, it considers the dilemma of ambulance professionals in meeting the performance targets (Wankhade et al., 2015; McCann et al, 2013). The paper examines the future direction of travel whilst placing the issues in the context of debates concerning multi-dimensional approaches to performance management.
References
Andrews, R. and Wankhade, P. (2015). Regional Variations in Emergency Service Performance: Does Social Capital Matter?, Regional Studies, Vol. 49, No. 12, pp. 2037-2052.
Heath, G. and Wankhade, P. (2014). A Balanced Judgement?: Performance Indicators, Quality and the English Ambulance Service; some issues, developments and a research agenda. The Journal of Finance and Management in Public Services, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 1-17.
Bevan, G. and Hood, C. (2006). What’s Measured is What Matters: Targets and Gaming in the English Public Health Care System, Public Administration, Vol. 84, No. 3, pp. 517-538.
De Bruijn, H. (2007). Managing Performance in the Public Sector. London: Routledge.
McCann, J., Granter, E., Hyde, P. and Hassard, J. (2013). Still Blue-Collar after all these Years? An Ethnography of the Professionalization of Emergency Ambulance Work. Journal of Management Studies, 50, 5, pp. 750-776.
Radnor, Z.J. and Barnes, D. (2007). Historical analysis of performance measurement and management in operations management, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management Vol. 56 No. 5/6, pp. 384-396.
Wankhade, P. and Mackway-Jones, K. (eds.)(2015). Ambulance Services: Leadership & Management Perspectives: Springer Publications: New York. ISBN 978-3-319-18641-2.
Wankhade, P. (2011). Performance measurement and the UK emergency ambulance service: Unintended Consequences of the ambulance response time targets, International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 24, No. 5. pp. 382-402.
