Performance evaluation systems are, by any organization, an essential tool to monitor continuously and timely the developments of its business. In the case of public administration, performance estimations are associated with complexity profiles related to the quantification of the social result obtained from the business and to the immateriality of the service provided.
In some case, performance measurement can be used like an instrument in order to set up a new organizational structure. In particular, this paper is aimed to answer the following research questions: a) Can organizational reorganization be guided by performance measurement? b) Is an organizational reorganization guided by performance measurement able to create value?
In order to answer these questions, the research method used in this study consists of the analysis both performance measurement and reorganizational process in the Italian Authority for energy.
The paper aims to check the diffusion of performance evaluation systems linked with the organizational and informative purposes that are the main goals of the management control.
Many experts on management have dealt with the issue of efficiency in public enterprises. In particular, an important reform process of public sector, according to the principles of New Public Management, began in the nineties of the last century in Italy (Hood, 1991, 1995, 1998). This ongoing process has concerned the entire sector and its development was based on a series of models that tend to evolve through successive approximations (Ferlie, Pettigrew, Ashburner e Fitzgerald 1996).
In an effort to monitor and evaluate business performance, performance management has played an important role; this kind of management leads public utilities in using methods and techniques of performance measurement (OECD, 1997).
This development in system is also linked to the need for accountability, which is able to bring out in a transparent manner: a) how many resources are used in public administration, b) how we use these resources, c) which targets have been achieved.
Performance measurement is only the first step towards the study of administrative efficiency. In this scenario, performance measurement could be the first step in order to draw a new organizational structure able to improve the value created.
Our research method consists of theoretical background and empirical evidence, the result of case study analysis. Firstly, the theoretical background is investigating through a systematic research of literature. Principally, we have considered the main public administration journal. Secondly, in this research, the case study analysis is often used with a dual purpose, descriptive and exploratory, using qualitative methods: interviews with practitioners and participative observations.
Our case study concerns the management control systems developed by the Italian regulatory authority for the energy sector (AEEGSI), which is the first independent regulatory body established in Italy with Law no. 481/1995.
Accounting and accountability of value creation in innovative public service delivery arra
