Performance Management in the Public Sector: Past Experiences, Current Practices and Future Challenges

This paper reviews developments in research into public‐sector performance management over the past 20 years. Particular attention is paid to four increasingly influential research approaches in this area: multidimensional stakeholder approaches, the balanced scorecard approach, institutional approaches and the radical learning approach. Opportunities for applying these approaches in further research are also outlined. These opportunities are discussed in light of changing reform agendas centred on growing concerns with managing outcomes and relative performance evaluation as means of fostering an enhanced citizen or beneficiary orientation, inter‐organisational collaboration and learning in the public sector.