Performance Management Systems Productivity in the Public Sector: Wither African Public Administration

Abstract

Performance management has attracted a lot of debate in the recent past. It is a systematic effort to improve performance through an ongoing process of establishing desired outcomes, setting performance standards to improve performance and productivity and aim at improving the quality of public service delivery. In view of this, the article discusses the extent to which performance management practices influence performance and productivity in public sector institutions in Africa. It notes that though performance management has been introduced in the African public service with the intentions of monitoring, reviewing, assessing performance and recognizing good performance, performance management systems in Africa have not been able to achieve the expected level of performance which will improve productivity. As a result, the article gives brief overview of public sector performance in some African public services and recommends among others that African public services need to lay more emphasis on productivity through effective implementation of performance management systems. It concludes that public sector organisations in Africa can learn a lot from Western companies which have been wrestling with this issue for over two decades now.