Output measurement in professional public organizations: insights from European justice systems

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study is to empirically explore and analyze the concrete tasks of output measurement and the inherent challenges related to these tasks in a traditional and autonomous professional public work setting – the judicial system. Design/methodology/approach: The analysis of the tasks is based on a categorization of general performance measurement motives (control-motivate-learn) and main stakeholder levels (society-organization-professionals). The analysis is exploratory and conducted as an empirical content analysis on materials and reports produced in two performance improvement projects conducted in European justice organizations. Findings: The identified main tasks in the different categories are related to managing resources, controlling performance deviations, and encouraging improvement and development of performance. Based on the results, key improvement areas connected to output measurement in professional public organizations are connected to the improvement of objectivity and fairness in budgeting and work allocation practices, improvement of output measures' versatility and informativeness to highlight motivational and learning purposes, improvement of professional self-management in setting output targets and producing outputs, as well as improvement of organizational learning from the output measurement. Practical implications: The paper presents empirically founded practical examples of challenges and improvement opportunities related to the tasks of output measurement in professional public organization. Originality/value: This paper fulfils an identified need to study how general performance management motives realize as concrete tasks of output measurement in justice organizations.