Performance management and public service delivery in Kenya

Abstract

erformance management aims at attaining operational effectiveness which in a broader sense refers to a number of practices that allow an organization to better utilize its resources. The need for productivity, quality and speed has spawned a remarkable number of management tools and techniques; total quality management, benchmarking, re-engineering and change management. All these, if pursued from the strategy point of view may lead to emphasis being put on the wrong place. Lack of clarity can be attributed to the fact that most public agencies have to deal with multiple principals who have multiple interests (Triveldi 2000). This leads to fuzziness in what is expected from implementing agencies. Performance management is therefore gaining momentum in many public sector organizations. Reforming the public sector in developing countries has come a long way with the progressive shift towards operational effectiveness, which entails doing what one is doing better. With defined outcomes and appropriate benchmarks to measure the outcomes, the rampant lack of focus is brought into the open. This paper addresses the issues related to performance management in public sector organizations in Kenya and its contribution to the service delivery process.