Public, private sectors not so different after all, study finds

Federal agencies face the same challenge that private corporations do: keeping a variety of people happy, including customers, employees and stakeholders, according to a new study from the National Partnership for Reinventing Government.

Agencies may have a tougher time defining who their customers are, but the basic set of performance goals translates across industries, said the report, "Balancing Measures: Best Practices in Performance Management."

In writing its study, NPR joined forces with federal, state and local agencies that have had success in establishing a balanced set of performance measures. The balanced scorecard, first introduced in 1992 by two Harvard Business School authors, is used widely in the private sector. The basic concept is to build customer and employee data into performance measurement, thus creating a business model that meets the needs of every stakeholder.

Performance planning, management and measurement do not always make the balanced scorecard a perfect fit for the public sector, but "this does not mean that the concept isn't useful in government planning," the report said.

NPR's purpose was to glean the lessons learned by public and private sector organizations in their performance planning and management. What they found was that successful agencies have high staff retention, morale and job satisfaction, have quality goods or services, aren't embarrassed of the public's perception of them, are ready to respond immediately to challenges and have in place a process for identifying and making improvements.

Several important tips in the study were taken from NPR's federal partners. The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management, for example, based almost 20 percent of its performance measures on customer survey results. BLM also gave stakeholders and employees the opportunity to review and comment on the performance measures while they were being developed, a practice more agencies should copy, the report said.

The key to NASA Langley Research Center's success in developing balanced performance measures was allowing union input and communicating its message. Management there held focus group meetings with its employees and unions and published a booklet and poster to ensure all employees understood the center's new performance measures.

At the Veterans Benefits Administration, executive appraisals were linked to balanced scorecard performance measures to make sure that top leadership was willing to support a new business model.

In short, the study concluded, "we aren't so different after all: public or private, federal, state, or local, there are common problems-and common answers."

Federal agencies that were consulted for the study include:

• Bureau of Land Management
• Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Federal Railroad Administration
• Federal Trade Commission
• Health Care Financing Administration
• Internal Revenue Service
• Patent and Trademark Office
• Securities and Exchange Commission
• Social Security Administration
• U.S. Coast Guard
• U.S. Postal Service
• Veterans Benefits Administration
• Veterans Health Administration
• NASA Langley Research Center

NPR's study online - http://www.npr.gov/library/papers/bkgrd/balmeasure.html (link inactive - 7/29/20040.