The purpose of this doctorial dissertation is to analyze the performance management status of the City of Bucheon, the first local government in the Republic of Korea to adopt and operate a ‘balanced scorecard’(BSC) to determine if a performance m...
The purpose of this doctorial dissertation is to analyze the performance management status of the City of Bucheon, the first local government in the Republic of Korea to adopt and operate a ‘balanced scorecard’(BSC) to determine if a performance management system actually contributes to the enhancement and improvement of accountability to citizens. Concurrently, it seeks to identify some of the problems with current performance management systems in order to discern overall improvement measures.
Since the implementation of administrative policies and services without the awareness and appreciation of citizens is meaningless, performance management in administration should include the enhancement of cognitive performance as well as the substantive performance of the organization. At the same time, the managerial-level performance of an individual division should be administered systematically so that it contributes to the accountability to citizens that encompasses the organization’s overall mission, vision, and accomplishments. Also, public servants, the main operating agents of performance management, must be able to accept and trust the effectiveness and operating methods of performance management systems. Understanding this, this dissertation gathers and analyzes the following subjects.
First, based on various internal data and outside reports produced to evaluate customer appraisals from 2005, the year Bucheon first introduced BSC, to 2010, this dissertation analyzed the status and relations of substantive performance by individual divisions in Bucheon, cognitive performance experienced by citizen users, and intra-organizational evaluative performances to determine the positive effects of managerial-level performance on accountability to citizens.
Second, through preceding research and a survey of Bucheon public servants, this dissertation examined factors affecting substantive performance, cognitive performance, and evaluative performance, and sought measures to enhance accountability to citizens through the elevation of these three performances.
Third, this dissertation examined the problems of the BSC operating system through research on the perceptions of the main agents - public servants - regarding the outcomes and operating status of BSC so as to render policy measures for improvement in order to bring about a desirable settlement of performance management systems.
Research findings show that there are considerable gaps among the substantive performance of the organization, the cognitive performance of citizens, and the evaluative performance as appraised by a performance -management division. It is also found that evaluative performances of the individual divisions do not effectively contribute to the city’s overall performance improvement in terms of accountability to citizens.
Also, there is a difference in the order of factors affecting performance. Leadership, member capabilities, responsiveness, and organizational culture, in that order, affected substantive performance whereas responsiveness, leadership, organizational culture, and member capabilities, in that order, affected cognitive performance. Leadership, responsiveness, member capabilities, division characteristics, in that order, affected evaluative performance. Each performance has different affecting factors, and levels of impact to accountability to citizens also differ. Also, the public servants of Bucheon generally demonstrate negative responses to the operating satisfaction level of BSC as well as effectiveness. Lower-level public servants and community center-based public servants have comparatively negative perceptions.
In order to resolve the related issues, efforts for improvement such as a new understanding of the fundamental objectives of enhancing organizational performance and accountability to citizens as well as a comprehensive approach that encompasses internal performance and outside-experiential levels, agreement among members, securing voluntary participation, and systematic use of performance management outcomes are required.
Key words : performance management, BSC, accountability, substantive performance, cognitive performance.