Measurement in Public Management: The Case for the Defence

I want to highlight five things that occurred over the following decade as a result (Marson and Heintzman, 2009). First, as I already mentioned, was early agreement on a common objective and results measure, an outside-in measure (not an inside-out or process measure, as so often occurs in the public sector), based on citizen satisfaction with public sector service delivery. 

Second, the undertaking of joint “action research” to achieve a deeper, shared understanding of the nature and dimensions of the challenge, as a basis for action, including a series of national surveys, especially Citizens First, which has now been conducted every two years since 1998. 

Third, the development of a common measurements tool (CMT) and related service improvement methodologies to facilitate results measurement, service improvement planning and implementation, and performance benchmarking within and between Canadian governments.

Fourth, the creation of communities of practice within governments and across governments, together with the institutions necessary to support those communities, including intergovernmental councils and an Institute for Citizen-Centred Service (ICCS) to serve, among other things as a research centre and data warehouse for results from the CMT. 

And, fifth, a shared understanding (also resulting from the “action research”) about the distinctive “drivers” of citizen satisfaction with public sector service delivery.

So what has all this achieved for public sector service delivery in Canada, over the past decade? 

Well, for one thing, it enabled the Government of Canada both to set and then to exceed a target of a 10 percent improvement in service results between 2000 and 2005, overtaking the provincial level in the process, and even closing the gap with the municipal level in service reputation. Ten years ago, a federal task force on service delivery proclaimed that public sector service delivery lagged woefully behind private sector service delivery performance, such as the banks (Canada, 1996: 12). Ten years later, the service performance of many Canadian public sector organizations now surpasses comparable private sector results and benchmarks, including the banks. In the process, Canada has become a world leader in public sector service delivery, the only country that has achieved, and can measure and demonstrate, continuous improvement in citizen satisfaction with public sector service delivery over a ten-year period. The international consulting firm, Accenture, has identified Canada as a world leader in public sector service delivery, and other countries are now looking to Canada as a best practice (Marson and Heintzman, 2009).

And what does this public management story show? I think it is a concrete example of how an “outside-in” approach based on the measurement of results and outcomes can contribute to significant improvements in public management (Heintzman, 2007).