• Conceptualize performance and performance management
• Compare and contrast theories on the interactions between steering, motivation, and performance.
• Compare and contrast different management styles which can be employed to improve performance
• Apply concepts and theories to answer specific questions regarding how performance is and should be managed and regulated.
• Evaluate and discuss the strengths and weaknesses in specific applications of performance indicators in particular practical settings, as well as the application of performance management and regulation in a political environment in general.

This course specializes in providing a framework for analysing performance, and how it is managed in a regulatory environment. In order to be able to create better results in the public service economy, there is a need for a clear understanding of what performance is and of what is included - and what is left out - in performance measurement. The consequences of incompleteness in performance measurement for organizational behaviour and the results created are analysed and discussed, and performance measures in the private and public sector are compared and contrasted, providing an understanding of the operating conditions, when private sector firms operate in the public sector and vice versa.

The course provides a conceptual platform for analysing and discussing how performance can be improved and how a systematic analysis of the interaction between regulations, employee motivation and users’ capacity can be used to improve performance. This leads to a discussion on if and how management made with a continuous focus on improving performance can be carried out in the public as well as the private sector, and to what extent private sector companies have advantages when it comes to performance management as this may provide important business opportunities.

Summarizing some of the central issues of the course:

-          A performance oriented view on public service delivery

-          Conceptualization of performance and performance management

-          Key concepts on the interaction between models of steering, employee motivation, user capacity and performance

-          Theorizing the usage of performance information

-          Analysing the organizational use of performance information in a regulatory environment

-          Application of management styles in order to improve performance

Students learn to navigate in the fault-line between the public and private sectors and to combine business skills with knowledge of a highly political context, where the provision of public services and the chosen managerial approaches are constantly negotiated. Such knowledge might be useful for employment in larger public organizations, in larger NGOs, or in private companies providing public service such as health care or elderly care in collaboration with the public sector, or in companies offering supportive products and technologies such as information systems, engineering expertise, or maintenance capabilities.

This course is part of the minor in Public Private relations.

Andersen, Lotte Bøgh, Andreas Boesen and Lene Holm Pedersen (forthcoming): Performance in Public Organizations - Towards a Clarification of the Conceptual Space.

Andersen, Lotte Bøgh; Eskil Heinesen; Lene Holm Pedersen (2014) How Does Public Service Motivation Among Teachers Affect Student Performance in Schools? Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Vol. 24, Nr. 3, 2014, s. 651-671

Andersen, Lotte Bøgh; Lene Holm Pedersen (2013) Does Ownership Matter for Employee Motivation When Occupation Is Controlled for? International Journal of Public Administration, Vol. 36, Nr. 12, 10.2013, s. 840-856

Andersen, Lotte Bøgh; Nicolai Kristensen; Lene Holm Pedersen (2013) Models of Public Service Provision : When Will Knights and Knaves Be Responsive to Pawns and Queens?. International Journal of Public Administration, Vol. 36, Nr. 2, 2013, s. 126-136

Behn, Robert D (2003). Why measure performance? Different Purposes Require Different Measures. Public Administration Review 63(5): 586-696.

Behn, Robert (2014): The PerformanceStat Potential - A Leadership Strategy for Producing Results

Bellé, Nicolai (2013): Leading to Make a Difference. A Field Experiment on the Performance Effects of Transformational Leadership, perceived Social Impact, and Public Service Motivation, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory

Boyne (2002): Concpets and Indicators of Local Authority Performance: An Evaluation of the Statury Fremworks in England and Wales. Public Money and Management, pp. 17-24

Hood, Christoper (2012) Public Managment by Numbers as a Performance-Enhancing Drug: Two Hypotheses. Public Administration Review 72(85-92)

Le Grand, Julian (2010) 'Knights and Knaves Return: Public Service Motivation and the Delivery of Public Services', International Public Management Journal, 13: 1, 56 — 71. (15 sider)

Nielsen, Poul Aaes (2014) Performance Mangement, Managerial Authority, and Public Service performance. Journal of Public Administraion Research and Theory. 24 (2), 431-45810932

Selected chapters from Lazear & Gribbs: Personnel Economics in Practice, Wiley & Sons, Inc