What is performance? Armstrong and Baron’s (1998) maxim that “if you can't define performance, you can't measure or manage it'' continues to pose a challenge to municipal managers and other officials engaged with implementation of performance management systems. In the literature too, the debate is on-going as to whether performance management entails managing behaviour, results, or both. Otley (1999) also refers to performance management as being about doing the work, as well as being about the results achieved. Outcomes and results, it is argued, provide a very
strong link to the strategic Municipal Integrated Development Plan, the vision of the municipality, community satisfaction and contribution to the economy of the municipality (Rogers, 1994). Could the case of district-wide service delivery programmes like water be described as ‘managing programme performance without a performance management system’?
District-wide services in the Cacadu district municipality are invariably infrastructural services. Provision of water services requires both technical performance indicators and data driven information intended for ordinary community members on the service quality and availability. Establishing key performance indicators, setting up the measurement systems, monitoring and utilising the information for better decision making and management should thus be applicable to the district-wide performance management system as well as the individual municipality.
When asked to comment on whether the performance management system was being implemented effectively or whether officials needed training on performance management a majority agreed that there was a need for training.
A total of 70% of the respondents (40% strongly agreed and 30% agreed) reported on the need for training on performance management for appointed officials and also for councillors. The majority support the need for training that matches programmes and objectives with human resources and skills to improve the effectiveness of the utilisation of performance management systems.
In the study no indication of evidence was available on the conceptual differences between performance measurement and performance evaluation. According to McDavid and Hawthorn (2006:293) performance measurement systems are on- going, address general issues and are routinised while evaluation is episodic, program evaluation issue specific, often customized for each specific programme. Thus in the context of district-wide water services delivery the intended purposes of programme evaluation should be negotiated up front.
Water services delivery in the district municipality is based on collaboration and shared management. Municipal intergovernmental relationship is thus considered to be a necessary positive factor in the delivery of water services and other district-wide infrastructural programmes.
The figure below shows responses on the importance of intergovernmental relations for the provision of district-wide services. This is especially important in a multi- municipal model where the different councils have exclusive and shared responsibilities for the provision of services within the same jurisdictions.
Figure 5.12 Municipal Inter-governmental Relations
Of the respondents, 68% reported that municipal intergovernmental relationship was very important for the delivery of water services. However 25% of the respondents did not share the same opinion. Some of the comments were that water was also a source of revenue and local municipalities could lose part of their revenue if there was shared delivery. However those who responded positively motivated that there should be a form of collaborative performance evaluation and management for district-wide services. The inference is that some respondents felt that as a district- wide service this function has to be performance managed by the Cacadu District Council. Only 7% of the respondents were undecided on the importance of intergovernmental relations for the managing of district-wide water services.
5.8 CONCLUSION
The gathered data were analysed with the help of a statistician from the Statistics Department of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU). Since many of the questions elicited opinion, the statistical analysis was mainly on the demographic
and multiple choice types of responses. The responses were then developed into pie charts and bar charts to provide scores in the form of percentages and numerical values. The researcher was then able to insert interpretive comments on the various figures to provide meanings. Where appropriate, some opinions expressed in motivation were added to give meaning to the responses.
The other forms of responses are not quantified as these were mainly qualitative. However it was observed that some respondents could have interpreted the questions differently and thereby provide answers which would have been different from what the question asked. It may be assumed that some respondents did not understand the question in the way the researcher had framed it to mean. Care should therefore be exercised by the reader in interpreting this and the possible skewedness of some responses. It was also found during the study that the community and stakeholders’ perspective on what can be described as social indicators was not properly integrated into the programme performance work plan. These indicators should also serve as a tool for programme evaluation. Moreover, indicators were expected to help set goals and determine priorities (OECD, 1973).The analyses of the responses imply the need to develop programmes for a district-wide performance management system as discussed in the next chapter.
CHAPTER SIX
DESIGNING A PERFOMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR
DISTRICT-WIDE SERVICES
6.1 INTRODUCTION
The systems and process theories were discussed in Chapter Two above as a framework for analysing performance of the Cacadu district municipality, both as a unified and purposeful (unit) system made up of interrelated parts. A system can be part of a larger system to which it belongs. Thus the Cacadu municipal performance management system is part of multi-level flexible coordinated structures that act as a system: a whole structures and made up of functions and relations.
A systems thinking is seen as a problem solving methodology approach to managing performance in a governmental institution (Haaf, Bikker and Adriaanse, 2002). Every system has steps of input-processing-output-outcome and a feedback loop. The Cacadu district municipal government and administration is a total unit, a larger system which reflects holism and differentiation, with nine particular local municipalities and a District Council as sub-systems. The performance management system for district-wide water provision is also a sub-system of the larger Cacadu district municipality management system.
Any study of performance management systems, regardless of the methods employed, has two important objectives: an analysis of the steps, processes and programmes of the existing operating system, and the design of a ‘new’ system to attain desired goals with less expenditure of human and material resources ( Ludwig von Bertalanffy in Higgs and Jones, 2006:28). This chapter is intended to do just that. It will firstly analyse the existing performance management system of Cacadu
District Council and performance management for district-wide water service delivery by examining the steps of the performance management system. Secondly it will attempt to design a district-wide performance management system to improve performance for achieving the goal with minimum resources.
6.2 STEPS AND PROCESSES OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS