Does the implementation of a formal performance management system improve employee performance? Perspective of Indonesian civil servants

© 2017 Halim NuswantoroRecently, a new individual performance management system (PPKP) was introduced within the Indonesian civil service system. The purpose was to stimulate employees’ performance which was expected to have a great impact to improve the quality of Indonesian public service. As such, the primary aim of this thesis is to examine whether the implementation of the individual performance management system may improve employees’ performance by analysing perceptions of Indonesian civil servants towards the ideal view and actual experience in PPKP. This thesis is an exploratory study which combines a review of the literature on performance management frameworks, including relevant empirical evidence across countries and Indonesian context, with the primary data of Indonesian civil servants’ perspectives from the survey. The survey uses the Australia Awards Scholarship awardees civil servants as the sample of the population. The findings focus on four specific themes: goal-setting, feedbacks, motivational instruments and leadership as they have been shown to be fundamental to performance management system practice both in global and Indonesian context. This thesis contributes to the performance management literature, particularly in the Indonesian context. It also provides understanding of the implementation of the new individual performance management system and how it compares to previous approaches, drawing on the actual experience of civil servants. Our findings show a significant gap between the ideal view of performance management and actual experiences of the respondents. Our findings also confirm the importance of the four highlighted themes within the performance management system. This thesis highlights insights and ideas from respondents and points to a number of areas that the government and may want to focus on to improve performance management practic