Measuring performance in the public sector: challenges and trends

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show that in the last decades the globalization of economies together with the adoption of the new public management model have involved deep changes in the organization and management of public service organisations (PSOs). The need to increase their accountability and customer focus orientation has driven the implementation of performance measurement systems (PMSs) in order to improve efficiency and performance. Most of the PMSs are adopted from the private sector. However PSOs present specific issues that need to be addressed. In this paper some of the main challenges and trends are introduced as well as three papers focused on the relevance and challenges related to the implementation of PMSs