ABSTRACT
This chapter contributes to the debate on performance management by offering a critical examination of some key features of the activity in public services. It discusses some critical perspectives on performance management in public services. The chapter argues that the attempt to managerialise public service professionals through performance management systems and tools that replace specialist professional skills with generic management skills are highly problematic in the complex and political setting of public services. The new public management (NPM) thus attempts to simplify public service accounting by replacing political and professional accountability with 'managerial accountability'. The compulsory competitive tendering and Best Value reforms resulted in job losses and transformed the sector by introducing NPM principles aimed at reducing local government autonomy to make local decisions through professional and political decisions about levels of service and labour management. At Scotcity, the restructure involved the delayering of management as well as a move to generic management.
