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Elaine Morley, Scott P. Bryant, and Harry P. Hatry, Comparative Performance Measurement (Urban Institute Press, 2001). 98 pp., $28.00 paper.
How well is a program or agency performing in comparison to similar agencies, the private sector, or industry standards? The emphasis of Comparative Performance Measurement (CPM) is on comparing agencies against similar organizations and using the information to improve agency performance.
Written so the reader can readily walk through the steps of comparative performance measurement, including its limitations, the book is a good primer. It provides useful tools for the public administrator who may be new to CPM and is faced with undertaking CPM or understanding comparisons developed by outside parties. Masters of public administration instructors and students should also find it to be complementary to more theoretical work relating to public management.
According to the authors, the book's primary audience is practitioners at all levels of government, as well as organizations that provide similar public services. However, the examples emphasize state and local programs with frequent reference to the International City/County Management Association's (ICMA's) CPM Consortium project, which reports comparative performance data from over 50 participating cities and counties.
The first two chapters set the context. The authors provide a compelling rationale for using CPM as a motivator for improved performance, as an accountability tool, and as a tool for determining best practices. This is conveyed in the context of current public management improvement efforts, including performance measurement, which they wisely advise should precede CPM. The reader is also cautioned about the limitations of CPM: "Perhaps the most significant of these is the fact that no two jurisdictions or organizations are completely comparable" (5).
To set a framework for the types of comparative efforts, the second chapter explains CPM...