engleski

Managing Performance in the Western Balkan Civil Service Structures

In 2009, the Western Balkans Human Resource Management Community of Practitioners, supported by the UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre and the Regional Centre for Public Administration Reform, decided to conduct a study focusing on the issue of managing performance in the Western Balkans civil service structures. The aim of the research was among other to study how the concept of performance management is perceived by civil servants and HRM managers in the Western Balkans countries, and to gauge the extent of their knowledge about good practices and theories in the field. A dozen strengths and weaknesses of the existing performance management systems in the region were identified. On the positive side, the survey revealed a relatively pronounced awareness about the role of citizens in assessing the performance of public sector organisations and individual employees, even if few mechanisms for channelling the opinion of citizens are in place. Moreover, individual personnel appraisals seem to be commonplace in most organisations, even if there are variations in the approach and the overall quality of the process. The challenges or weaknesses of the existing systems are that individual appraisals are only occasionally related to the organisation’s goals, and the development of performance indicators is in its initial phase. Appraisals are conducted exclusively by supervisors, and not all assessors seem to be sufficiently educated or skilled for the job. Overall, the key challenge lies in avoiding that performance measurement is reduced to arbitrary ratings where political affiliations and views weigh more than actual performance. Overall, the results of the survey suggest that performance management is steadily taking a hold in the public sector in the countries of the region. Performance appraisals of individual civil servants have become an integral part of the management processes, and efforts to strengthen and improve the practice have been reinforced in the framework of the European Union integration process. Apart from continuing the work on reducing the degree of politicisation in the public sector in the region, one of the main challenges ahead is to further develop the existing systems with objective and adequate performance indicators. These indicators should be linked to the overall goals of the organisation, and feed-back from the users of the services should be taken into account when assessing both individual and organisational performance.

performance management; civil service; human resources management; public services; efficiency; performace evaluation; Western Balkans

Rad je monografija, sastoji se od 31 stranice teksta i 12 stranica priloga (tablica). Publikacija je dostupna u cijelosti na www.rcpar.org ; ISBN joj nije dodijeljen.