Performance management that works? Improving public services by making use of intrinsic motivation

One of the central features of public governance in the 2000s was an extension in the use of performance management (PM), but research has suggested that the 'gaming' of PM systems became commonplace and that measured performance data was often unreliable. However, PM is necessary in some form, and has fared better in some settings than others. This paper presents a systematic comparison based on two case studies where success has been claimed, from English local government and the Quality and Outcome Framework (QOF) in the NHS, as a means to generating insights into how PM systems can be made to work better. It links its analysis to Frey's and Deci's work on intrinsic motivation in order to theoretically explain its findings before exploring how the insights generated can be applied to other service settings.