The role of culture in organizations and hands-on management practices that support performance as a cultural priority within the public and private sectors are the focus of this author. 

[Risher, H. (2007). Fostering a Performance-Driven Culture in the Public Sector. The Public Manager, 36(3), 51-56.]

 Mr. Risher furthers our understanding of organizational culture by citing the simple definition by T. E. Deal: "the way things get done around here;" and the more academic definition by Charles Hill: "...the collection of values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organization and that control the way they interact with each other and with contacts outside the organization. The culture dictates the beliefs and ideas about what kinds of goals members of an organization should pursue and ideas about the appropriate kinds or standards of behavior organizational members should use to achieve thee goals..."

Risher notes that while performance (or pay for performance) has been an on-going priority in the private sector, the public sector has been slow to adopt that priority for, among other reasons, fear of significantly changing the culture. A case in point is the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, which in 2001 initiated a program for performance improvement that was met with significant resistance by employees. 

To counteract such resistance, Risher recommends assessing the on-going culture as it impacts employee performance via surveys, focus groups or interviews.

He also summarizes a multi-dimensional management practice, which fosters performance, and came via the author's own research and a study by the London School of Economics (LSE) and McKinsey & Co. (Dorgan, et al, 2005). The eight-pronged approach to performance involves:

• Leaders as Champions - key people across the organization need to advocate and explain why the new strategy is needed and how it will affect people;
• Work Link to Mission - feeling their work is integral to the success of their employer and understanding the mission are general concerns of employees;
• Performance Tracking and dialogue - tracking it over time, taking corrective measures and broadly communicating results keep employees involved and attending to performance;
• Cascading Goals - being able to see the "big-picture" regarding goals at each level keeps employees engaged at all levels of the organization;
• Investment in Talent - investing in and promoting qualified personnel and development of individual talent support performance goals;
• Recognition and rewards - strategies that recognize and reward high-performing employees should be both fostered and evaluated now and then to ensure they are serving the needs of the organization;
• Manager Accountability - managers need to be committed, trained and reinforced in helping employees improve performance, and manager performance should be evaluated regarding these goals;
• Employee engagement - research performed by Gallup and others shows a correlation between emotional commitment to the success of the company and an employee's high-performance level; surveys help reveal employee engagement.

In conclusion, Risher notes that the aforementioned research confirms the obvious:  "Well-managed companies perform better." The author also suggests that agencies should focus on the day-to-day practices of middle managers and supervisors to foster a performance culture rather than the OBM focus, which was on management systems in relation to performance of the overall organization.   

 Tools/Knowledge Objects/Resources/Contacts/Etc:

• Dorgan, S. J., Dowdy, J. J., Van Reenen, J., & Rippin, T. M. (2005). The Link between Management and Productivity: London School of Economics.
• Risher, H., & Fay, C. (2007). Managing for Better Performance: Enhancing Federal Performance Management Practices: IBM Center for the Business of Government.