Listening to the Public: Adding the Voices of the People to Government Performance Measurement and Reporting
How does government know if it is succeeding in achieving its mission? How does the public know? What exactly constitutes effective and meaningful delivery of government service, anyway? Local governments have made increasing efforts in recent years to measure their performance. Usually, these measurements are based on inputs and activities rather than on outcomes and citizen satisfaction.
In "Listening to the Public: Adding the Voices of the People to Government Performance Measurement and Reporting" Barbara Cohn Berman of the Fund for the City of New York's Center on Municipal Government Performance makes a compelling case for performance measures that reflect the public's needs, concerns, and perspective.
The voices of average citizens—captured in focus group and interview research—illuminate and drive this book's analysis. Throughout these pages, the people who are government's "customers" emerge as knowledgeable, eloquent, and discerning in their views on service delivery. Again and again, they demonstrate that listening to the public is not only a responsibility of government, but a valuable, illuminating, and productive exercise.
