Evaluating integrity performance

Speaker:
Professor Alan Lawton
Professor of Public Sector Management, University of Hull, UK

Abstract:
As public service organisations worldwide have been subject to performance regimes, it is no surprise that the organisational integrity of those same organisations is now being subject to performance evaluation. As governments have put in place frameworks to regulate the conduct of public officials it is timely to ask how effective have been these frameworks.

There are tools available to help assess integrity performance, including that offered by the OECD.

In the UK, for example, an initial attempt has been made by the Audit Commission and the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) to provide such a tool for local authorities. However, the utilisation of such tools remains patchy. Perhaps Australia provides the best examples of the adoption of such tools (see Head, Brown and Connors, 2008).

One of the challenges to developing and adopting such tools is to determine the unit of analysis. Is it the individual, the organisation or a wider set of organisations forming a network? Typically public service organisations operate through partnerships and networks, cooperating with a range of other organisations drawn from the public, private and Third Sectors. Where this is the case it becomes difficult to assess cause and effect variables e.g. are there factors outside of the control of the individual organisation that may have some impact on its integrity performance? This paper will examine the concept of integrity performance drawing upon key concepts of organisational performance generally. It will analyse some of the tools that have been used and compare against performance frameworks. The paper will also locate organisational integrity within the wider context of an integrity system delivered through networks. Clearly different challenges are raised in assessing the performance of an integrity system rather than an individual organisation. The paper will draw upon the authors experience in working with public service organisations in a number of countries including the UK, Netherlands, Lithuania and Bulgaria.

Reference
Head, BW, Brown, AJ and Connors, C (eds.) 2008, Promoting Integrity: Evaluating and improving public institutions, Ashgate: Farnham, Surrey.