Il Controllo come leva di cambiamento: il caso dell’Esercito Italiano

Over the last twenty years, new public management (NPM) has inspired managerial reforms in public sectors worldwide (OECD, 2005). Performance evaluation and managerial control systems has been the main instruments of NPM for increasing efficiency and effectiveness of public organizations (Hood, 1991). Italian government has embraced this main tenet of NPM, managing for results, and has enacted several laws to promote performance measurement and performance management. This reflects the most widespread international trend in public management (Pollitt, 2006). In this study, we assess the introduction of performance management practice in hierarchical and complex-public organizations, Italian Army (IA), in particular how the IA introduced a performance based management (PBM) and how PBM impact on the IA organization. We use the first “form” of the framework proposed by Bouckaert and Halligan (2008) to describe the implementation of a PBM with respect to the measurement, integration and use of performance information. After We employ part of Minelli et al (2008) analytical framework to assess the impact and effects of PBM on the IA organization in terms of organizational learning, resource development and the power system. We contribute to the literature and to the practical use in government organizations by underpinning some key features or characteristics of hierarchical, complex government organizations that enable or detract from the successful implementation of a PBMS, and finally by analyzing its impact on the organization structure.