The Politics of Performance Measurement: Assessing the Impact of Accountability Systems
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59890/ijsas.v3i3.560Keywords:
Accountability, performance measurement, politics, Political decisionsAbstract
This research explores how systems designed to measure performance and ensure accountability actually work in practice. These systems are used everywhere – in government, charities, and businesses – and are often presented as neutral ways to improve things. But this research argues that these systems are deeply political. Who decides what gets measured? Whose interests are served by the chosen measures? The research looks at this by studying examples from education, healthcare, and government. It finds that these systems often focus on things that are easy to measure, even if those things don’t reflect the bigger picture or cause problems for some groups. The research concludes by suggesting ways to make these systems fairer and more relevant to the specific situation. Basically, it shows how political decisions influence what we measure and how that affects everyone
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