Abstract
Performance measurement has been widely introduced to Japanese public and nonprofit organizations in recent years. It has been introduced not only by the Western aid agencies and international aid agencies, such as USAID, Canadian SIDA, Swedish SIDA and UNDP, but also Japanese aid agencies such as JICA and JBIC. Also Japanese domestic ministries and local authorities have eagerly introduced similar monitoring systems based on performance measurement.
Performance measurement has pros and cons. The pros include its simplicities:(1) No need to prepare comparative groups and (2) No need to apply formal statistical judgment. Also (3) performance measurement provides on-time information that can be utilized for rapid adjustment of the on-going programs. On the other hand, performance measurement has the following cons:(1) It is difficult to remove outside effect from the values measured by the performance indicators;(2) It provides only partial information for decision-making;(3) It is an 'information production activity' and there is an underlying cost.
New trends in performance measurement include mixed use of performance measurement and indepth evaluation; comparative performance measurement; theory-based performance measurement; moving from measurement to management; and cost-benefit focused performance measurement. Performance measurement has been developed based on operational needs of public administrators and on request of accountability by taxpayers. Japanese public and nonprofit organizations are just at the initial stage of introduction of performance measurement, and they are recommended to carefully but seriously examine possibility of applying those new trends.
