Performance-based Management in a Public Administration: Effects on the Job Quality of First-line Managers and Supervised Agents
A large administration wished to understand the effects of its performancebased management, in particular through the use of indicators, on job quality. The literature suggests that there is not one type of performance but different types of performance whose assessment criteria are selected based on the strategy adopted by the organization. The application of performance-based management rests on the measurement tools chosen. Between management and staff, there are first-line managers who translate the performance goals into concrete missions for their work teams. Their way of managing their department in order to achieve these goals has an impact on the quality of the service provided, the quality of life at work and working conditions as experienced by staff. A qualitative study based on interviews centred on work was conducted with agents, first-line managers in different types of departments, and middle managers. The results were cross-checked through discussions in “Occupation and Local Management” working groups. The interviewees did not challenge the use of indicators to measure the work activity. In fact, a culture of numbers guides the work activity by prioritizing certain tasks to the detriment of unmeasured grey work. However, since there is no common understanding of performance within this administration, indicators are used in different ways. The administration’s quest for performance through indicator-based management has led to job intensification and changes in the way the occupations are practiced. Practices have developed to adjust to the working conditions and these practices have given rise to gaps between performance measured through indicators and real departmental performance. These circumventing strategies have had a deteriorating effect on job quality, leading, in particular, to a feeling of not having provided quality service to users and a loss of occupational meaning. First-line managers, as department managers, reconcile all of these parameters to ensure that the staff can perform their work in the best possible conditions.