01442pab a2200145 454500008004000000100002000040245012500060260000900185300001400194362000800208520096200216650004001178650002601218773005201244180718b2002 xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d aNorman, Richard aManaging through measurement or meaning? Lessons from experience with New Zealand's public sector performance management c2002 ap.619-28. aDec aComprehensive adoption of systems for managing for results as an alternative to procedure-based bureaucracy has earned the New Zealand public sector a reputation as the `world's most advanced performance system' (Kettl, 2007: 7). Research with a cross-section of users of this system, now nearly 15 years old, reveals a variety of responses. True Believers support a current focus on measurement and think that more effort should be put into creating clearer, more observable measures that emphasise outcomes. Pragmatic Sceptics see reported measures as part of a new game of public management and at best a starting point for asking about the substance behind the form. Active Doubters believe that too much emphasis on measurement gets in the way of the `real work' of developing relationship-based work in a political environment. Issues of meaning are seen to be more important than measurement for the further development of the system. - Reproduced. aPublic administration - New Zealand aPublic administration aInternational Review of Administrative Sciences