Performance in the Italian ministries: Quality and coherence of performance plans and reports
This research evaluates the programmatic and reporting quality, and related coherence, within the performance cycle. First, the paper investigates the programmatic quality of performance plans for the 13 Ministries related to the 2019–2021 performance cycle. For this research, programmatic quality is defined as suitability to carry out the management and the responsibility for the stakeholders. The authors have studied the draft methods and contents of the above-mentioned performance plans with regard to organizational and individual performance. Adopting the same methods, this paper analyzes the reporting quality of eight Ministries performance reports issued in 2019. Finally, the paper analyzes the methodological coherence between these documents. Methodological coherence is defined as the alignment between the structure and contents of performance plans and the reports.
The main results show a high level of quality related to the documents’ formal aspects and a low level of quality related to their content. With the exception of two cases, the level of coherence remains unsatisfactory due to several issues with the report.
Keywords: Italian Ministry, Performance management, Performance plan, Performance report, Public value.
