Governments are faced with increasing demands to enhance public sector performance and to base policy choices on sound evidence. As a response, various forms of performance management and audit have been introduced to deal with organizational performance as such, but also with individual performance of public sector managers and employees often linked with ideas of performance related pay.

However, the design and application of such systems faces a number of challenges. How, for example, is 'performance' defined, as in any sector the definition of performance is likely to vary across stakeholders? How do performance assessment systems interact with existing governance arrangements that operate according to long-established and deeply embedded practices, institutional logics and identities? What types of unintended consequences and side-effects on factors such as motivation, integrity or quality can be observed?

This research group analyses from an international comparative perspective how public sector organizations deal with such challenges and what kind of lessons can be derived from these experiences. The group explores innovative ways to trigger, motivate and sustain performance and integrity in the public sector.

Projects
• E-Government (Jobst Fiedler)
• Public Sector Motivation and Identity (Gerhard Hammerschmid)
• Executive Survey on Public Sector Leadership (Gerhard Hammerschmid)
• Public Sector Corporate Governance - Agentification and Corporatisations (Gerhard Hammerschmid)
• Assessing the Performance of East European Public Universities (Alina Mungiu-Pippidi)
• The Politics of Better Regulation Policy in Europe (Kai Wegrich)

Publications
• Alina Mungiu-Pippidi: "When Europeanization Meets Transformation: Lessons from the Unfinished Eastern European Revolutions", in: 'The Postcommunist World', edited by Valerie Bunce et al, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
• Christoph Demmke, Gerhard Hammerschmid, and Renate Meyer: "The Impact of Individual Assessments on Organisational Performance in the Public Services of EU Member States", Maastricht/Brussels: EIPA/EU, 2008. 
• Gerhard Hammerschmid, Renate E. Meyer and Isabell Egger-Peitler: "Das Konzept der Public Service Motivation - Status Quo der internationalen Diskussion und erste empirische Evidenzen für den deutschsprachigen Raum", in: der moderne Staat, Heft 1/2009, 73-92.
• Gerhard Hammerschmid and Renate Meyer: "The Degree of Decentralization and Individual Decision-Making in Central Government HRM - A European Comparative Perspective", in: Public Administration, forthcoming 2009.
• Martin Lodge and Kai Wegrich: "High-Quality Regulation: Its Popularity, Its Tools and Its Future", in: Public Money & Management 29 (3): 145-152, 2009.
• Chris van Stolk and Kai Wegrich: "Convergence without Diffusion? A Comparative Analysis of the Choice of Performance Indicators in Social Service and Tax Administrations", in: International Review of Administrative Sciences 74 (4), 2008.