Managing for Results

GAO gathered information from 23 federal and state organizations that are known for using or planning to use various useful practices to improve their performance management and measurement processes. These practices fall into the following five categories: (1) restructuring the organization's management approach to become more performance-oriented; (2) establishing relationships outside of the organization to boost performance; (3) refining performance goals, measures, and targets to better translate activities into results; (4) strengthening analytical capabilities and techniques to better meet performance management information needs; and (5) assessing performance-based management efforts on a continuous basis to identify areas for improvement. GAO believes that the practices would be readily transferable to the federal financial institution regulatory agencies or other government agencies seeking to improve their implementation of the Government Performance and Results Act.

GAO noted that: (1) GAO gathered information from 23 federal and state organizations that GAO or other credible sources identified as using or planning to use a variety of useful practices to enhance specific aspects of their performance management and measurement processes; (2) GAO has grouped these practices into the following five categories: (a) restructure the organization's management approach to become more performance-oriented; (b) establish relationships outside of the organization to enhance performance; (c) refine performance goals, measures, and targets to better translate activities into results; (d) strengthen analytical capabilities and techniques to better meet performance management information needs; and (e) assess performance-based management efforts on a continuous basis to identify areas for improvement; (3) the organizations, although they had different missions, sizes, and organizational structures, said they consistently recognized that these practices are important in their efforts to develop a stronger results orientation; (4) the organizations used the practices to varying degrees; (5) thus, the practices did not appear to be a function of any particular organizational characteristic; (6) GAO believes the practices would be readily transferable to the federal financial institution regulatory agencies or other governmental agencies seeking to improve their implementation of the Results Act; (7) in addition, the practices are consistent with those identified in GAO's previous reports; and (8) these reports, for example, described approaches agencies were taking to address analytical and technical challenges in measuring program performance, align employee performance with organizational missions and goals, and address the influence of external factors in developing performance measures.