Let us Learn: The Curious Case of Ambulance Performance Management. Public Management & Governance

Attempts to measure and manage performance have been a long standing feature of the public services, despite the inherent difficulties. Much less however gets discussed about the application of the indicators and their effects, or what has been learned by the managers and officials about devising, implementing and using them. In actual practice, this has often been carried out in ways which proved dysfunctional; for example, by concentrating on a single dimension of performance, leading to perverse incentives and unintended consequences. The paper explores the performance management systems within the ambulance services which is an important and growing subject of management inquiry. Drawing from the evidence from the ambulance performance regime, it considers the dilemma of ambulance professionals in meeting the performance targets. The paper examines the future direction of travel whilst placing the issues in the context of debates concerning multi-dimensional approaches to performance management.