政府绩效损失:概念建构、测度方法和因果推论

Loss of Government Performance:Conceptual Construction,Measurement Methods,and Causal Inferences

绩效损失的提出旨在从理论上实现政府绩效的最大化。然而绩效损失与领域内相似概念的辨别、测度方法以及发生机理等诸多问题尚待廓清。本文从概念演进视角出发,梳理了绩效损失的内涵变迁,在此基础上澄清了其概念空间,将其界定为基于公共价值的绩效目标与实际绩效产出之间的差距。依据以公共价值为基础的政府绩效治理理论,构建了绩效损失的测度程序,从价值建构、组织管理和协同领导的构成要素出发,分析了绩效损失的发生机理。

Existing research has found that performance goal-setting and performance evaluations have little effect on the promotion of performance,and in the face of some paradoxical issues,such as hitting the target but missing the point,the results of performance evaluations do not coincide with the needs of the public.These can be summed up as issues of how to maximize government performance at a methodological level,or,in other words,what government performance can be either intentionally or unintentionally ignored and how can it be measured.The proposal of performance loss seeks to maximize government performance theoretically to solve these paradoxical issues.However,many issues,such as the identification,method of measurement,and the occurrence of performance loss have yet to be clarified.Therefore,the fundamental research question in this paper is the following:why does performance loss maximize performance,can it be measured,and how? Three specific problems can be deconstructed based on this research question:First,the conceptual space of performance loss needs to be clarified,that is,what exactly is performance loss and what are its differences and connections with similar existing concepts.Second,the measurement method of performance loss needs to be clarified,that is,how do we measure performance loss.Third,why does performance loss occur,that is,what are the factors which will cause performance loss.From the perspective of conceptual evolution,this paper first sorts out the changes in the connotation of performance loss,and on this basis,it demonstrates that they cannot be explained by the existing concepts in public administration,such as “ performance deviation”,“performance gap”,and “ poor performance”.On the basis of the existing definition of performance loss and combined with the latest understanding of performance loss,we define performance loss as “the gap between the actual output of performance and the expected results of performance,and the expected results are the performance target based on public value”.In addition,we also propose a performance loss classification model that includes mission-based performance loss,tool-based performance loss,and equity-based performance loss.Based on PV-GPG and Fourth-Generation Evaluation Theory,this paper constructs a performance loss measurement program,which includes four steps:participatory construction,responsive interaction,determination of the performance target,and calculation of the target gaps.The core goals of the four steps are to form social value,to form public value on the basis of the social value,to determine the value standard of performance,and to measure the performance loss.Finally,this paper summarizes the leading literature on performance loss,and on the basis of normative reasoning,it attempts to propose a causal model and mechanism of performance loss from three dimensions:value construction,collaborative leadership,and organizational management.The occurrence mechanism can be used for subsequent empirical observations,empirical tests,and theoretical debates.