1. Learning from Performance?
Steve Ritchie,
Bramshill Fellow, Grampian Police
Me Head of Strategic Planning & Performance Unit, Gp, Fellow of Bramshill at RGU, 3 years into research project. About to commence case studies
Performance Management
Context
The collaborative and transformational approach to developing a culture of learning from performance in Scottish policing contrasts with the centralised approach to controlling the performance of Forces in England & Wales.
What is performance and how is it managed / academic view of performance
However, performance management as an academic discipline is new and lacks mature theories on which to base such an ambitious development.
Organisational Learning
Organisational Learning and the Learning Organisation
OL and PM
Arguing that there is a fine line between learning from performance and being overwhelmed by the use of performance information resulting in behaviour incongruous with mission/purpose
Research Proposal
Method
Timetable
It is argued that the application of organisational learning theory is relevant and provides a model in which performance management can be described, understood and evaluated. A case study method is proposed to investigate a cross section of Forces in Scotland and identify major factors that act as catalysts and inhibitors to the process of performance management. A comparison with a small sample from England and Wales is proposed. The outcomes from this research will inform the ongoing development of a performance culture in Scotland.
Or can we put the jigsaw together properly?

2. Performance Management
Historical development
What it means
Its application in uk policing
Discuss
What it is
How it has developed
Will Show it is a Recent phenomena –largely practitioner based with little theoretical basis

3. History of Performance Management
Operations, Accounting, and Marketing perspectives
Post Japanese economic revival
Reinventing Government (Osborne and Gaebler, 1992)
Increasing awareness of models such as Balanced Scorecard (Kaplan and Norton, 1992)
Post war – production focus – Taylorism – operations management – how productively/efficiently can we deliver the goods
Then operations view revived by – perception of what underlay the Japanese economic revival.
Rapid development in 1990’s
Book - Reinventing Government (Osborne and Gaebler, 1992) – catalyst for north america
Central tenet - results oriented government rather than budget or programs delivered.
Increasing awareness of models such as Balanced Scorecard (Kaplan and Norton, 1992)
40- 60% of large US firms adopted in some form (Neely and Austen, 2002)
Contrast -Early performance management – adjustment during the construction of the bent pyramid – to achieve the aims within the confines of the environment.
Conclusion – rapid development,
einstein – not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts
Not new!

4. Perspective on Performance
Provider or Customer
Actual or Apparent
Cause and Effect
Individual or Organisation
Leading or Lagging indicators
Performance is a relative concept.
“Performance is not just something one observes and measures, it is the result of a deliberate construction” (Lebas and Euske 2002)
Individual and organisation performance often discussed in the same way, but completely different. Ind contributes to Org but Org is dependent on wide range of factors and not just how well Ind performs

5. The Nature of Organisational Performance
Individual performance
Process performance
Strategic performance
Organisational performance
Mission
Purpose
Standards
Values
Strategy
after Campbell (2006)
The mission of an organisation can be seen as combination of purpose, values, standards, strategy
Focus of performance is often individual or process as part of management responsibility – largely relates to standards and values
NIM focuses on strategy to deliver external change - Prevention, Intelligence, Enforcement
Organisational performance must be seen in terms of achieving its purpose and mission.
The Nature of Organisational Performance

6. Performance Management in Policing
England & Wales
Scotland
Citizen’s Charter - Accounts Commission
New public management
Police reform agenda – “sustained focus on police performance”
Home Office driven
Audit Scotland
NIM
Developing
Collaborative / Transformational
Enabling local control
Accountability
Learning /Continuous Improvement
Early 1990’s Citizens Charter – Accounts Commission
Late 90’s drive for new public management
Poilice reform agenda – white paper 2003 – sustained focus on police performance
30% reduction in crime -
Home Office
- National Management Information System
– PPAF Policing Performance Assessment Framework,
iQuanta,
APACS Assessment of Policing and Community Safety
Police Standards Unit
BCU level

7. Organisational Learning
What is it
Historical Development
Models of OL
Relevance D
Will show its relevance to PM

8. OL - Theoretical Framework
Process
Organisational Learning
The Learning Organisation
Organisational Knowledge
Knowledge Management
Theory
Practice
What is it
Used to explain the process of how organisations acquire and use information to adapt to their environment
Learning implies cognitive behaviour - OL is therefore uses learning in a metaphorical sense – similar but not the same
Example – group of people coming together for common purpose, the more they cooperate the more they adopt role and common processes, eventually these become more independent of the individuals, over time the environment changes and is information is used to direct the nature of the roles, the processes, and perhaps even the goals of the organisation. Complex org – continual flow of information, influencing the organisation at every level.
Development
60’s first eleborated as a concept - Cyert & March ‘63 Cangolisi & Dill ‘65
70’s & 80’s implications of concept Argyris & schon
90’s models developed Huber ‘91, Crossan et al ’99
Content
Source -(Easterby-Smith and Lyles 2003)

9. The Cycle of Organisational Learning
Environmental response
Individual beliefs
Individual actions
Organisational change
Hedberg (1981)

10. Elements of Organisational Learning
Information acquisition - the process by which knowledge is obtained
Information distribution - the process by which information from different sources is shared and thereby leads to new information and understanding
Information interpretation - the process by which distributed information is given one or more commonly understood meanings
Organisational memory - the means by which knowledge is stored for future use
Organisational Memory
Information Interpretation
Information Distribution
Information Acquisition
Huber effectively brings together a wide range of literatures into a cohesive structure that represents the range of activities encompassed by the term organisational learning. Rather than a formal model, Huber’s four constructs can be seen as building blocks of OL which loosely fit together to describe the whole. The links between each stage of the four constructs can be thought of as simple and linear but, in practice, cause and effect are not always easy to identify (Tsang, 1997). A decision to make a change in organisational behaviour can be the result of cumulative data over a considerable period, disparate and various sources and types of information, as well as individual motives.
The strengths and weaknesses of Huber’s model are in the detail below the top level constructs of the simple four stage model described above.
The strengths come from the inclusion of a wide range of contributing process that are often generalised. The complexity of the model was in contrast to the previous limited aspects described by authors and helped to identify the complex nature of OL.
The weakness comes from the introduction of relatively loosely defined and used terms in an organisational context such as “congenital learning”. These terms are introduced without addressing the fundamental criticism of anthromorphism.
Derived from his literature review, the contributing processes of OL demonstrate the range of factors processes that underpin each of the four constructs. These elements are considered as operating in tandem and have potentially conflicting affects. The nature of these sub processes demonstrates the range of processes that must be accounted for within the OL concept.
The resulting model is essentially a Knowledge Management model qualified by a behaviourist approach in that the outcome of the process must be a change in organisational behaviour (thus demonstrating that “learning” has occurred). The model is normative in that the assumption is that the direction of behavioural change can be described as positive, i.e. it leads to improved organisational performance.
Whilst Huber considers decision making process, it is discussed as aside to experiential learning and it is not seen as part of the process of learning. This contrasts with the views of Cyert & March, for example, who saw OL as firmly rooted in organisational decision making (Cyert and March, 1963, 1992, p175). This is a shortcoming of the model which doesn’t fully describe how learning becomes embedded into the routines and processes of the organisation.
Huber (1991)

11. The 4I’s Model of OL Individual Group Organisation Ind Grp Org
Feed Forward
Intuiting
Interpreting
Feed back
Integrating
The model proposed by Crossan’ et al takes another step forward and considers the organisational levels and how information is fed forward and fed back between the various levels.
It does not consider the role of organisational learning. OL is often viewed without any direction. Organisational purpose/mission
Institutionalising
Crossan et al, 1999

12. Applying OL theory to the study of PM
4I’s view of OL
The Performance Cycle
Intuiting
Interpretation
Integration
Institutionalisation
Performance Indicators
Interpretation/ Analysis
Decision Making
Action
– Huber identified PI’s as one source of information acquisition- relevance will be seen
Its relevance to PM

13. Applying OL to PM
To achieve an organisations aims, the PM process must create knowledge, support the decision making process, result in clear action that creates the desired affect on the environment.
Existing models insufficiently detailed
Direction - purpose, mission, standards, values, strategy
Focus on influencing and communication elements

14. Combining perspectives, processes and elements
Various evolutions of existing models are proposed in order to structure the research.

15. Theoretical Drivers for OL/PM

16. Research
Method
Factors
Outcomes
Timetable

17. Research Method Interviews Non-participant Observation Documentation
Case Study
Forces
Interviews
Non-participant Observation
Documentation
Rich picture
Triangulate
4 Scottish Forces
2 English Forces
1 Other – eg PSNI
Leaders/Strategists
Front line
Performance & NIM
Decision Making
Proposal is that case studies of current performance management practice in Scotland and a comparison with Forces In E&W are needed to identify
What are the processes in place
How do these operate, what are the drivers
What are the impact factors – in what circumstances are Force learning from performance, and in what circumstances are efforts focused on collecting the wrong data and driving the wrong behaviour.
That is what makes the difference between learning from performance and outcomes incongruent to the mission/purpose of the organisation
Approach
Analysis – content analysis
Inductive approach to developing new theory

18. Potential Factors Some factors identified:
Ability to identify meaningful indicators
Ability to collect increasing volumes of data
Ability to analyse and summarise rather than track
Effectiveness of communication
The absence of formal performance training
The relative immaturity of discipline
Strategic clarity
Nature of performance being managed
Effective decision making
Nature of communication of required behaviour to workforce
Ability to identify meaningful indicators
Ability to collect increasing volumes of data
Ability to analyse and summarise rather than track
(Neely & Austin, 2002)
Effectiveness of communication (Collier)
The absence of performance training HMIC
Immaturity of discipline
Strategic clarity – if you don’t know where your going how do you adjust your direction

19. Research Outcomes Describe, Understand, Evaluate
Identify catalysts and inhibitors to the processes
For ACPOS -
Maximise the impact of performance information
Guide the development of PM training
Support the collaborative development of a national PM system for Scotland.

20. Research Timetable Aug 2007 Apr 2008 Oct 2008 Jan 2008 Mar 2009
Commence Case Studies
Apr 2008
Data Analysis
Oct 2008
Report to ACPOS
Jan 2008
Detailed analysis
Mar 2009
Write up thesis

21. Lastly
How do we tell the difference
What counts is what contributes to achieve our objectives, aims, mission, purpose of the organisation Or
What counts is learning to perform
“Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts”

22. Learning from Performance?
Steve Ritchie, Grampian Police
Learning from Performance?