What goes on inside the 'black box' of public organisations to move from information to action? This book tackles this important question by reviewing a wide range of performance mechanisms. It explores how information about performance can be translated into improvements in public services.

List of figures; List of tables; List of boxes; Foreword Chris Hood; 1. Introduction: knowledge and performance - theory and practice Kieran Walshe, Gill Harvey and Pauline Jas; 2. Knowledge from inspection: external oversight and information to improve performance Steve Martin; 3. How is information used to improve public performance? Exploring the dynamics of performance information Steven Van de Walle and Wouter Van Dooren; 4. Citizens, users or consumers: the voice of the public and its influence on improving performance Ian Greener; 5. Competition and contestability: the place of markets in connecting information and performance improvement Carol Propper and Deborah Wilson; 6. The role of corporate governance and boards in organizational performance Chris Cornforth and Naomi Chambers; 7. Change at the top: connecting political and managerial transition with performance George Boyne, Oliver James, Peter John and Nicolai Petrovsky; 8. The role of leadership in knowledge creation and transfer for organizational learning and improvement Jean Hartley and Lyndsay Rashman; 9. Process improvement and lean thinking: using knowledge and information to improve performance Zoe Radnor; 10. Using evidence: how social research could be better used to improve public service performance Huw Davies, Sandra Nutley and Isabel Walter; 11. Absorptive capacity: how organizations assimilate and apply knowledge to improve performance Gill Harvey, Pauline Jas, Kieran Walshe and Chris Skelcher; 12. Knowing through doing: unleashing latent dynamic capabilities in the public sector Ann Casebeer, Trish Reay, James Dewald and Amy Pablo; 13. Conclusions: a puzzle, three pieces, many theories and a problem Colin Talbot; Index.

'A thoughtful collection on the most fundamental challenges of performance management in the public sector. Leading authors grapple in this book with the way that performance management is more than rituals of performance measurement. Why is it that knowing more about what is failing so often fails to reduce failure? This volume breaks new ground with what can be done to connect practice improvement to measurement of outcomes.' John Braithwaite, Australian National University'We live in a world overrun by information, with an ever-increasing expectation that public actors will use it to make our lives better. But do they? Under what conditions? When does it lead to positive change? This volume addresses these questions, offering a broad array of insightful models, theories, and empirical findings. It should be read by all who are interested in better connecting knowledge with policy and management processes.' Donald P. Moynihan, University of Wisconsin-Madison