During and after the emergency: the role of performance evaluation to strengthen the administrative capacity of public administrations

Journal title RIV Rassegna Italiana di Valutazione
Author/s Erica Melloni, Maria Stella Righettini
Publishing Year 2021 Issue 2019/75
Language Italian Pages 18 P. 42-59 File size 472 KB
DOI 10.3280/RIV2019-075004
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Covid-19 has been imposing a stress-test of extraordinary proportions on public administrations and their administrative capacity. This article will both address the main challenges, external and internal (organizational), that public administrations are facing during the pandemic, and by doing so, it will analyse administrative performance in light of the difficulties faced. This article proposes four different types of performance evaluation, not mutually exclusive, combining innovative/conservative management with stable/unstable context. If used proactively, performance evaluation can contribute to strengthen the administrative capacity, meant as the ability to analyse and interpret changes in the policy context, to face people’s needs in response to a crisis. Finally, this article proposes a checklist aimed at adapting performance evaluation to uncertainty and supporting burgeoning innovation processes.

Keywords: Performance Evaluation; Innovation; Administrative Capacity; Covid-19; Smart Working.

  1. Burton, R. M., Obel, B., and Håkonsson, D. D. (2020). Organizational design. Cambridge University Press.
  2. Commissione Europea (2019), The Digital Economy and Society Index (2020), Bruxelles. --
  3. https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/desi
  4. De Lauso F. (2020) Emergenza Coronavirus: più che raddoppiato il numero dei “nuovi poveri”. I dati del Monitoraggio Caritas italiana, Welforum, 27 maggio 2020 --
  5. https://welforum.it/il-punto/emergenza-coronavirus-tempi-di-precarieta/emergenzacoronavirus-piu-che-raddoppiato-il-numero-dei-nuovi-poveri/
  6. Dente, B. (2011), Le decisioni di policy. Bologna, Il Mulino.
  7. Dente, B. (2020), Dopo il Coronavirus. Che fare del sistema sanitario? Ovvero le possibili conseguenze strutturali dell’epidemia, Welforum, 22 aprile 2020 -- https://welforum.it/ilpunto/emergenza-coronavirus-tempi-di-precarieta/dopo-il-coronavirus-che-fare-delsistema-sanitario/ Dunlop, C. A., e Radaelli, C. M. (2017). If Evaluation is the Solution, What is the Problem?.
  8. Paper presented at the European Consortium of Political Research (ECPR), sixth biennial Regulatory Governance conference, Tilburg, 6-8 July 2016.
  9. Farazmand, A. (2009). Building administrative capacity for the age of rapid globalization: A modest prescription for the twenty‐first century. Public Administration Review, 69(6), 1007-1020.
  10. Fondazione IFEL (2020) Dopo il Covid cambiano i rapporti tra città e aree interne? 21 maggio 2020, https://www.fondazioneifel.it/ifelinforma-news/item/10212-dopo-il-covidcambiano-i-rapporti-tra-citta-e-aree-interne
  11. FPA DATA INSIGHT (2020) Strategie individuali e organizzative di risposta all’emergenza Un bilancio dello smart working nella Pubblica Amministrazione nella fase di lockdown, giugno 2020. https://profilo.forumpa.it/doc/?file=2020/FPA_Data_Insight
  12. _Strategie_individuali_e_organizzative_di_risposta_all_emergenza_giugno2020.pdf&_ga=2.120896968.1532731564.1595942054-1943472034.1472030209&confirm=yes consultato il 24 luglio 2020.
  13. Gregersen H. (2018), Questions are the Answer. A Breakthrough approach to your most vexing problems at work and life, Harper Collins Publisher.
  14. Hammerrschmid G., Stimac V. e Wegrich K. (2014), Management capacity and Performance in European Public Administration, in Lodge, M. and Wedrich, K (2014) The Problem solving Capacity of the Modern State: Governance Challenges and Administrative Capacities, Oxford University Press, pp.105-123.
  15. Kingdon, J W. (1984) Agendas, alternatives, and public policies. Boston: Little, Brown.
  16. Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) (2020), Indicazioni ad interim per servizi assistenziali di telemedicina durante l’emergenza sanitaria COVID-19”, n. 12/2020 Rapporto ISS COVID-19 n. 12/2020 - Indicazioni ad interim per servizi assistenziali di telemedicina durante l’emergenza sanitaria COVID-19. Versione del 13 aprile 2020 - ISS consultato il 24 luglio 2020.
  17. Lindstrom, N. (2020). Aiding the state: administrative capacity and creative compliance with European state aid rules in new member states. Journal of European Public Policy, 1-18.
  18. Lodge, M. e Wedrich, K. (2014) The Problem Solving Capacity of the Modern State: Governance Challenges and Administrative Capacities, Oxford University Press.
  19. Nair, A., e Boulton, W. R. (2008). Innovation‐oriented operations strategy typology and stage‐based model. International Journal of Operations & Production Management.
  20. O’Leary, R., Lodge, M. and Wedrich, K. (2016), The Problem solving Capacity of the Modern State: Governance Challenges and Administrative Capacities, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 18:3, 315-317
  21. OECD (2020). Strengthening Governance of EU Funds under Cohesion Policy. Administrative Capacity Building Roadmaps
  22. Osservatorio Smart Working (2020), Dallo smart working d'emergenza al "New normal": nuove abitudini e nuovi approcci al lavoro, 3 novembre 2020, -- https://www.osservatori.net/it/ricerche/comunicati-stampa/smart-working-emergenzacovid19-new-normal
  23. Polverari, L. (2020). La capacità amministrativa: letteratura, criticità e un’agenda di ricerca a servizio del policymaking. Rivista giuridica del Mezzogiorno, 34(3-4), 743-762 -- https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/9b71c8d8en.pdf?expires=1595584344&id=id&accname=guest&checksum= DED98D4139FA72AD4647F974DC8E19E9 consultato il 24 luglio 2020
  24. Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri. Dipartimento della Funzione Pubblica. Ufficio per la valutazione della performance (2020a), Rapporto annuale sulla pubblicazione dei documenti del ciclo della performance 2019, gennaio 2020 --
  25. https://performance.gov.it/system/files/Monitoraggio/Monitoraggio%20annuale%20%28gennaio%202020%29.pdf
  26. Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri. Dipartimento della Funzione Pubblica. (2020b) Monitoraggio sull’attuazione del lavoro agile nelle pubbliche amministrazioni nel periodo gennaio-aprile 2020, -- ottobre 2020 http://www.funzionepubblica.gov.it/sites/ funzionepubblica.gov.it/files/documenti/SW_COVID/Monitoraggio/Report_Monit_ LavoroAgile_%20gen_apr2020.pdf
  27. Radaelli, C. M. (2005). Diffusion without convergence: how political context shapes the adoption of regulatory impact assessment. Journal of european public policy, 12(5), 924-943.
  28. Simon A. H. (1957), Il comportamento amministrativo, il Mulino, Bologna
  29. Svimez, (2020) Da Nord verso Sud: le opportunità del South working, -- http://lnx.svimez.info/svimez/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020_11_16_south_working_slides.pdf
  30. Terraccio, B. e Graziano, P.R. (2007), Can Administrative Capacity Explain Differences in Regional Performances? Evidences from Structural Funds Implementation in Southern Italy, in Regional Studies, vol. 41, n.4, pp.429-442.
  31. Thomann, E. (2015), Is output performance all about the resources? A fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis of street level bureaucrats in Switzerland, Public Administration, 93, 177-194.
  32. Verheijen, T. (2007). Administrative capacity in the new EU member states: the limits of innovation? (English). World Bank working paper, no.115 Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group.

Erica Melloni, Maria Stella Righettini, Durante e dopo l’emergenza: il ruolo della valutazione di performance per rafforzare la capacità amministrativa delle pubbliche amministrazioni in "RIV Rassegna Italiana di Valutazione" 75/2019, pp 42-59, DOI: 10.3280/RIV2019-075004