Effective Governance and Auditor Roles in Performance Measurement
The “Effective Governance Model,” from the book Results That Matter (Jossey-Bass, 2006), focuses on three “core skills” of communities (“communities” can include cities, counties, and larger regions such as states and provinces) and the public and private organizations that serve them. The core skills are: Engaging Citizens, Measuring Results, and Getting Things Done. The model encourages leaders to combine two or all three of the core skills to generate any or all of the “advanced governance practices” (A-D in the graphic) to achieve lasting improvement in the quality of life issues that matter most to the people of the community or region.
The model provides a context to demonstrate how auditors foster effective governance when they perform performance measurement roles and related practices, as in the framework of auditor roles and practices on this website. One of the most basic ways auditors contribute to effective governance is by improving the credibility of government performance information, which they can do in all five performance measurement roles, but perhaps most directly when they play Role 1: Audit performance or PM systems, Role 2: Assess performance information, and Role 3: Define or measure performance. When auditors test and help improve reported performance data, or collect data themselves as independent parties, they can increase citizen confidence in government performance information, which in turn can lead to increased citizen engagement and use of performance data.
Auditors who either help improve management’s performance reports (Practice 2b. Assure performance reports) or issue their own reports to the public (Practice 5b. Report performance) help provide citizens, elected officials, and other community stakeholders with valid, relevant and reliable data on a timely and accessible basis. In doing so, they provide active citizens and elected officials with the information they need to evaluate community conditions and services, which enhances the core skill “Measuring Results” and potentially all results-based advanced governance practices, but particularly Citizens Reaching for Results (“C” in the graphic).
Auditors can also advocate to management (Practice 4a. Encourage management) or elected officials (Practice 5a. External advocacy) for the development or improvement of performance management systems. Taking it a step further, auditors can also contribute their expertise to help management in implementing or improving these systems (Practice 4b. Assist management), enabling their government to achieve or improve the advanced practice Organizations Managing for Results (“B” in the graphic). They can make these systems even more effective by helping elected officials or citizens make better use of the data produced by these systems for making decisions to improve desired outcomes (Practice 5c. Assist external decision making).
Auditors who engage citizens in articulating their concerns about community or regional conditions and priorities for improvement (Practice 5d. Engage citizens) can help their government incorporate citizen concerns and priorities into the process for setting goals, objectives, and performance measures, and in allocating resources. Taken together with the auditor roles and practices noted above that improve performance management systems, then the results the government organizes itself to achieve will be results that matter for citizens, which enables the community or region to achieve the most advanced governance practice, Communities Governing for Results (“D”).
These are just a few of the ways that auditors who perform roles and practices related to performance measurement make governance more effective. For more information on the Effective Governance Model, see the Effective Community Governance website. |
