Measuring Performance in Public Sector Organizations: Evidence from Local Government Authorities in Tanzania

Abstract

The aim of study was to assess the performance of Local government authorities in Tanzania. The study used balanced scorecard model as proposed by Kaplan and Norton (1992 to integrate financial and nonfinancial performance measures. This study modified the Kaplan and Norton (1992) balanced scorecard model by adding another performance perspective which is the social perspective. The finding of the study shows that the overall performance of Tanzanian local governments is poor with a performance level of 39.43% which is much contributed by poor financial performance rather than nonfinancial performance. Results indicate that there is a room to Tanzanian Local government authorities to improve both financial and nonfinancial performance through improvement in individual performance metrics in the future which will in turn improve overall performance. Given the advantages of balanced scorecard, it is recommended that LGAs should adopt balanced scorecard from their strategic point of view which will enable them to improve both financial and nonfinancial performance.

Keywords: Local government authorities, social perspective, performance measurements, financial performance, non-financial performance, balance score card