“Pursuing Community Resilience through Outcome-Based Public Policies: Challenges and Opportunities for the Design of Performance Management Systems”

Abstract

The purpose of this symposium is to contribute to the ongoing debate on this topic in the public administration literature by exploring the contribution of performance management in the implementation of effective governance systems that may foster community resilience, especially to social “wicked” problems. The set of articles hosted in this issue provides a variegated mix of ideas and experiences in this field, encompassing different countries (from Northern to Southern Europe, and Canada), sectors (including labor, healthcare, tourism, and public utilities), and methodological approaches. An empirical perspective is adopted by the authors, involving case studies, interviews, and field research. Both the variety of explored fields and the practical viewpoints from which investigated issues are framed provide useful insights to highlight a research field that is still relatively unexplored, especially if considered under the perspective of performance management.