Performance reporting

This Impact Report identifies and summarises the diverse impacts, resulting from the £500m of UK funding of Science and Technology in 2013, using numerous quantitative metrics and short case study extracts.  It shows how the varied impacts of a national science and technology organization and its many funded programmes can be annually identified, captured, tracked, and summarised in a public document.

The report was produced for, and by, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) -  the UK Research Council responsible for funding: (1) all UK astronomy, particle and nuclear physics research, (2) related UK science and technology facilities (e.g. as Harwell and Daresbury), (3) the UK contribution to international science (e.g. CERN, international telescopes and space missions), (4) innovation and business spin-off programmes, and (5) UK public engagement activities.

The Report was co-researched and co-authored by the STFC Impact Team, including myself while Impact Evaluation Manager in 2013, with Dr. Claire Dougan-McCallie (lead author/Head of Impact) and Jenny Beard, with additional input from senior managers, and many data and case study contributions from other key managers across STFC.

Varied key impacts are identified and reported including:

• Research amongst the best (by citation impact) in astronomy, nuclear and particle physics.
• Supported research of 226 Principal Investigators in 70 universities, led to 1,100 peer-reviewed papers in 2012.
• Facilities (the Diamond Light Source, ISIS and CLF) were used in 2012/13 by over 4,200 unique users , in over 2,400 experiments, producing over 1,000 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

• Technology from CERN benefited the UK economy by over £100 billion every year.
• Funding the development of the UK’s space, internet and computer animation industries, returned over £500 billion to the UK economy per annum.
• Funded Innovation Campuses hosted over 230 enterprises and supported over 5,000 jobs.
• UK industry won £43 million in contracts from the international subscriptions funded, and had accumulated a total of £150 million since 2005.

• Funded research inspired future generations to study STEM subjects, attracting 90% of UK undergraduates to study physics, funded 782 PhD students  and 16,800 student training days.
• Between 2009 to 2012 public engagement programmes engaged people on 58 million occasions, with 2 million people engaged in face-to-face activities in 2013 alone.

This paper finds that a Performance Management System (PMS) will be effective if it is implemented with effective computer oriented Information Technologies, deriving from a theoretical framework that: (i) draws its concepts from the motivation theories; (ii) describes the vocabulary of the monitoring, measurements and reporting processes; (iii) provides indications linking efforts to performance to reward; (iv) guides research efforts such that the results are consistent and thence generalizable; (v) guides a structured developmental approach; and (vi) ensures the PMS instrumentation is not just one-off and time consuming but an integral and day to day part of an organization’s operations. However, the paper finds a lack of theoretical framework that meets the required features; thereby bequeathing research works in the domain with inconsistent viewpoints and therefore, no formal basis for generalizable data analysis and interpretation. This paper then applies a systematic literature review methodology and the domain driven design approach to develop a PMS domain oriented theoretical framework with the identified characteristics, to act as an independent reference material towards producing PMSs whose outputs provide indications of quantities and qualities that can be trusted to significantly correlate with actual performances. This will enable the PMS implementations to generate reports that promote fair judgment and perception of equity, and trustworthy enough to guide decisions making towards holding the workforce accountable on performances, as well as triggering the taking of prompt corrective actions where and when necessary.

This study empirically assesses the disclosure of nonfinancial information in corporate
reporting. In examining the contents of annual and board reports for 50 listed corporations, a coding
sheet was developed by combining the two coding sheets of Boshnak and the European Directive
2014/95/EU. All corporations in three sectors—energy, utilities, and materials, which collectively
represents 85.51% of the Saudi market capitalization—encompass the sample. Results reveal that
employees, community, and products and services information have a moderate disclosure level.
In contrast, environmental, customers, and fighting corruption have a low level. The findings also
show that nonfinancial disclosure of the selected sectors on average range between 28.85% for the
corporations in the material sector to 39.22% for the corporations in utilities sector. The corporations
in the energy sector scored, on average, 37.65%. The mean for the entire sample of the ratios of
disclosed nonfinancial items is 30.35%. However, the average disclosure level is without substantial
improvement since 2012 and 2013, as previously reported The Capital Market Authority (CMA) is
recommended to mandate nonfinancial information disclosure. It is a step toward realization aspects
of Saudi Vision 2030 concerning with, for instance, protecting environment and other related matters.

The intention of this paper is to to provide a complementary view of program design regarding performance measurement of Civil Service Reform in Suriname.  More specifically, the aim of the program is the performance measurement strategy that would lead to an efficient and fair downsizing of the Civil Service.  The Framework used in this exercise is the Results-based Management and Accountability Framework (RMAF).

"Abstract: Focus on results and accountability in public performance management is now firmly entrenched. Governments around the world, at all levels, have invested
significant time and resources into measuring and reporting performance, with very mixed results. In 2000, Ontario became the first state or province in North America to
mandate a municipal performance measurement program for all municipalities. One measure of the system’s effectiveness is the documentation produced to show citizens how their government is doing – in this case, an annual performance report. Although the legislation is clear in terms of measurements and some reporting standards, there are clear differences in the overall quality of the annual reports produced by each of the 445 municipalities. This article will focus on the reports as the primary communication tool between the municipalities and citizens. The primary question
that frames this research is the current quality of municipal performance reports in Ontario."

Local 'participation' and 'empowerment' remain key themes of development programmes around the world. This paper uses the example of participatory forest management programmes in the Kyrgyz Republic to highlight the often limited value of 'local empowerment' and argue for the need to focus on empowering development agencies through better knowledge sharing. We link the poor performance of programmes to overly optimistic assumptions about the feasibility of participatory governance in the local context. We relate this to insufficient mutual learning and ineffective reporting by development organisations. We propose changes to programme reports necessary to make them fit-for-purpose and to promote mutual empowerment among aid agencies.