Performance Contract Management in Regional Local Government - Victoria

Abstract

The Victorian Local Government Act, 1989 introduced fixed-term performance contracts for all senior management staff. As a result, issues such as promotion, training, remuneration and contract renewal can now be directly influenced by performance evaluation. This paper examines the performance evaluation process in practice in order to determine its outcomes. We found considerable commitment by CEOs and senior officers to the system but quantitative outcomes were more difficult to identify. The study is set in six local government units in Gippsland, Victoria.

Temporary Staff, Contractors, and Volunteers: The Hidden Workforce in Victorian Local Government

“…Regarding the small number of employees with fixed term or short term contracts, HR managers state that senior officers under the Act receiving remuneration in excess of $100,000 and officers reporting directly to the CEO are generally employed on a fixed term contract (maximum of five years). Issues relating to senior staff on such contracts have been examined in detail by Pullin and Haidar (2003), and will not be focused upon in this article. Employees who are replacing regular employees on extended leave and those appointed to positions that are funded for a specified time period or which are project‐based are employed on a short term contract.…”

Putting the System Into Performance Management Systems: A Review and Agenda for Performance Management Research

“…Our review shows that evaluation not only is the most frequently studied task overall (80% of all articles) but also is studied somewhat more often in recent articles than in older articles (84% vs. 74%, respectively). Relevant to the debate over the value of formal evaluations (Adler et al, 2016), there are a handful of empirical studies that explicitly examine the impact of having a formal evaluation, with mixed results: some found it can positively affect organizational climate and job satisfaction (Kaya, Koc, & Topcu, 2010) as well as product quality as an indicator of firm performance (Nayyab, Hamid, Naseer, & Iqbal, 2011); others found no effect of formal evaluation on outcomes such as employee satisfaction, commitment, and turnover (Pullin & Haidar, 2003; C. Zheng, Morrison, & O’Neill, 2006).…”