Performance Measurement for Managing Welfare Services

Performance management of welfare services is a topical issue at the moment. Because of the major structural developments in society, versatile knowledge and new tools are needed to support the performance development and management of welfare services. This research aims to find out how the performance of welfare services can be measured and managed at different levels within a welfare service system. To achieve this goal, research questions in this dissertation examine the current state of performance measurement and management in Finnish welfare service organisations, how identified challenges related to managing and measuring performance in welfare service organisations can be overcome, and how performance management can be supported by the means of measurement in the welfare service system. The theoretical part of the research builds on different research streams focusing on performance measurement and management in welfare services.This research can be characterized as a qualitative multiple case study. Research questions are studied through six research articles applying various research methods. Interviews and action research were the main methods employed. The empirical material of the research consists of data collected in six separate research projects related to performance measurement in welfare services at different levels of the service system. Altogether, 22 public, private and non-profit organisations operating in the welfare service sector participated the research. The most of participants provide social services.This study contributes to prior research by providing a more holistic view of performance management and measurement by structuring performance measurement tasks at different levels within the welfare service system. This research suggests and applies practical performance measurement frameworks at different levels of the welfare service system. This research indicates that different aspects related to performance and performance management are focused as the level of analysis moves from organisations to the service system. In welfare service organisations, the focus is on the outcomes that the organisation seeks to provide to its clients and on the resources and processes needed to achieve those outcomes. As intangible aspects of the service provision are focused in welfare services, this research suggests intellectual capital management as an applicable perspective in managing performance in welfare service organisations. At the service system level, the focus shifts towards the longer-term effects on clients created by many organisations, thus extending performance measurement activities beyond the limits of just one organisation. At the service system level, the foremost managerial task relates to ensuring cost-effective service provision, which entails measuring the impacts of different service options and managing the effectiveness of service provision. This research suggests that impact measurement at the service system level should entail measuring the qualitative impacts created to clients and also measuring the quantitative and financial impacts to the service system. According to this research, the operationalization of concepts related to performance, user participation and outside support are focal factors that facilitate performance measurement efforts in welfare services, regardless of the level of analysis

Workload Factors in Special Needs Education

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Value Assessment of e-Government Service from Municipality Perspective

Value assessment of e-government services remains a challenging task. In this study, we apply a value creation model of electronic business and value for money assessment approach of e-government service in an attempt to better understand value creation from the municipality perspective. By conducting semi-structured interviews and analysis of e-government service data we investigate how digital service creates value in public services focusing on the municipality perspective. We present the identified sources of value and the indicators of value that could be derived from the analysis of data from the service. We discuss the complementary findings from performing value assessment using e-commerce and e-government models, the limitations of conducting value assessment of e-government services and performing financial analysis, and conclude with directions for future research.

An Activity Theory Perspective on Creating a New Digital Government Service in Finland

Digitalization of government services is a central goal in many countries. At policy-making level, digital government services are often expected to simultaneously reduce cost and provide citizens with better and more versatile services. Development of new digital government services, however, often involves companies, which typically have differences in their approach to the development and implementation of new digital services compared to the public sector. This study applies activity theory as a lens to identify the similarities and differences between the private and public sector in the development and implementation of a new government digital service. The aim is to identify the contradictions that can lead to expansive learning in the activity system encompassing a national level digital government service for the social welfare and healthcare of citizens in Finland

Anchor practices that guide horizontal performance measurement: an interventionist case study of the financial aspect of new technology implementation in healthcare

With the demand for elderly care increasing in many countries, digital technologies offer the potential for organising such care while also increasing value for money. However, public administrators need tools to make sense of their own complex environment and the possible impacts of new technologies. The current paper examines this issue by applying horizontal performance measurement, where practitioners can give financial value to issues that span across many functions and thus avoid sub-optimisation. We use an interventionist case study to illustrate a situation in which a Nordic city attempted to calculate the financial impact of introducing new digital technologies into elderly care. As our contribution to the literature on horizontal performance measurement, we show how economic (financial) and wellbeing anchors influence horizontal performance measurement in a healthcare digitalisation project. We also contribute to the development of our method theory, i.e., anchor practices, by providing evidence of the usage of multiple simultaneous anchors and make a methodological contribution by showing that interventionist researchers can support operationalising anchor practices.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Sensory Technologies for Improving Employee Experience and Strengthening Customer Relationships

Emotions are always present when we talk about human interaction and relationships. In this chapter the focus is on studying the role of emotions in employee–customer interaction through theoretical discussion and two practical case examples. Particular focus is on modern sensory technologies, which can be used especially in measuring emotional states in such situations, where emotions are in other ways hard to express and identify. In this chapter, we argue that in the process of turning negative emotions to positive outcomes, the key is to understand the role that different relationships play in value co-creation. Manager–subordinate and employee–employee relationships have the most impact on well-being inside workplace, but especially for those employees that are involved in customer interface, the customer interaction and relationship has a direct impact on job satisfaction. Naturally this applies also vice versa; job satisfaction has direct impact on the customer experience and satisfaction. Without measurement of emotional states of employees and customers, it can be difficult to determine, which relationships and situations cause most stress and negative emotions in the workplace and within the customer interaction. Thus, emotions are in a key role in understanding and developing relationships.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Kolme lähestymistapaa sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon tutkimus-, kehitys- ja innovaatiotoiminnan vaikuttavuuden mittaamiseen

© Tekijät ja Tampere University Press. Tämä työ on lisensoitu Creative Commons Nimeä-EiKaupallinen-EiMuutoksia 4.0 Kansainvälinen Julkinen -lisenssillä.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Design of Mobile Application for Self-reporting Affective Experiences

Affective experiences have a major role in value creation during customer encounters both in business to consumer (B2C) and business to business (B2B) domains. However, understanding and effectively identifying affective experiences is challenging. Based on a practical need of a case company, the aim of this study was to develop an ensemble artifact for measuring affective experiences during customer encounters. Following action design research method, we designed the artifact in two cycles. First cycle involved creating a poster to capture affective experiences in an event setting. In second cycle, a mobile application was developed for identifying affective experiences. In a pilot study the mobile application was used to interview 73 individuals during customer encounters at various touchpoints of the customer event by four interviewers. The study reports the preliminary findings, evaluates the artifact development process through the lenses of design science research process model, and identifies the future research directions

Arvoa palvelutuotannon mittareista

Tämä opas jäsentää ja päivittää palvelualaan liittyvää mittaamisosaamista. Mittaaminen nähdään ensisijaisesti palveluiden johtamisen ja arvonluontiprosessin kehittämisen apuvälineenä. Näkökulmiksi valitaan asiakaslähtöisyys ja palvelujärjestelmät. Lisäksi oppaassa korostetaan henkilöstön roolia mittareiden kehitysprojektien menestystekijänä. Opas auttaa päivittämään oman organisaation mittarit palveluvaltaisen yhteiskunnan vaatimuksiin. Se tarjoaa konkreettisia malleja, muistilistoja ja työkaluja, jotka auttavat mittaristoprojektin läpiviennissä. Samalla kiteytetään yhteen kokemuksia kymmenestä palveluorganisaatiosta, joissa kehitettiin mittaamista vuosina 2011–2013. Nämä organisaatiot edustavat asiantuntijapalveluita, julkisia palveluita ja teollisuuden palveluita. Lisäksi oppaassa kuvataan suomalaisten palveluorganisaatioiden mittaamisen tilaa. Opas sopii perusteokseksi palveluorganisaatioiden johdolle ja kehittäjille sekä alan korkeakouluopiskelijoille