The Institute’s Managing for Performance Project considered how the performance information system in the New Zealand state sector could be better aligned with the needs of key users and achieve a greater focus on outcomes. Underpinning this question was a perception that the information produced by the current formal performance information system was little valued...

"As a public servant I live with the tension captured in Richard Mulgan’s question: ‘How much responsiveness is too much or too little?’ (Mulgan, 2008). On the one hand, my job is to be responsive to portfolio ministers and to the prime minister and Cabinet. On the other hand, Westminster conventions of public service imply...

Knowing whether an organization will fail is useful information for investors and other stakeholders. Looking to 36 New Zealand corporate failures (2001-2010), we find that anticipation of their demise was not clearly signalled in the public media. The question then emerges as to whether better forecasts of impending failure could have been derived from information...