The world is changing. Unpredictable disruptions are challenging our values, systems, and behaviours. Public sector organisations are no exception. They are operating under increasing economic and financial constraints, and facing pressures from the rapid introduction of new technologies and AI. They must also respond to declining public trust and more diverse, fast-evolving, and frequently conflicting citizen needs. All of this is happening within political and institutional contexts that require us to reconsider the role of public management and governance.

In this context, a fundamental question arises: Can the public sector still perform? If so, what outcomes should it achieve, guided by which values, and under what conditions? This research group aims to stimulate academic debate, encourage new collaborations, and provide participants with feedback on their contributions from two complementary perspectives: the first focusing on the practice of managing with performance measures, and the second focusing on broader strategies that could sustain a performing public sector.

1. Measuring and managing public sector performance

   a. Designing performance measurement and management systems.

   b. How civil servants and citizens use performance information.

   c. What values guide public sector performance measurement? What are the conditions for creating public value?

   d. Performance indicators in policy and governance: Critical scrutiny of macro-economic indicators, environmental indicators, university rankings, etc.

   e. Performance of performance measurement. Does performance measurement help to build an effective, transparent, and resilient public sector?

   f. Performance measurement and behaviour: How do citizens, civil servants, or politicians adapt their behaviour in response to performance?

   g. Ethical dimensions of performance measurement: How do performance systems interact with public sector ethos, professional norms, and intrinsic motivation?

2. Strategies, systems, and processes to sustain public sector performance

   a. Performance of governance structures and accountability mechanisms.

   b. Performance of collaborative and networked governance.

   c. The role of employees, professions, and certified experts in shaping performance outcomes, including the role of consultants.

   d. Financialisation, outsourcing, and the performance capabilities of the public sector.

   e. Crisis, resilience, and performance. Performance in adverse circumstances.

   f. Politics and performance management, performance czars, performance and savings.

   g. Algorithmic governance and AI: How do digital tools and data-driven systems reshape both the measurement of performance and the values underpinning it?

We welcome both theoretical and empirical contributions, and a diversity of methodologies, policy contexts, and geographic settings. Empirical contexts may include various public policy and management areas, including government and civil service, education, sustainability, digitalisation, international cooperation, healthcare, and social services.

Panel formats:

• Traditional academic paper panels, with a dedicated discussant for each paper and a post-it feedback session from the audience. The goal is to create a constructive and supportive space for developing research at all stages.

• Collaborative panel “Can we still perform?” This is a collective academic discussion on the values and conditions of public sector performance in turbulent times, aimed at shaping a future research agenda.