Quantitative performance measures are surrogates that cannot capture the most important service dimensions

Evidence

Of course the reason quantitative measures are used so dften is that actual performance is virtually impossible to measure. It is perhaps useful to put this quite bluntly. We cannot measure the quality of street-level bureaucrats’ performances, particularly in terms of the most important aspects of their jobs. Aspects of performance can be measured and assessed, and many surrogates for performance measures can be developed with important implications as management tools. But the most important dimensions of service performance defy calibration. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1214

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines what performance surrogates are and their limits.