Performance Management in Foreign Ministries

Foreign ministries have borrowed performance management techniques (PERM) from the corporate world. PERM is utilized in three areas: oversight and optimization of the distributed networks of the diplomatic system, i.e. the embassies and permanent missions; human resource management; and for detailed reporting to publics on the objectives and the outcomes of the ministry?s work, i.e. public diplomacy. While some aspects of the performance of diplomatic systems can be measured, and this permits limited comparative study, the core of their work is not amenable to measurement, and is not accessible to external scholars, except when documents are declassified, some decades after the event. The application of PERM is leading to leaner embassies, greater use of local staff, and systemic change, generally raising levels of efficiency. But carried too far for the oversight of embassies, PERM produces paradoxical result. It might lead to mechanical conformity, sap local initiative, and micro-management from headquarters. In contrast, in the other two areas of human resource management and for improved accountability to publics PERM is a clear success.