Reflecting upon the implementation of performance management frameworks, the
focus groups considered they would be most successfully when instigated corporately
using a top-down approach (this was happening in a few of this study’s cases). This
was a matter for individual councils and, in their opinion, such approaches were not
widespread and sometimes were not viewed constructively by technical or operational
service managers (especially when an awards-winning emphasis was placed upon
their use). They considered operations management would represent the corollary (a
bottom-up approach).