Constructing performance measurement in the public sector

This article investigates the process of translating Performance Measurement Systems (PMSs) into operational use, in the context of public sector reforms. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory, the article examines the Good Practice project, an 11-year PMS implementation in Italian universities. Analysing this experience, the article shows how controversies play a central role in the process of translation, as essential risks for revitalising the PMS. Furthermore, it underscores the heterogeneity of actors’ stratagems, giving voice to louder as well as weaker participants, who all proved crucial to the vitality of the PMS, by raising unexploited and unresolved issues within the network.