Part 1 Concepts of Performance Indicators

While there are earlier records of investigation into performance, it is the work of Frederic Taylor in the early part of the twentieth century and his so-called ‘scientific management’ that laid the groundwork for modern concepts of performance management. As the result of the work of Taylor and others, private sector organizations, under the pressures of commercial competition, increasingly turned to the application of ‘scientific’ and behavioural methods to improve performance. Much of the focus of this effort to improve performance was in attempting to control the costs of production.