On the morning of October 29, 2016, Professor Liu Xutao, Deputy Director of Department of Research, Chinese Academy of Governance, gave a lecture on “System Optimization of Performance Management in Public Sectors” in Room 0402, Mingfa Building. This was the 9^thMPA Forum, which was hosted by Mr. Xu Guangjian, executive deputy dean of the School of Public Administration and Policy, and director of MPA Education Center.

In this lecture, Professor Liu elaborated performance management from the perspective of governance modernization and system optimization of performance management in Chinese public sectors. Firstly, Liu summarized threegovernance approaches in Chinese and the western governments, namely political approach, legal approach and management approach. He mentioned that in the system optimization of performance management, theory is the direction, mechanism is the foundation, performance is the essence, and technique is the insurance. He pointed out five misunderstandings on the performance evaluation theory and emphasized that reward and punishment evaluation should be combined with developmental evaluation. In terms of mechanism construction, he used cases to explain what to evaluate, when to evaluate, how to evaluate, evaluated by whom, and how to use the evaluation results. Speaking of the performanceculture, Liu suggested that the core of performance was the acceptance of and engagement in performance management by all members. In the end of the lecture, Professor Liu interacted with the students through an interesting practice which sufficiently demonstrated the role and effect of communication in performance evaluation, and emphasized the importance of fact-based value judgment.

The students got the great benefits from the profound theory and rich cases of the lecture.