Performance assessment in the context of multiple objectives: a multivariate multilevel analysis

The pursuit of multiple objectives by public sector organisations makes it difficult to assess and compare their performance. Considering objectives in isolation ignores the possibility of correlations between objectives, and a single index of performance requires subjective judgements to be made about the relative value of each objective. An alternative approach is to estimate a multivariate system of equations in which objectives are analysed individually but correlations across objectives are considered explicitly. We analyse the performance of English health authorities against 13 objectives using hierarchical data for electoral wards that are nested within health authorities. We find evidence of correlation across objectives, suggesting that some are complementary and others subject to trade-off. The estimates generated when assessing performance with multivariate multilevel models as compared to ordinary least squares or multilevel models differ, with the magnitudes varying by objective and health authority.