Poll: Performance Matters

Civil servants' performance matters to the American public, a new poll says.

The poll, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, found that six in 10 Americans don't trust the federal government. Americans are frustrated with their political leaders and fed up with inefficient bureaucracies, the poll found. But while the public may think federal managers aren't doing a great job, they hold out hope for a brighter future. Ninety-two percent of Americans say the federal government can improve its operations.

"The important message for government managers is that performance counts," said Patricia McGinnis, president of the Council for Excellence in Government.

Morley Winograd, director of the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR), said he has a chart on his office wall that plots public trust in government. Vice President Al Gore will evaluate the new NPR director's performance by seeing if the public trust line on that chart goes up, Winograd said.

Agencies will be drafting vision statements and choosing core values as the first step toward improving customer service and the public's view of government, Winograd said.

For an in-depth analysis of the poll's findings and what the findings mean for federal managers, click here.