Tackling wicked issues in performance management and governance of health prevention: an empirical analysis of vaccination strategies in Italy

Performance management (PM) in the public sector is a research stream that grasped much of the attention of public administration and management scholars in the last decade (Bouckaert & Halligan, 2007; Hall, 2017; Douglas & Ansell, 2020). This is mainly related to the ever-evolving context in which PM regimes apply. Our society and its current challenges are indeed growing in complexity so that these last have been defined by modern literature as “wicked” (Rittel & Weber, 1973; Head & Alford, 2015). Wicked does not mean “evil” but it refers to the impossibility to share an understanding of societal problems and their definition. According to Head & Alford (2015),“wickedn…