The Measurement and Management of Intellectual Capital in the Public Sector: Taking the Lead or Waiting for Direction?

This article compares and contrasts the stage of development reached by the public andprivate sectors with regard to intellectual capital. Whereas the private sector in manyparts of the developed world has still not fully embraced the importance of measuringintangible assets, the public sector, with its different objectives, has always had to focuson non-financial results. This has become more critical in recent years due to successivegovernment initiatives that have required the use of a number of prescribed performanceindicators. Having briefly outlined the history of both intellectual capital and the culture of performance measurement this article analyses the results of a survey of public sector organizations in Northern Ireland to assess how they are dealing with boththe measurement and management of intellectual capital assets.