Politicians in Search of Performance Information?‐ Survey Research on Dutch Aldermen's Use of Performance Information

Abstract

Based on survey research, a picture is given of the sources which were used by 262 aldermen of Dutch municipalities to obtain information about developments in and performances of their organizations and aldermen's opinions on the available performance information in output‐oriented planning and control documents. The aldermen, who were elected politicians, made much use of information which they obtained during verbal consultations with professional managers. Performance information in planning and control documents was not greatly used by aldermen. Their opinions on available performance information in planning and control documents and its use slightly differed, depending on the policy fields for which they are responsible. This might be related to differences between policy fields with respect to uncertainty, measurability of outputs, and knowledge of transformation processes, although this relationship is not unambiguous.

Challenging the NPM Ideas About Performance Management: Selectivity and Differentiation in Outcome‐Oriented Performance Budgeting

“…However, for various reasons NPM, and especially the introduction of performance budgets (with their output‐ or outcome‐oriented performance indicators), often does not seem to fulfil its promises (for the Netherlands, see e.g., van Helden, ; and ter Bogt, and ; for some other countries, see e.g., Guthrie and Parker, , pp. 58–61; Mellemvik and Pettersen, , pp.…”

“…Rationalism is an important element in the New Public Management approach (NPM), which has been underlying the more recent initiatives to increase the focus on performance in the public sector's management and budgeting activities (Gruening, ). However, the assumption of a rational use of performance information is contestable, as shown by the research on politicians’ use of performance information in general and that of performance budgeting in particular (ter Bogt, ; Sterck, ; Taylor, ; see also van Helden et al., ). This research primarily emphasizes the reasons why the politicians are hesitant in making use of performance information in the budgetary cycle.…”

Drivers of Performance Information Use: Systematic Literature Review and Directions for Future Research

“…To deal with this issue and further delimit the outcome variable, the review will only include research on "purposefully used" "performance data" and thus exclude information and uses that deviate from the understanding put forward in the previous section. It will also focus on data use by managers, and consequently exclude other user groups, like politicians (Askim, 2009;ter Bogt, 2004) or citizens (Ho, 2008;James, 2011), as well as studies from the areas of business and accounting (Broadbent & Laughlin, 2009;Marchand, Kettinger, & Rollins, 2002) or broader public sector research on the topic of information systems, such as Bozeman and Bretschneider (1986) or Bretschneider (1990).…”

The Use of Performance Information in Budgetary Decision‐making by Legislators: Is Estonia Any Different?

“…At the same time, as Askim (2008) emphasizes, a number of theoretical perspectives are more sceptical of the legislative use of PI in budgetary decision‐making. Based on some versions of the agency theory, one can argue that legislators would seek to alleviate their informational disadvantages vis‐à‐vis the executive branch via talking to officials (and also fellow legislators) rather than reading formal written performance reports (see, e.g., Ter Bogt 2001, 2004; Pollitt 2006a; Bourdeaux 2008). Furthermore, since PI is usually compiled by the very ministries and agencies about whom the politicians would like to get information, they may not trust it and would hence be reluctant to apply it when making resource allocation decisions (Bourdeaux 2008; Wang 2008).…”