Public Officials’ Gaming of Performance Measures and Targets: The Nexus between Motivation and Opportunity
04 Mar 2021-Public Performance & Management Review (SAGE Publications Ltd)-Vol. 44, Iss: 2, pp 272-293
TL;DR: Instead of using performance data to help improve organizational performance, many public officials have responded to the implementation of performance measurement (PM) systems in their organizatio... as discussed by the authors, the authors of this paper
Abstract: Instead of using performance data to help improve organizational performance, many public officials have responded to the implementation of performance measurement (PM) systems in their organizatio...
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose an incentive system for higher education in the French context to increase internal efficiency, social and economic impact of higher education system and to reinforce international attractiveness of public education institutions.
Abstract: Education supply in universities of most European countries has for the last ten years become a strategic matter. At present, French universities consider education supply as an investment. But they do not utilize all incentive mechanisms in order to drive their strategies. At the beginning of the year 2006, the public sector reform will tend to impose performance measurements of research and educational activities, in order to improve organizational efficiency. The aim of this reform in the French context is to provide driving elements to increase internal efficiency, social and economic impact of higher education system and to reinforce international attractiveness of public education institutions. The substitution of resources management by result management involves an agent's performance responsibility measurement. Evaluation becomes a central factor and is articulated with incentives system. The weakening of the property right system drives project bearers to maximize their utility instead of their incomes. In such a context, the understanding of individual strategies permits to understand constraints of management within universities, and to take into account the impact of stakeholders who take part in the value generation process. The major risk is to constraint the utility function of projects bearers by increasing their burden and their motivation. The result could be the limitation of the number of projects, and as well, the decreasing of university investments.
49 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the understudied upward roles of middle-managers' compliance with performance management (PM) reforms focusing on their downward roles, and uncover four patterns of inconsistencies between PM systems' design and the operational, daily, course-of-work, close-to-the-field managers' upward roles.
Abstract: Current interest in middle-managers’ compliance with performance management (PM) reforms focuses on their downward roles. To explore their understudied upward roles, this analysis draws on police chiefs’ voice directed to senior management regarding the Israeli PM system as documented since its first introduction in 1999, and as reported both by chiefs and senior managers (N = 54). Unfolding four patterns of inconsistencies between PM systems’ design and the operational, daily, course-of-work, close-to-the-field managers’ upward roles allows us to move beyond criticism to constructive efforts, and provides new insights for reconciling the well-documented gap between policy intentions and outcomes in PM reforms.
11 citations
Cites background from "Public Officials’ Gaming of Perform..."
...…abuse of PI, as reflected in the well-documented practice of ‘induced gaming’ (e.g. Bevan and Hood 2006; Kerpershoek, Groenleer, and de Bruijn 2016; Taylor 2020), which denotes ‘behavioral changes [that] occur to maximize reported performance at the expense of, or without any corresponding…...
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...Moreover, the negative responses of PM systems’ users are well-documented (e.g. Bevan and Hood 2006; Kroll 2015; Taylor 2020)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the consistent application of rules reduces perceived red tape and that red tape perceptions are affected by outcome favorability and that an interaction effect exists between consistency and outcome favourability.
Abstract: A growing stream of research in public administration is concerned with how red tape and administrative burden affects citizens. Drawing on the procedural fairness literature, we argue that the consistent application of rules reduces perceived red tape. We also hypothesize that red tape perceptions are affected by outcome favorability and that an interaction effect exists between consistency and outcome favorability. Our reasoning is tested with a survey experiment in the context of a federal jury duty summons procedure, and administered to a sample of U.S. citizens through TurkPrime. The statistical results support our hypotheses; perceived red tape is lower if rules are applied consistently and if citizens receive a favorable outcome. We also find that consistently applying a procedure reduces perceived red tape further when citizens receive a favorable outcome. The implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.
10 citations
Cites background from "Public Officials’ Gaming of Perform..."
...…equally, which can evoke feelings of frustration and anger (Lens, 2009), manifest itself in intention to break rules (Fleming, 2020) or gaming the system (Taylor, 2020), and feed into perceptions of ineffective government rules and high levels of red tape (De Jong & van Witteloostuijn, 2015)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe how they perceive the instruments that have been implemented by their portfolio departments to manage and control the arm's-length agencies at federal level in Australia.
Abstract: After the large-scale creation of arm’s length agencies by governments around the globe, these governments now face the dilemma of how to manage, steer or control these arm’s length agencies. Different instruments have been developed, based on either of two theoretical models: principal-agent theory or stewardship theory. Both are based on economic models of man with a principal charging an agent or a steward with a task. Principal-agent theory is based on the principal distrusting the agent to perform as agreed, leading to a need for extra monitoring and control. Stewardship theory is based on trust, and requires very different instruments to manage at arm’s length. Using the perspective of arm’s length bodies at federal level in Australia, we will describe how they perceive the instruments that have been implemented by their portfolio departments to manage and control them. Using survey data (N = 89), we will test which of the two models is used most often in this country, one of the frontrunners in agencification. Results show that arm’s length agencies are more inclined to take a stewardship position, while a mixture of instruments from the principal-agent and stewardship model is applied. This could lead to problematic relationships.
6 citations
Cites background from "Public Officials’ Gaming of Perform..."
...This observation would need to be further examined through more detailed qualitative data of performance reporting (Taylor, 2020)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the drivers of unintended consequences of performance systems and the ways of mitigating them, but insufficient attention is paid to the unintended consequences and their drivers.
Abstract: Scholars have long documented the unintended consequences of performance systems, but insufficient attention is paid to the drivers of such consequences and the ways of mitigating them. This articl...
5 citations
Additional excerpts
...…performance systems: cutting the corners, ratchet, threshold, magic tricks, among many others (Bevan & Hood, 2006; Courty & Marschke, 2007; Hood, 2006, 2020; Hood & Piotrowska, 2020; Kelman & Friedman, 2009; Pollitt, 2003; P. Smith, 1995; Taylor, 2020; Terman & Yang, 2016; Van Thiel & Leeuw, 2002)....
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References
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TL;DR: A theory of intergroup conflict and some preliminary data relating to the theory is presented in this article. But the analysis is limited to the case where the salient dimensions of the intergroup differentiation are those involving scarce resources.
Abstract: This chapter presents an outline of a theory of intergroup conflict and some preliminary data relating to the theory. Much of the work on the social psychology of intergroup relations has focused on patterns of individual prejudices and discrimination and on the motivational sequences of interpersonal interaction. The intensity of explicit intergroup conflicts of interests is closely related in human cultures to the degree of opprobrium attached to the notion of "renegade" or "traitor." The basic and highly reliable finding is that the trivial, ad hoc intergroup categorization leads to in-group favoritism and discrimination against the out-group. Many orthodox definitions of "social groups" are unduly restrictive when applied to the context of intergroup relations. The equation of social competition and intergroup conflict rests on the assumptions concerning an "ideal type" of social stratification in which the salient dimensions of intergroup differentiation are those involving scarce resources.
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"Public Officials’ Gaming of Perform..." refers methods in this paper
...Officials can game PM in order to conform to group norms, as suggested in the social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986)....
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TL;DR: This article proposed a model based upon the subordinate's psychological attributes and the organization's situational characteristics to reconcile the differences between these assumptions by proposing a model that reconciles the differences among these assumptions.
Abstract: Recent thinking about top management has been influenced by alternative models of man.1 Economic approaches to governance such as agency theory tend to assume some form of homo-economicus, which depict subordinates as individualistic, opportunistic, and self-serving. Alternatively, sociological and psychological approaches to governance such as stewardship theory depict subordinates as collectivists, pro-organizational, and trustworthy. Through this research, we attempt to reconcile the differences between these assumptions by proposing a model based upon the subordinate's psychological attributes and the organization's situational characteristics.
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TL;DR: In this article, a meta-analysis investigated the relationships between person-job (PJ), person-organization (PO), person group, and person-supervisor fit with pre-entry (applicant attraction, job acceptance, intent to hire, job offer) and postentry individual-level criteria (attitudes, performance, withdrawal behaviors, strain, tenure).
Abstract: This meta-analysis investigated the relationships between person‐job (PJ), person‐organization (PO), person‐group, and person‐supervisor fit with preentry (applicant attraction, job acceptance, intent to hire, job offer) and postentry individual-level criteria (attitudes, performance, withdrawal behaviors, strain, tenure). A search of published articles, conference presentations, dissertations, and working papers yielded 172 usable studies with 836 effect sizes. Nearly all of the credibility intervals did not include 0, indicating the broad generalizability of the relationships across situations. Various ways in which fit was conceptualized and measured, as well as issues of study design, were examined as moderators to these relationships in studies of PJ and PO fit. Interrelationships between the various types of fit are also meta-analyzed. 25 studies using polynomial regression as an analytic technique are reviewed separately, because of their unique approach to assessing fit. Broad themes emerging from the results are discussed to generate the implications for future research on fit.
4,107 citations
"Public Officials’ Gaming of Perform..." refers background in this paper
...The importance of a fit between an organization’s values and its members’ personal values is supported by the person-organization fit or personenvironment fit literature (Kristof, 1996; Kristof-Brown et al., 2005)....
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TL;DR: In this article, a comprehensive definition and conceptual model of person-organization fit that incorporates supplementary as well as complementary perspectives on fit is presented, and a distinction is made between the direct measurement of perceived fit and the indirect measurement of actual personorganisation fit, using both cross-and individual-level techniques.
Abstract: This article presents a comprehensive definition and conceptual model of person-organization fit that incorporates supplementary as well as complementary perspectives on fit. To increase the precision of the construct's definition, it is also distinguished from other forms of environmental compatibility, silch as person-group and person-vocation fit. Once defined, commensurate measurement as it relates to supplementary and complementary fit is discussed and recommendations are offered regarding the necessity of its use. A distinction is made between the direct measurement of perceived fit and the indirect measurement of actual person-organization fit, using both cross- and individual-level techniques, and the debate regarding differences scores is reviewed. These definitional and measurement issues frame a review of the existing literature, as well as provide the basis for specific research propositions and suggestions for managerial applications.
4,079 citations
"Public Officials’ Gaming of Perform..." refers background in this paper
...The importance of a fit between an organization’s values and its members’ personal values is supported by the person-organization fit or personenvironment fit literature (Kristof, 1996; Kristof-Brown et al., 2005)....
[...]
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present core components of identity theory and social identity theory, and argue that although differences exist between the two theories, they are more differences in emphasis than in kind, and that linking these two theories can establish a more fully integrated view of the self.
Abstract: In social psychology, we need to establish a general theory of the self which can attend to both macro and micro processes, and which avoids the redundancies of separate theories on different aspects of the self For this purpose, we present core components of identity theory and social identity theory and argue that although differences exist between the two theories, they are more differences in emphasis than in kind, and that linking the two theories can establish a more fully integrated view of the self The core components we examine include the different bases of identity (category/group or role) in each of the theories, identity salience and the activation of identities as discussed in the theories, and the cognitive and motivational processes that emerge from identities based on category/group and on role. By examining the self through the lens of both identity theory and social identity theory, we see how, in combination, they can move us toward a general theory of the self In contrast to Hogg and his colleagues (Hogg, Terry, and White 1995), we see substantial similarities and overlap between social identity theory and identity theory. We think that this overlap ultimately will cause these theories to be linked in fundamental ways, though we do not think that time has
3,431 citations
"Public Officials’ Gaming of Perform..." refers background in this paper
...They base their argument on the principles of identity theory (Stets & Burke, 2000; Stryker & Burke, 2000)....
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