Testing How Management Matters in an Era of Government by Performance Management

TLDR: Moynihan et al. as mentioned in this paper found that the support of elected officials and the influence of the public and media have a positive impact on organizational effectiveness, while the ability to create a developmental organizational culture, establish a focus on results through goal clarity, and decentralize decision-making authority are all positively associated with organizational effectiveness.

Abstract: Public administration finds itself in an era of government by performance management, which is reflected in the widespread assumption that management is a key determinant of performance, and that it is reasonable to expect managers to measurably improve organizational effectiveness. This article joins a growing literature in seeking to conceptualize and empirically test how external environmental influences and internal management factors combine to create performance, relying on data from the 2002–2003 National Administrative Studies Project (NASP-II) survey of state government health and human services officials. We categorize managerial efforts to facilitate organizational performance as determined either through their interactions with the organizational environment, or through employing workable levers to change internal organizational culture, structure, and technology. Among the external environmental variables we find that the support of elected officials and the influence of the public and media have a positive impact on effectiveness. Among internal management choices, the ability to create a developmental organizational culture, establish a focus on results through goal clarity, and decentralize decision-making authority are all positively associated with organizational effectiveness. AN ERA OF GOVERNMENT BY PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT Frederick Mosher’s Democracy and the Public Service (1982) characterizes the history of public administration in the United States as falling into different eras. He portrays the twentieth century as dominated by two phases: government by the efficient (1906–1937), This is a revised version of a paper originally presented at the National Public Management Research Conference, October 9–11, 2003, at Georgetown University. The authors would like to thank Pamela Herd, Patrick Wolf, and three anonymous reviewers for insightful suggestions on revising the article. Data analyzed in this article were collected under the auspices of the National Administrative Studies Project (NASP-II), a project supported in part by the Forum for Policy Research and Public Service at Rutgers University and under a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the Center for State Health Policy, also at Rutgers University. Naturally, this support does not necessarily imply an endorsement of analyses and opinions in the article. Address correspondence to Donald P. Moynihan at dmoynihan@bushschool.tamu.edu. doi:10.1093/jopart/mui016 Advance Access publication on December 16, 2004 Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Vol. 15, no. 3 a 2005 Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Inc.; all rights reserved. JPART 15:421–439