LEARNING FROM PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK: PERFORMANCE INFORMATION, ASPIRATION LEVELS, AND MANAGERIAL PRIORITIES

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Nielsen, Poul Aaes
• 署名单位: Aarhus University
• 刊物名称: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-3298
• DOI: 10.1111/padm.12050
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 142-160
• 关键词: Public management; organizational performance; private management; behavioral-model; goal ambiguity; CONFLICT; english; targets

摘要

While performance management is increasingly widespread, we still know little about how performance information generates learning and affects organizational responses. Recent work on performance information and learning in private business organizations, however, suggests that perceived negative performance triggers important strategic responses related to problem identification, search, and change. In turn, how performance is perceived depends on whether performance falls short of aspiration levels that are based on an organization's historical performance and the performance of peer organizations. This article adapts this model to a public sector context and tests one implication of the model, namely that public managers will increase their prioritization of goals that are currently performing below aspirations. This question is central to the study of public organizations pursuing multiple and democratically contested goals. Empirical findings based on administrative performance data and a survey of Danish school principals support this prediction.