Compared to What? How Social and Historical Reference Points Affect Citizens’ Performance Evaluations

Olsen, Asmus Leth

doi:10.1093/jopart/mux023

Cited by 110 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…For ease of comparison across municipalities, we calculate municipality‐level percentage deviations from the national average. Similar measures of relative performance have been used in comparable contexts by, for instance, Charbonneau and Van Ryzin (), Nielsen and Baekgaard (), Barrows et al (), Olsen (), and Nielsen and Moynihan (). These percentage deviations are measured as MD k = [( M k – 50) * 100]/50, ED k = [( E k – 50) * 100]/50, and RD k = [( R k – 50) * 100]/50 (where M k , E k , and D k reflect the average scores for the three test subjects across all pupils in municipality k ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Never Change a Winning Policy? Public Sector Performance and Politicians' Preferences for Reforms

Geys

Sørensen

2017

Public Administration Review

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Despite the increasing stress on performance in public sector organizations, there is still little empirical evidence on whether—and if so, how—politicians respond to performance information. This article addresses this research gap by linking registry statistics on school performance in Norway's 428 municipalities with data from an information experiment embedded in a survey of local politicians. Findings show that school performance bears only a weak relationship to politicians' preferences for resource‐related reforms, but it strongly affects preferences for governance‐related reforms, indicating the importance of accounting for heterogeneity across alternative types of (school) reforms. Moreover, local politicians are, on average, well informed about school performance. This reflects the force of local inhabitants' high information level on politicians' accountability.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Never Change a Winning Policy? Public Sector Performance and Politicians' Preferences for Reforms

Geys

Sørensen

2017

Public Administration Review

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“…This line of research has focused on social (comparisons to similar organizations) and historical (comparisons to past performance) aspiration levels (see Shinkle for a review). These two types of aspiration levels have also characterized research in the public sector (Salge ; Nielsen ; Rutherford and Meier ; Olsen ). While there are generic traits shared by the private and public sectors, which makes this application relevant (see Cyert and March , p. 198), one important difference between the two sectors should be taken into consideration to fully understand how aspiration levels influence decision‐making in the public sector.…”

Section: The Comparative Nature Of Evaluationsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Double standards? How historical and political aspiration levels guide managerial performance information use

Holm

2017

Public Administration

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Performance evaluations are a vital part of how public managers react to performance information. Yet, we know little about the way evaluations unfold and the reactions they produce. This article examines the idea that historical and political aspiration levels guide evaluations by labelling performance results as either a failure or success. Thus, the same result could lead to different evaluations and reactions depending on the aspiration level. The study also tests the idea that a negativity bias characterizes managers' reactions to political performance feedback. A survey experiment among a sample of principals in Danish public schools is used to examine these hypotheses. The results show that aspiration levels change principals' interpretation and reaction to otherwise identical performance results, but primarily in situations with positive historical and political feedback. Conflicting feedback from two aspiration levels makes principals rely mostly on the signals from the historical aspiration level.

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“…In the study of performance information, the negativity bias implies that citizens are asymmetrical in their responses to good and bad performance, reacting mostly to the latter. The bias has found some support in observational studies (James and John ; Boyne et al ) and in experimental studies (James ; Olsen ). As James has argued, “More investigation of possible difference in magnitude of effect between information about good and bad performance is merited” (2011b, 414).…”

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confidence: 99%

Citizen (Dis)satisfaction: An Experimental Equivalence Framing Study

Olsen

2015

Public Administration Review

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Th is article introduces the importance of equivalence framing for understanding how satisfaction measures aff ect citizens' evaluation of public services. Does a 90 percent satisfaction rate have a diff erent eff ect than a logically equivalent 10 percent dissatisfaction rate? Two experiments were conducted on citizens' evaluations of hospital services in a large, nationally representative sample of Danish citizens. Both experiments found that exposing citizens to a patient dissatisfaction measure led to more negative views of public service than exposing them to a logically equivalent satisfaction metric. Th ere is some support for part of the shift in evaluations being caused by a negativity bias: dissatisfaction has a larger negative impact than satisfaction has a positive impact. Both professional experience at a hospital and prior exposure to satisfaction rates reduced the negative response to dissatisfaction rates. Th e results call for further study of equivalence framing of performance information. Practitioner Points• Th e valence (positive/negative) of performance information can have substantial eff ects on citizens' perception of public services-even if the underlying performance is exactly the same. • Presenting citizens with a dissatisfaction rate of 10 percent induces a much more negative evaluation of public services than presenting them with a logically equivalent satisfaction rate of 90 percent. • Policy makers must carefully consider how minor equivalent changes in the presentation of performance information can induce large shifts in citizens' perceptions of public service performance.

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Compared to What? How Social and Historical Reference Points Affect Citizens’ Performance Evaluations

Cited by 110 publications

References 69 publications

Never Change a Winning Policy? Public Sector Performance and Politicians' Preferences for Reforms

Never Change a Winning Policy? Public Sector Performance and Politicians' Preferences for Reforms

Double standards? How historical and political aspiration levels guide managerial performance information use

Citizen (Dis)satisfaction: An Experimental Equivalence Framing Study

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