Making Sense of Performance Regimes: Rebalancing External Accountability and Internal Learning

Abstract

This is the post print version of Mads Leth Felsager Jakobsen, Martin Baekgaard, Donald P. Moynihan and Nina Van Loon (forthcoming): "Making sense of Performance Regimes: Rebalancing External Accountability and Internal Learning", Perspectives on Public Management and Governance.

Combining ideal types of performance and performance regimes

“…Performance regimes refer to specific combinations of external actors with the opportunity to steer the expected performance of public sector service delivery units (Talbot, 2008). Jakobsen et al (2017) propose a conceptualization of performance regimes in public organizations where external actors are political and managerial superiors that use external goal setting and incentives. Starting from a critical review of the features of an external accountability (EA) regime, Jakobsen et al introduce some contextual and individual variables in order to enrich the model and challenge the traditional regime for public administrations.…”

“…For each section, a set of three to four questions was outlined. Following Krippendorff (2012), a content analysis was performed on interview transcripts in order to highlight, for each section of the protocol, the key features of measurement, incorporation, use (Bouckaert and Halligan, 2007), goal autonomy, incentives and rationale for improvement ( Jakobsen et al, 2017).…”

“…(Organization and Human Resources DG) However, the Welfare and Health DG emerged as an example of IL regime, where incentives are less externally driven and more aimed at norms, values and peer status. The profile of the DG is characterized by the extensive involvement of professionals in interpreting the goals set by the political and top management levels, and is in line with the contemporary dominant regime in welfare and healthcare policies ( Jakobsen et al, 2017), which entails managing high task complexity and supporting autonomous motivation.…”

“…In order to make available for consultation by the stakeholders the progress of this specific project, twice a month we provide short reports on a dedicated website. (Labour DG) Rationale for improvement When considering the "doctrinal beliefs for how organizations improve" results ( Jakobsen et al, 2017, p. 7), most DGs reflect a "controlled motivation-driven" learning process ( Jakobsen et al, 2017) that can be linked to the EA regime. This is based on the assumption that improvement occurs when external actors set the right incentives for the organization, the organizational learning process is fed by monitoring the level of goal achievement without exploring the underlying drivers.…”

“…The paper explores how the characteristics of PMSs vary within and across different organizational units in common institutional context, based on the case of a regional authority in Italy. Design/methodology/approach -A framework of analysis considering both objective and subjective factors was derived from a combination of performance typologies in the public sector, namely ideal types of managing performance (Bouckaert and Halligan, 2007) and performance regimes ( Jakobsen et al, 2017). The combination of the characteristics of these two models across different Directorates General (DGs) has also been explored through a nested case study (Starman, 2013).…”