Performance measurement and evaluation in arts management

Abstract

This study analyzes the performance measurement and evaluation literature in (nonprofit) arts management by conducting a meta-synthesis, which is both a process and a product of explorative scientific enquiry. Meta-syntheses go beyond the well-known procedure of literature reviews, often used to summarize the current state of knowledge in a particular field, in that they produce formal integrations that offer novel understandings of the reviewed literature. This article presents, in the results section, the consolidated understandings under four thought-provoking titles: First, 'Third time's a charm?' describes the development phases identified in the body of performance measurement and evaluation literature. Second, 'A paradigm on the move?' refers to the dominance of the positivist research tradition and signals the quest for alternative approaches. Third, 'Pride and Prejudice' illustrates that the international literature tends to emphasize the benefits and learnings of performance measurement and evaluation practices (pride) while a rather prejudicial attitude is observed among the German-written literature. Fourth, 'Good Cop, Bad Cop' takes the debate to a higher level by thematizing the interplay between arts management research and cultural policy. The conclusion discusses the four titles through the lens of system theoretical discourse.

Balancing perspectives on performance: “Measurement from the inside” and “measurement from the outside”

“…The main difference between the two perspectives is the level of appreciation of the performance measurement context (Chiaravalloti & Piber, 2011; Gilhespy, 1999; Labaronne, 2017). Internal stakeholders are directly involved in the research setting and are able to interpret their performance in light of the “context,” while the needs of external stakeholders often necessitate stripping away the idiosyncrasies of the particular organization studied, and consequently, collecting data which are considered to be “context‐free.”…”

“…Our case study arts organizations are located within an Anglo‐Saxon country and are funded primarily by government subsidies; thus, they may be more predisposed to interact positively with external demands for evaluation. Arts organizations in non‐Anglo‐Saxon countries may be prejudiced against performance measurement practices (Labaronne, 2017). Consequently, our findings may not be generalizable to non‐Anglo‐Saxon countries or countries with different funding systems for arts organizations and should be interpreted with caution.…”

“…Arts organizations often struggle with external pressures due to limited capacity and performance measurement resources (Abdullah et al, 2018). We account for different contexts to gain a view of the different practices between arts organizations with varying levels of capacity and resources and explore how these factors might contribute to the extent to which they engage in performance measurement practices (Carman, 2009; Labaronne, 2017). Evered and Louis (1981, p. 390) define “context” as the complex fabric of local culture, people, resources, purposes, earlier events, and future expectations that constitute the time‐and‐space background of a specific situation.…”

A Resource-Oriented Approach to Performing Arts Organizations: An Ethnographic Study of Dance Companies

“…In the past decades, the arts management literature has proposed numerous approaches for evaluating artistic achievement in the creative industries (Hadida 2015) and, more specifically, the nonprofit arts (Labaronne 2017). These efforts, however, have not remained uncontested (e.g., Zembylas 2017; Chiaravalloti 2014;Chiaravalloti and Piber 2011;Gstraunthaler and Piber 2012;Belfiore and Bennett 2010;Turbide and Laurin 2009).…”

“…Rather than looking for measurable results and proof of impact, resources would be better spent trying to understand the arts themselves (Belfiore and Bennett 2007) and exploring ways to more responsibly represent them in the policy discourse (DeVereaux 2017). The need is for in-depth studies that, by considering the context-related uniqueness of artistic activities and the organizational settings in which they are embedded (Becker 1982), can offer greater insight into artistic achievement (Labaronne 2017). This ethnographic study explores organizational practices of large dance companies in Europe.…”