Use of performance information by local politicians: a field study in the Portuguese context

• Autor(a) principal: Gomes, Patrícia
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Fernandes, Maria José, Carvalho, João B.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Revista de Administração Pública
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.fgv.br/rap/article/view/72838
• topic: performance information; politicians; institutional theory; organizational responses; Portuguese context.; información de desempeño; políticos; teoría institucional; respuestas organizacionales; contexto portugués.; informação de desempenho; políticos; teoria institucional; respostas organizacionais; contexto português.

This article presents a qualitative study that aims to investigate whether and how local politicians use perfor­mance information to evaluate top managers’ performance. The main goal is to contribute to knowledge on performance management in the political sphere. Based on semi-structured interviews, findings show that the organi­zational climate determines the willingness to use information. There is an internal culture embedded in public agencies, like municipalities, that lead politicians to be more or less concerned about the use of performance information. The study shows that politicians are more likely to adopt the ‘implicit’ and the ‘operations-conscious’ styles rather than the ‘output-constrained’ and the ‘outcome-conscious’ styles. In general, politicians failed to implement a culture focused on the use of performance information. The institutional approach helps to identify political responses to institutional pressures and understand the reasons for a reduced use of information in the Portuguese context.