IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rrpaxx/v13y2009i3p17-34.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Improving Performance: Does Performance-Oriented Management Really Matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Jung Wook Lee
  • Yoon Jik Cho
  • Seok Eun Kim

Abstract

The last two decades have witnessed the emergence of “performance-oriented management” (POM) as a major approach to public management reform in the United States. POM refers to management practices that share a common assumption that effective goal setting, and proper design and implementation of performance management systems are the key to high performance. Despite the prominence of POM in the practice of public management today, very little large-N empirical research has investigated the effectiveness of POM as a management reform strategy. This study seeks to fill this void by drawing on the Merit Principles Survey 2000 data to test whether POM actually ensures the results envisioned by its advocates. The regression results show that the two core elements of POM goal setting, and performance management design and implementation are positively associated with performance dimensions such as productivity and quality of work, providing support for the idea that POM can be a performance driver in governmental settings. This study also examines whether the effect of POM is mitigated by the presence of intensive external political influences as POM skeptics suggest. The results are mixed: the effect of goal setting on performance was found to be smaller in federal agencies with high political salience than in federal agencies with low political salience; on the other hand, the effect of performance management design and implementation was not significantly different across the two groups. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the issue of administrative reform and the research on governmental performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Jung Wook Lee & Yoon Jik Cho & Seok Eun Kim, 2009. "Improving Performance: Does Performance-Oriented Management Really Matter?," International Review of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 17-34, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rrpaxx:v:13:y:2009:i:3:p:17-34
    DOI: 10.1080/12294659.2009.10805128
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/12294659.2009.10805128
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/12294659.2009.10805128?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin Hoegl & Hans Georg Gemuenden, 2001. "Teamwork Quality and the Success of Innovative Projects: A Theoretical Concept and Empirical Evidence," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(4), pages 435-449, August.
    2. Manuel Becerra & Anil K. Gupta, 2003. "Perceived Trustworthiness Within the Organization: The Moderating Impact of Communication Frequency on Trustor and Trustee Effects," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(1), pages 32-44, February.
    3. Kenneth J. Meier, 2008. "The Scientific Study of Public Administration: A Short Essay on the State of the Field," International Review of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mark Mortensen & Tsedal B. Neeley, 2012. "Reflected Knowledge and Trust in Global Collaboration," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(12), pages 2207-2224, December.
    2. Englmaier, Florian & Grimm, Stefan & Schindler, David & Schudy, Simeon, 2018. "The Effect of Incentives in Non-Routine Analytical Team Tasks – Evidence from a Field Experiment," VfS Annual Conference 2017 (Vienna): Alternative Structures for Money and Banking 168286, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    3. Proserpio, Luigi & Magni, Massimo, 2012. "Teaching without the teacher? Building a learning environment through computer simulations," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 99-105.
    4. Amélie Thery & Michel Verstraeten, 2018. "Highlighting the Relations between Interaction Types in Meetings and Group Performance," Working Papers CEB 18-011, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    5. Seongkyoon Jeong & Jae Young Choi, 2012. "The taxonomy of research collaboration in science and technology: evidence from mechanical research through probabilistic clustering analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(3), pages 719-735, June.
    6. Peerasit Patanakul & Zvi Aronson, 2012. "Managing a Group of Multiple Projects: Do Culture and Leader’s Competencies Matter?," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 3(2), pages 217-232, June.
    7. Blindenbach-Driessen, Floortje & van den Ende, Jan, 2006. "Innovation in project-based firms: The context dependency of success factors," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 545-561, May.
    8. Vesa Peltokorpi & Fabian Jintae Froese & B. Sebastian Reiche & Sebastian Klar, 2022. "Reverse Knowledge Flows: How and When Do Preparation and Reintegration Facilitate Repatriate Knowledge Transfer?," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(7), pages 1869-1893, November.
    9. Bart A. De Jong & Katinka M. Bijlsma-Frankema & Laura B. Cardinal, 2014. "Stronger Than the Sum of Its Parts? The Performance Implications of Peer Control Combinations in Teams," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(6), pages 1703-1721, December.
    10. Youkyung Ko & Hwaneui Lee & Sunghyup Sean Hyun, 2021. "Airline Cabin Crew Team System’s Positive Evaluation Factors and Their Impact on Personal Health and Team Potency," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-20, October.
    11. Monika Tkacz & Izaskun Agirre-Aramburu & Aitor Lizartza-Martin, 2023. "Is Team Entrepreneurial Orientation important in generating creative business ideas? The moderating role of team-perceived heterogeneity and the individual creative mindset," Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation, Fundacja Upowszechniająca Wiedzę i Naukę "Cognitione", vol. 19(1), pages 79-111.
    12. Wang, Liwen & Zhao, Jane Zheng & Zhou, Kevin Zheng, 2018. "How do incentives motivate absorptive capacity development? The mediating role of employee learning and relational contingencies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 226-237.
    13. Daniel Tzabbar & Alex Vestal, 2015. "Bridging the Social Chasm in Geographically Distributed R&D Teams: The Moderating Effects of Relational Strength and Status Asymmetry on the Novelty of Team Innovation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(3), pages 811-829, June.
    14. Edoardo Mollona & Andrea Marcozzi, 2009. "FirmNet: the scope of firms and the allocation of task in a knowledge-based economy," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 109-126, June.
    15. Maqbool, Rashid, 2018. "Efficiency and effectiveness of factors affecting renewable energy projects; an empirical perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 944-956.
    16. Shoeb Ahmed Memon & Steve Rowlinson & Riza Yosia Sunindijo & Hafiz Zahoor, 2021. "Collaborative Behavior in Relational Contracting Projects in Hong Kong—A Contractor’s Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-15, May.
    17. Horn, Philipp & Scheffler, Paul & Schiele, Holger, 2014. "Internal integration as a pre-condition for external integration in global sourcing: A social capital perspective," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 54-65.
    18. Li, Chia-Ying & Zhang, Jin-Ting, 2023. "Chatbots or me? Consumers’ switching between human agents and conversational agents," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    19. Haberstroh, Martin & Wolf, Joachim, 2005. "Individuelle Autonomie in Projektteams," Manuskripte aus den Instituten für Betriebswirtschaftslehre der Universität Kiel 585, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre.
    20. E. N. Bridwell-Mitchell & Theresa K. Lant, 2014. "Be Careful What You Wish For: The Effects of Issue Interpretation on Social Choices in Professional Networks," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(2), pages 401-419, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rrpaxx:v:13:y:2009:i:3:p:17-34. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RRPA20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.