IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/gro/rugsom/00a11.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Politicians, output-budgets and performance evaluation : case research in three Dutch municipalities

Author

Listed:
  • Bogt, H.J. ter

    (Groningen University)

Abstract

Since the mid-eighties many Dutch municipalities have divided their organizations into decentralized units. In addition, most municipalities have introduced management instruments derived from the private sector, and have been paying more attention to the outputs of the organizations. Nowadays, the political administration of a municipality says that it wants to hold organization units accountable for realized output performance. This paper raises the question of whether politicians use the available quantitative output information to control their organization and in particular to evaluate the performance of top officials. In the paper the Hopwood evaluation-styles, which originally refer to the private sector, are further developed for the public sector. Exploratory field research concerning the use of output data and the evaluation styles used has been conducted in three Dutch municipalities. The aldermen in these municipalities paid much attention to manager’s activities and the organization’s operations and relatively little to outputs. Based on these empirical findings the paper introduces an additional evaluation style, the ’operations-conscious’ style. In this style of evaluation, quantitative outputs play some part, but the main question is whether a manager acts as a good ’facilitator’, i.e. ensures that his organization is functioning well. This aspect is mainly judged in a qualitative way. Besides, important criteria are the way in which a manager deals with short-term problems and with the politician’s opinions and personal wishes.

Suggested Citation

  • Bogt, H.J. ter, 2000. "Politicians, output-budgets and performance evaluation : case research in three Dutch municipalities," Research Report 00A11, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    • Handle: RePEc:gro:rugsom:00a11
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://irs.ub.rug.nl/ppn/240429745
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Govindarajan, V., 1984. "Appropriateness of accounting data in performance evaluation: An empirical examination of environmental uncertainty as an intervening variable," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 125-135, June.
    2. Gelderman, Maarten, 1998. "Usage of performance measurement and evaluation systems : the impact of evaluator characteristics," Serie Research Memoranda 0017, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    3. Hopwood, Ag, 1972. "Empirical Study Of Role Of Accounting Data In Performance Evaluation," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10, pages 156-182.
    4. William G. Ouchi, 1979. "A Conceptual Framework for the Design of Organizational Control Mechanisms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(9), pages 833-848, September.
    5. Brownell, Peter, 1983. "Leadership style, budgetary participation and managerial behavior," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 307-321, October.
    6. Birnberg, Jacob G. & Turopolec, Lawrence & Young, S. Mark, 1983. "The organizational context of accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 8(2-3), pages 111-129, May.
    7. Bolnick, B.R., 1999. "The Role of Financial Programming in Macroeconomic Policy Management," Papers 720, Harvard - Institute for International Development.
    8. Hofstede, Geert, 1981. "Management control of public and not-for-profit activities," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 193-211, July.
    9. Hopwood, Ag, 1972. "Empirical Study Of Role Of Accounting Data In Performance Evaluation - Reply," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10, pages 189-193.
    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. repec:dgr:rugsom:00a11 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Henk Ter Bogt, 2001. "Politicians and output-oriented performance evaluation in municipalities," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 621-643.
    3. Chenhall, Robert H., 2003. "Management control systems design within its organizational context: findings from contingency-based research and directions for the future," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(2-3), pages 127-168.
    4. Parulian Silaen & Robert Williams, 2009. "Management control systems: a model for R&D units," Accounting Research Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(3), pages 262-274, November.
    5. Chapman, Christopher S., 1997. "Reflections on a contingent view of accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 189-205, February.
    6. Hartmann, Frank G. H., 2000. "The appropriateness of RAPM: toward the further development of theory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 25(4-5), pages 451-482, May.
    7. Fasshauer, Ingrid, 2012. "Les interactions entre contrôle et stratégie : redéfinition du rôle des cadres intermédiaires et du levier interactif de contrôle," Economics Thesis from University Paris Dauphine, Paris Dauphine University, number 123456789/11150 edited by Berland, Nicolas.
    8. Littkemann, Jörn, 1997. "Erfolgreiche Gestaltung unternehmensinterner Abrechnungssysteme," Manuskripte aus den Instituten für Betriebswirtschaftslehre der Universität Kiel 436, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre.
    9. Luft, Joan & Shields, Michael D., 2003. "Mapping management accounting: graphics and guidelines for theory-consistent empirical research," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(2-3), pages 169-249.
    10. Morgan, Neil A. & Clark, Bruce H. & Gooner, Rich, 2002. "Marketing productivity, marketing audits, and systems for marketing performance assessment: integrating multiple perspectives," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(5), pages 363-375, May.
    11. Klaus Derfuss, 2015. "Relating Context Variables to Participative Budgeting and Evaluative Use of Performance Measures: A Meta-analysis," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 51(2), pages 238-278, June.
    12. Chong Lau & Christen Buckland, 2000. "Budget emphasis, participation, task difficulty and performance: the effect of diversity within culture," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 37-55.
    13. Marco Giovanni Rizzo, 2014. "La relazione tra il livello di coinvolgimento nel processo di budget, il commitment verso gli obiettivi, la soddisfazione lavorativa e i relativi risvolti sulla performance manageriale. I risultati di," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2014(1), pages 9-34.
    14. Hartmann, Frank G. H. & Moers, Frank, 1999. "Testing contingency hypotheses in budgetary research: an evaluation of the use of moderated regression analysis," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 291-315, May.
    15. Bhimani, Alnoor & Sivabalan, Prabhu & Soonawalla, Kazbi, 2018. "A study of the linkages between rolling budget forms, uncertainty and strategy," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 306-323.
    16. Marginson, David & Ogden, Stuart, 2005. "Coping with ambiguity through the budget: the positive effects of budgetary targets on managers' budgeting behaviours," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 435-456, July.
    17. Vagneur, K. & Peiperl, M., 2000. "Reconsidering performance evaluative style," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 25(4-5), pages 511-525, May.
    18. Rustam Effendi, 2017. "Influence on Local Government Performance: Budget Participatory, Budget Control and Organizational Structure Working Procedures of Dysfunctional Behavior," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3A), pages 580-593.
    19. Noeverman, J., 2010. "Within- and Between-group Agreement in Supervisor’s Evaluative Behaviours: Do evaluative ‘styles’ exist?," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2010-002-F&A, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    20. Granlund, Markus & Lukka, Kari, 2017. "Investigating highly established research paradigms: Reviving contextuality in contingency theory based management accounting research," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 63-80.
    21. repec:dau:papers:123456789/1138 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Sarah A. Hinchliffe, 2019. "A Focus on ‘Control’: Reconciling Contemporary Transaction Cost Economics with Behavioural Contingency Accounting Perspectives," Accounting and Finance Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 8(2), pages 189-189, May.

    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:gro:rugsom:00a11. 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: Hanneke Tamling (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ferugnl.html .

    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.