Performance Management Research for State and Local Government: Where It Should Go Next

• Author: David N. Ammons
• Published date: 01 September 2022
• Date: 01 September 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0160323X221084751
• Subject Matter: Perspective Essay

Performance Management

Research for State and Local

Government: Where It Should

Go Next

David N. Ammons

Considerable research on performance manage-

ment at all levels of government, including state

and local, has been published in recent years.

Much of this work has attempted to describe

or explain various aspects of the performance

management phenomenon, including condi-

tions associated with adoption, the motives

and reactions of various actors, and perceptions

about success or failure. This is research about

performance management in state and local

government. A smaller set of research,

because it addresses in a utilitarian way the per-

formance management options of state and

local government practitioners, comprises the

subset of performance management research

for state and local government. Performance

management researchers could perform a great

service for state and local government if a

larger portion of their research tested the eff‌i-

cacy of performance management in the

public sector and, if eff‌icacy is conf‌irmed, iden-

tif‌ied the factors associated with its success.

Fascinating Research About

the Performance Management

Phenomenon

Research delving into the performance manage-

ment phenomenon—for instance, how widely

adopted performance management is, whether

and in what general manner managers use perfor-

mance information, what reaction performance

management brings from supervisors and fron t-

line workers, and whether and how elected

off‌icials and the public respond to perfor-

mance information—is research about perfor-

mance management. There is no shortage of

fascinating research on the performance man-

agement phenomenon.

For instance, scholars have sought clues

about why some governments engage in perfor-

mance management, adopt a particular strategic

stance, or focus primarily on internal or external

change, by examining their form of govern-

ment, size, unionization, leadership orientation,

economic condition, slack resources, and

degree of publicness (Moon and deLeon 2001;

Boyne and Walker 2004). Scholars have

sought to answer questions about why some

managers use performance information while

others do not by examining the inf‌luence of

individual and organizational characteristics,

organizational culture, prosocial values, and

transformational leadership (Moynihan and

Pandey 2010; Moynihan, Pandey and Wright

2012; Pasha et al. 2017, 726). Researchers

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill,

NC, USA

Corresponding Author:

David N. Ammons, School of Government, University of

North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB# 3330 Knapp-Sanders

Building, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3330, USA.

Email: ammons@sog.unc.edu

Perspective Essay

State and Local Government Review

2022, Vol. 54(3) 195-201

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/0160323X221084751

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