Understanding Heterogeneous Effects of Performance Management: An Application of Kroll’s Contingency Approach to Educational Accountability

Performance Management (PM) systems are intended to inform managerial decision-making, driving performance improvements through managerial reforms. Despite the prevalence of these systems, they were implemented with little evidence of the assumed relationship between PM and organizational performance. Since 2010, a literature on this relationship has developed, but it is heterogeneous and inconclusive. This review develops a theoretical framework of heterogeneous PM effects adapted from Kroll (2015, Public Performance & Management Review, 39, 7–32) and assesses it for consistency with empirical evidence from three cases of educational accountability reforms. This framework assumes that effects of PM systems are driven by the effectiveness of an organization’s managerial response, which is determined by adopting one of three strategies: prospecting, reacting, or gaming. The cases demonstrate that organizational strategy, as inferred from managerial response, predicts performance under accountability. This raises questions about how to predict managerial response, suggesting that managerial autonomy plays an important role.