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PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT IN SPANISH LOCAL GOVERNMENTS. A CROSS‐CASE COMPARISON STUDY
Author(s) -
TORRES LOURDES,
PINA VICENTE,
YETANO ANA
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.313
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-9299
pISSN - 0033-3298
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9299.2011.01919.x
Subject(s) - local government , context (archaeology) , performance measurement , government (linguistics) , value (mathematics) , top down and bottom up design , business , environmental economics , process management , computer science , political science , public administration , economics , marketing , geography , linguistics , philosophy , software engineering , archaeology , machine learning
This paper explores local government in Spain: the nature of and extent to which performance measures are developed and how they are used in some of the biggest Spanish local governments. The features of performance measurement in Spain raise the question of why non‐mandatory performance indicators are introduced and why specific initiatives are undertaken. A cross‐theory strategy allows us to build a wider explanation of the cases studied. This study shows that performance measurement systems are not neutral but conditioned by the environmental context of each local government to fit into its organizational structure. Spanish local governments are experimenting with different approaches – centralized/decentralized, top‐down/bottom‐up, internal/external use – to implement performance measures. A relationship between external use and the top‐down approach, and internal use and the bottom‐up approach can be found. Our results also show that the institutional image value of taking decisions under rational decision‐making models is the primary driver of implementation processes.