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Responsiveness to Reform Values: The Influence of the Environment on Performance Information Use
Author(s) -
Moynihan Donald P.,
Hawes Daniel P.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
public administration review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.721
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1540-6210
pISSN - 0033-3352
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6210.2012.02653.x
Subject(s) - openness to experience , accountability , stakeholder , diversity (politics) , set (abstract data type) , sample (material) , public relations , psychology , performance measurement , business , social psychology , political science , accounting , marketing , chemistry , chromatography , computer science , law , programming language
Administrative reforms encode a set of behavioral expectations for bureaucrats to follow. The authors argue that scholars can usefully contribute to understanding accountability by studying whether bureaucrats follow these expectations and what factors encourage such responsiveness to reform values. To demonstrate this approach, the authors examine performance infor‐mation use as a behavioral measure of responsiveness to results‐based reforms. Using a sample of Texas school superintendents, they find that general openness to the environment goes hand in hand with responsiveness to reform values. The authors propose that such a pattern will hold when reform values align with environmental preferences. The perceived influence of stakeholders, networking with stakeholders, and reliance on partnerships all positively predict performance information use. Environments marked by student diversity and stakeholder conflict also correlate with higher use of performance data, while capacity, less managerial experience, and a unified organizational culture correlate positively with higher reported performance information use.