TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kroll, Alexander
T1  - Explaining the Use of Performance Information by Public Managers: A Planned-Behavior Approach
JF  - The American review of public administration
N2  - This article examines the use of performance information by public managers. It reviews literature on the impact of attitudes and social norm and puts forward a psychological-cognitive model based on the theory of planned behavior. The article finds support for this model emphasizing that performance data use is a goal-directed, reasoned action. Another critical result is that managers who consciously intend to use performance data also make sure that the data in their division are of good quality which, in turn, fosters information use. These findings indicate thatin addition to organizational routinescognitive factors are promising starting points for interventions to foster managers' data use. The article is based on survey data from German cities.
KW  - performance measurement
KW  - management analysis
KW  - organizational behavior
KW  - psychology
KW  - information and communication technology
KW  - public management issues
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074013486180
SN  - 0275-0740
SN  - 1552-3357
VL  - 45
IS  - 2
SP  - 201
EP  - 215
PB  - Sage Publ.
CY  - Thousand Oaks
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ebinger, Falk
A1  - Richter, Philipp
T1  - Decentralizing for performance? A quantitative assessment of functional reforms in the German Lander
JF  - International review of administrative sciences : an international journal of comparative public administration
N2  - In the last 10 years, the governments of most of the German Länder initiated administrative reforms. All of these ventures included the municipalization of substantial sets of tasks. As elsewhere, governments argue that service delivery by communes is more cost-efficient, effective and responsive. Empirical evidence to back these claims is inconsistent at best: a considerable number of case studies cast doubt on unconditionally positive appraisals. Decentralization effects seem to vary depending on the performance dimension and task considered. However, questions of generalizability arise as these findings have not yet been backed by more ‘objective’ archival data. We provide empirical evidence on decentralization effects for two different policy fields based on two studies. Thereby, the article presents alternative avenues for research on decentralization effects and matches the theoretical expectations on decentralization effects with more robust results. The analysis confirms that overly positive assertions concerning decentralization effects are only partially warranted. As previous case studies suggested, effects have to be looked at in a much more differentiated way, including starting conditions and distinguishing between the various relevant performance dimensions and policy fields.
KW  - decentralization
KW  - de-concentration
KW  - federalism
KW  - local government
KW  - performance measurement
KW  - public service delivery
KW  - social and environmental administration
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852315586916
SN  - 0020-8523
SN  - 1461-7226
VL  - 82
SP  - 291
EP  - 314
PB  - Sage Publ.
CY  - London
ER  -