Accountability, environmental uncertainty and government performance: evidence from Dutch municipalities

Abstract This paper examines the call from NPM to place more emphasis on measuring the performance of subunits and holding managers accountable for results. Following a contingency-approach, it is expected that holding managers accountable for results will only lead to improved performance if certain conditions are fulfilled. The data was collected from a series of semi-structured interviews with 19 managers of Dutch municipalities and four experts. The results show that instead of output indicators, throughput indicators are used for holding managers accountable. Managers do not consider environmental uncertainty (including uncertainties from the political environment) as an impediment to implementing accountable management. It appears that the attitude of municipal managers towards accountability and towards uncertainty depends to a large extent on the way accounting information is used. Especially organizational conditions, such as the attitude of superiors, a results-oriented organizational climate and the creation of a ‘game spirit’, seem to improve government performance.

[1]  C. Ittner,et al.  The influence of funding source and legislative requirements on government cost accounting practices , 1996 .

[2]  Kenneth A. Merchant,et al.  The effects of financial controls on data manipulation and management Myopia , 1990 .

[3]  Robert Newton Anthony,et al.  Management Control in Nonprofit Organizations , 1975 .

[4]  T. Bogt.  Performance evaluation styles in governmental organizations: How do professional managers facilitate politicians’ work? , 2003 .

[5]  G. Hofstede.  Management Control of Public and Not-for-Profit Activities , 1981 .

[6]  Avinash Dixit,et al.  Power of Incentives in Private versus Public Organizations , 1997 .

[7]  A. Strauss,et al.  The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research aldine de gruyter , 1968 .

[8]  D. Otley.  BUDGET USE AND MANAGERIAL PERFORMANCE , 1978 .

[9]  Frances J. Milliken.  Three Types of Perceived Uncertainty About the Environment: State, Effect, and Response Uncertainty , 1987 .

[10]  Christopher Pollitt,et al.  Managerialism and the Public Services: The Anglo-American Experience , 1990 .

[11]  Neal Schmitt,et al.  Human resource practices, organizational climate, and customer satisfaction , 2001 .

[12]  Roderic J. Gray,et al.  Organisational climate and project success , 2001 .

[13]  M. Hirst.  RELIANCE ON ACCOUNTING PERFORMANCE-MEASURES, TASK UNCERTAINTY, AND DYSFUNCTIONAL BEHAVIOR - SOME EXTENSIONS , 1983 .

[14]  E. Jansen,et al.  New public management in Dutch local government , 2003 .

[15]  W. Ouchi.  A Conceptual Framework for the Design of Organizational Control Mechanisms , 1979 .

[16]  G. Hofstede.  The Poverty of Management Control Philosophy , 1978 .

[17]  A. Hopwood.  An Empirical Study of the Role of Accounting Data in Performance Evaluation , 1972 .

[18]  H. T. Bogt.  Politicians and output-oriented performance evaluation in municipalities , 2001 .

[19]  Alan S. Dunk,et al.  TASK UNCERTAINTY AND ITS INTERACTION WITH BUDGETARY PARTICIPATION AND BUDGET EMPHASIS: SOME... , 1991 .

[20]  Jan-Erik Lane,et al.  New Public Management , 2021, Bangladesh Journal of Public Administration.

[21]  T. Groot,et al.  Budgetary Reforms in the Non‐profit Sector: A Comparative Analysis of Experiences in Health Care and Higher Education in the Netherlands , 1999 .

[22]  D. Larcker,et al.  Competition, efficiency, and cost allocation in government agencies: Evidence on the Federal Reserve System , 1998 .

[23]  V. Govindarajan.  Appropriateness of accounting data in performance evaluation: An empirical examination of environmental uncertainty as an intervening variable☆ , 1984 .

[24]  Sven Modell,et al.  Decentralization and Reliance on the Controllability Principle in the Public Sector , 2000 .

[25]  G. Hofstede.  The game of budget control , 1972 .

[26]  Frank G. H. Hartmann,et al.  The appropriateness of RAPM: Toward the further development of theory , 2000 .

[27]  Aaron Buchko,et al.  Conceptualization and Measurement of Environmental Uncertainty: An Assessment of the Miles and Snow Perceived Environmental Uncertainty Scale , 1994 .

[28]  Anne M. Lillis,et al.  A framework for the analysis of interview data from multiple field research sites , 1999 .

[29]  Geert Bouckaert,et al.  Public Management Reform: A Comparative Analysis , 2004 .

[30]  C. Hood.  The “new public management” in the 1980s: Variations on a theme , 1995 .

[31]  G. Jan van Helden,et al.  Accounting change in Dutch government: Exploring the gap between expectations and realizations☆ , 2000 .

[32]  Christopher D. Ittner,et al.  Implementing Performance Measurement Innovations: Evidence from Government , 2004 .

[33]  Irvine Lapsley,et al.  Accounting and the New Public Management: Instruments of Substantive Efficiency or a Rationalising Modernity? , 1999 .

[34]  T. Groot,et al.  The Influence of New Public Management Practices on Product Costing and Service Pricing Decisions in Dutch Municipalities , 2004 .