Use of performance information by local politicians: a field study in the Portuguese context

There is an internal culture embedded in public agencies, like municipalities, that lead politicians to be more or less concerned about the use of performance information. In this paper we find that politicians have a greater orientation towards the ‘implicit’ and the ‘operations-conscious’ styles rather than to the ‘output-constrained’ and the ‘outcome-conscious’ styles. In general, politicians failed to implement a culture focused on the use of performance information.

The institutional approach helps us to identify political responses to institutional pressures and understand the reasons for a reduced use in the Portuguese context.