Does Managerial Use of Performance Information Matter to Organizational Outcomes?

Abstract

Public management scholars have made impressive strides in explaining managerial usage of performance information (PI). Does such PI use matter to performance? If so, what types of use make a difference? To answer these questions, we connect managerial self-reported behavior with objective organizational outcomes in Texas schools. We control for lagged comparative school performance and employ inverse probability weighting to mitigate endogeneity concerns. The results show that managerial use of PI is associated with objective indicators of performance, and that the type of use matters. In particular, school principals’ use of PI for strategic planning is positively associated with better high-stakes test scores. The findings suggest that maturity of performance management system can shape the relationship between managerial PI use and organizational performance, thereby contributing to a contingency-based understanding of the relationship between performance management and organizational performance.