Managing Performance and Strategy: Managerial Practices in German Local Governments

Abstract

By analyzing how public administrations in a rule-of-law oriented, continental European federal government system adopted managerial practices on a voluntary basis, this article contributes to the knowledge about actual managerial practices in public administration. Its main research question is about what local governments in Germany do when they claim to have implemented managerial practices. For ten municipalities which have been identified as good practices, actual managerial practices are characterized and analyzed based on a model using established theoretical concepts of performance management and strategic management. Data stem from systematic reviews of strategy documents and budget plans as well as additional interviews. It can be shown that these municipalities have implemented managerial practices which generally follow the ideas of popular German reform blueprints and comply with general ideas of public administration research. Results suggest an inherent connection between performance management and strategic management whereas actual practices, even between the ten cases under review, differ significantly. The conclusion argues that more qualitative research about managerial practices could substantially enrich public scholars’ perspective on theoretical concepts such as performance management and strategic management and on the preconditions under which these concepts could create benefits for the public.