Abstract
PurposeAlthough politicians' use of performance information affects political decisions and, through them, the well-being of society, there is a lack of studies exploring what contextual factors are associated with annual active performance information use among politicians. Furthermore, past studies on this subject have been cross-sectional rather than longitudinal.Design/methodology/approachIn this qualitative case study, triangulation of observations and 10 semi-structured interviews were used to ensure the robustness of findings. The study was conducted in a Finnish municipality known as Kangasala.FindingsA dialogue culture, constructive political climate, trusted information sources and high-quality information attained via accessible information channels explained the high information use in primarily unfavorable conditions to such use. The authors’ findings contradict many prior interview and survey studies that did not recognize the simultaneous contributions of the information provider, channel and quality, along with organizational and environmental factors to high performance information use. The results contradict to some extent the findings from other countries as these studies have explained high levels of use with unique combinations of drivers, whereas we identify common attributes of these combinations and talk about their meaning in the success of Kangasala's public financial management. However, the findings of this case study cannot be generalized.Originality/valueThis study describes a case organization that created a supportive environment for politicians' frequent performance information use that contributed to improvements. Past studies provide little knowledge about establishing sustained high levels of information use among politicians, so the case offers ideas and inspiration for improving this use.
Highlights
Politics and the well-being of citizens often go hand-in-hand (Radcliff, 2001) because local council decisions affect the welfare of municipal residents in many ways
Because studies have mostly reported limited performance information (PI) use by political actors (Rajala, 2019), this study aimed to explore what contextual factors provide a platform for high use levels
We chose one municipality from central Finland, and the decision to focus on the council was based on three reasons: (1) Kangasala has been successful in establishing active PI use in the political circles, and this use has improved the fiscal state of the municipality
Summary
Politics and the well-being of citizens often go hand-in-hand (Radcliff, 2001) because local council decisions affect the welfare of municipal residents in many ways. By PI, we mean qualitative and quantitative information about public sector activities, processes, services, service outcomes and transformation processes, such as productivity/efficiency and effectiveness (e.g., Hatry, 2006; van Helden and Hodges, 2015). Politicians can use this information for learning, controlling, communicating, budgeting, motivating, promoting/advocating, evaluating, celebrating, collaborating, contracting, sense-. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
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