Exploring the links between different performance information uses, NPM cultural orientation, and organizational performance in the public sector

This paper looks at how the relationship between performance measurement system use(s) and organizational performance is affected by the type of performance information use and moderated by New Public Management (NPM) cultural orientation. Analysing data from a survey of Italian public managers, it shows that only monitoring and attention-focusing types of uses of performance measures are directly associated with organizational performance, whereas strategic-decision-making and legitimizing uses are not directly related with organizational performance. Moreover, an NPM orientation moderates positively the relationship between monitoring uses of performance information on organizational performance, and negatively the relationship between legitimizing uses and organizational performance.