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Journal Article 1: Bjørnholt, B., & Larsen, F. (2014). The politics of performance measurement: ‘Evaluation use as mediator for politics’. Evaluation, 20, 400–411.

In congruence with the political/cultural lens taken by the textbook authors in Ch. 10, this article explores how performance measurement affects public policy. The following points are emphasized: how performance systems influence how political decisions are made, the kind of political decisions that are conceivable, and how they are implemented.

Journal Article 2: Kroll, A. (2013). Explaining the use of performance information by public managers: A planned-behavior approach. The American Review of Public Administration, 45, 201–215.

This article examines the use of performance information by public managers in 130 German cities. The researcher proposed a psychological-cognitive model that drives public managers’ likelihood for utilizing performance information. Findings indicated support for this model, suggesting that performance data use is goal-directed.

Journal Article 3: McDavid, J. C., & Huse, I. (2012). Legislator uses of public performance reports: Findings from a five-year study. American Journal of Evaluation, 33, 7–25.

This article outlines key contributions to the literature that focus on performance management and legislator uses of public performance information. Additionally, the article describes a 5-year longitudinal study assessing expectations and actual uses of annual performance reports by elected decision-makers in British Columbia, Canada.
Findings demonstrated that legislators’ actual usage of performance data was substantially lower than initial expectations for use. The authors discuss these findings and reflect on the implications of this study on the field.

Journal Article 4: van der Voet, J., & Van de Walle, S. (2015). How cutbacks and job satisfaction are related: The role of top-level public managers’ autonomy. Review of Public Personnel Administration, 38, 5–23.

In Ch. 10 of the textbook, the authors mention the recent resurgence of “cutback management” due to financial constraints in the public and non-profit sectors. This article assess the relationships between five commonly used cutback measures and the job satisfaction of top-level public managers in 12 European countries. Results indicated that autonomy may function as a mechanism to explain decreased job satisfaction as a result of cutback management.