Managing for performance in New Zealand's public service – a loosely coupled framework?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the institutional factors that impact on the integration of the formal model of performance management in New Zealand's public service and the model, or models, in use within different agencies and at different levels within those agencies. Design/methodology/approach – The research involved semi‐structured interviews with managers within three agencies of New Zealand's central government as well as a review of their external accountability documents and internal management reports. These data were then interpreted in the context of new institutional sociology. In particular, the institutional carriers identified by Scott (2001) Scott were used to map the characteristics within each agency that support more or less integration, and common use, of performance measures. Findings – It is concluded that an integrated framework of performance objectives, that drops down from the Government's priorities, to Ministers' purchase of goods and services, to managers' objectives at each layer of the agency, does not always exist. Institutional arrangements that emphasise regulative controls are more likely to result in the decoupling of nationally defined frameworks from those used locally by operational managers. Conversely, institutional arrangements that emphasise culturally and cognitively based controls are more likely to support tight coupling of performance management frameworks and practices. Originality/value – While much has been written about public sector management and what has been referred to as “the New Zealand model”, this has largely been concerned with the management of the public sector as a whole. This research provides an empirical insight on management practices within individual public sector agencies.