A meta-review of public sector performance management research

This paper is a meta-review of public sector performance management research as published over the last decade. Contingency-based studies are the predominant types of research on public sector performance management, but the review points to a lack of consistent evidence of which contingency variables are influential under which circumstances. The paper also indicates that a variety of research questions in this field can be addressed by different theories, especially coming from economics, organization theory and institutional sociology. Finally, a set of underdeveloped research areas are highlighted: (1) more extensive theorizing as opposed to the mainly pragmatic perspectives currently adopted; (2) inclusion of ‘hard data’ in the analysis of organizational performance; (3) taking a broader perspective on transformation processes, that is, other than the simple fabrication trajectory, particularly complex project-type of processes and network organizations; (4) benefiting from insights of performance management research in the private sector, for example about pay-for-performance systems.