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Performance information (PI) is only valuable when decision makers use it to improve their organization. Despite its importance, evidence on PI use is still limited, particularly about PI use in different contexts and for specific purposes. This article examines managers’ use of PI for specific purposes (purposeful PI [PPI]) and compares cross-sector differences in reported PPI use with a survey of nearly 1,000 top-level hospital managers in public, private, and nonprofit hospitals in the United States, while controlling for task. Findings show significant cross-sector differences in reported PPI use in three decision areas: personnel, day-to-day operations, and service efficiency, and that public managers use PI significantly less than their private and nonprofit counterparts in most decision areas. Results are discussed within the literature on performance management and cross-sector differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An organization's external environment, such as an environmental shock, is of great concern to public management scholars because it influences the behavior and ability of public managers to improve organizational performance. In this study, we examine how collaborative networking with the purpose of preparing for a natural disaster moderates the negative impact of Hurricane Rita on school performance in Texas. Our data consists of survey responses from Texas superintendents who were surveyed shortly after Hurricane Rita about their pre-hurricane disaster preparedness including collaborative networking behavior. Using this dataset, we use a collaborative networking measure that incorporates both the frequency of contact with various groups and the intensity of those interactions. Findings reveal that collaborative networking to prepare for natural disasters moderates the negative impact of a natural disaster on organizational performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an empirical study of the effect of middle manager quality on organizational performance. Using 6 years of data from more than 1,000 Texas school districts, the author finds that quality middle managers positively impact performance. In exploring the relationship between quality middle and upper managers, she finds that their interaction leads to improved organizational performance. This article makes two contributions to the public management literature. First, it introduces a measure of middle manager quality that allows researchers to explore the ways middle managers affect organizational performance. Second, the findings reveal that public management research has underestimated the impact of management. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The external circumstances that organizations confront are an important influence upon their prospects of success. The resources available within the environment, the multiplicity of stakeholder demands to be addressed and the rates of change in these, each have serious implications for organizational functioning. Nevertheless, it remains conceivable that the effects of different dimensions of the environment are not straightforwardly positive or negative, but may follow nonlinear patterns posing very different challenges at different levels. To draw lessons for public organizations seeking to understand how best to respond the circumstances that they face, this paper examines linear and nonlinear effects of different dimensions of the organizational environment on the performance of over 500 organizations using both objective and subjective measures of the environment. Strong support is found for the presence of linear relationships between each environmental dimension and type of measure and performance, but no evidence of statistically significant nonlinear environmental effects. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public management scholars are interested in the ways that public managers can improve the performance of their organizations and, by extension, public service outcomes. However, public sector outcomes are increasingly being produced by nonprofit organizations. Nonprofits have encountered increased pressures to improve effectiveness in recent years, both from their funding entities and from the public. A growing body of public management research has shown that managerial networking can pay dividends for organizational effectiveness, yet no studies to date have considered the effects of managerial networking on nonprofit effectiveness. This is the first study to apply the basic elements of Meier and O'Toole's model to the nonprofit sector. Using survey data from a random sample of 314 nonprofit human service organizations in 16 U.S. states, the authors explore the frequency of various networking relationships on organizational and advocacy effectiveness. The findings reveal that political networking increases advocacy effectiveness and community networking increases organizational effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]