Struggling with Ambiguity - Public Managers as Users of NPM Instruments #

Abstract

This paper examines public managers as users of NPM instruments (efficiency artefacts) in their attempts to improve the productivity and quality of public services. The paper has two aims. First, it discusses a three-level theoretical framework in which the uses of efficiency artefacts are determined by the resources and facilities of the institutional context, the social norms of acceptable behavior in the public sector and interpretive schemes of public managers in using efficiency artefacts. Second, the paper analyzes empirical case data on Finnish municipalities regarding uses of Balanced Scorecard (BSC), Activity Based Costing (ABC) and General Performance Indicators (GPI). The data set consists of statistical information and interview data from municipal managers. The objective is to collect interpretive schemes among municipal managers. The analysis builds upon a premise that efficiency artefacts are ambiguous. When interacting with instruments public managers attempt to create ‘order’ for their leadership activities. The special focus is to understand how the order is created using ambiguous instruments, and also what consequences may arise from the setting. For leaders, such attempts can be seen as methods of struggling with ambiguity. But as always, methods may succeed, or they may fail. The paper theorizes both aspects.

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