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eliminated. Another might look at the program and argue that it provides a valuable public service and would be more successful if given more resources. A third individual might say that the program needs to be reorganized for better management before any funding decisions can be made. Each option offers a logical interpretation of the same piece of data. Conflicting interpretations increase when a more diverse group of actors are involved , but varying interpretations can occur even within an institution of homogenous individuals. Despite the best efforts of the OMB, budget examiners have been found to interpret performance data differently and apply different standards for what constitutes acceptable evidence of effectiveness. Chapter 8 presents the results of an experiment that further illustrates how ambiguity leads to multiple interpretations. Graduate students in two public affairs programs served as subjects in an experiment where they reanalyzed PART assessments and used logical warrants to disagree with OMB evaluation and funding decisions. The subjects were not motivated by a particular institutional role; they arrived at different conclusions due to the ambiguity of the performance data. A dialogue about performance can also occur within agencies. Because agency actors are more homogenous and share a focus on implementation, there is greater potential for generating agreement on the meaning of performance data and for building a shared narrative that becomes part of the organizational culture. In this setting politics is less likely to disrupt the use or splinter the meaning of performance information. Dialogue about performance can also foster learning opportunities, which are examined in chapter 9. This learning can come in a variety of forms, whether it is learning to change existing organizational processes for the purposes of performance improvement, learning ways to improve organizational capacity, or challenging the basic underlying goals of the organization. The prospects for dialogue to foster learning improve when organizations create learning forums. Learning forums are routines that encourage actors to closely examine information, consider its significance, and decide how it will affect future action. Learning also improves when these forums include a variety of perspectives, dialogue is based on an equal footing among participants, and different types of knowledge are employed . These conditions challenge some basic practices within hierarchies—managers are not used to stopping to examine performance information, nor are they used to setting aside status differences and treating views from different parts of the organization with equal respect. However, the simple supply of performance data does not create its own demand for use, and the most critical challenge facing agencies is to find ways to encourage managers to examine performance information and then use their collective knowledge to improve how they run agencies. Chapter 10 concludes the book by summarizing some lessons that emerge from rethinking performance management. In doing so, it is hard not to conclude that An Era of Governance by Performance Management 19 our expectations of performance management are at a turning point. Across state governments and at the federal level, there exists an unprecedented machinery to create and disseminate performance information. The creation of this machinery was based on lofty expectations and unrealistic assumptions about the ease of changing existing patterns of decision making. Governments can offer anecdotal evidence that they occasionally use performance data, but few are willing to say that it is used systematically. As the shortcomings of performance management doctrine become apparent, a reevaluation is necessary. Examined alongside the promises of performance management doctrine, actual achievement appears relatively modest. Rethinking performance management means acknowledging this shortfall, as well as acknowledging that inflated expectations set the reform up for failure. A better understanding of why these reforms are adopted, and what incentives agency managers have to implement reform, is a good starting point. A more credible understanding of how performance information shapes decision making, as offered by the interactive dialogue model, is crucial. These theoretical advances suggest the need for a more modest set of expectations about the contribution of performance management reforms to management and budgeting. Using these standards, even if performance data does enter the dialogue that public managers engage in, it must compete with other factors that influence the decision and will be used according to the interests and interpretations of the different actors involved in a decision. It will not make decision making any easier. Since performance information is ambiguous , it will be one additional piece of contested information that enters the policy process. This understanding of performance management is a far cry from the model presented in...

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