A great deal of attention has been paid to the difficulties of measuring performance, the often disappointing level of use of performance information, and the uneven impact of performance management regimes on program and policy improvements. However, one promising research stream that addresses these issues is agency learning and its contributions to program improvements and policy innovations (Greiling and Halachmi 2013, Moynihan and Pandey 2010).

 Agency learning may engage the experience and expertise of public managers to interpret and use performance information. A number of conditions correlate with this learning, such as the clarity of the links between program actions and their outcomes, structural features such as learning forums or after-action reviews, cultural openness to change, the level of professionalism of key actors, and rewards for preemptive action regarding performance among others characteristics (Moynihan and Lavertu, 2012, Newcomer and Caudle 2011, Moynihan and Pandey Moynihan 2005, Hall and Holt 2003).

 However the events or conditions that initiate the learning process and motivate actors to push forward with learning processes that may have short term organizational or personal costs are not well explored.  I propose to conduct depth interviews with federal program managers in six programs, three deemed successful in using performance information by GAO reports and three matched for program content that are rated as less successful.  Program managers will be asked to identify their most successful program improvement efforts in the past year and then to explain how these improvements were achieved. Special attention will focus on evidence of the use of performance information in changing program technologies. The role of correlating factors, noted earlier, and other features such as bureaucratic ambition (Teodoro 2011) will be explored with the object of identifying what role learning plays in the use of performance information for program improvement.

Greiling, Dorothea and Arie Halachmi. 2013. Accountability and organizational learning in the public sector. Public Performance & Management Review 36. 3 (March): 380–406.

Hall, Mark; Holt, Robin. 2003. Developing a culture of performance learning in U.K. public sector project management. Public Performance & Management Review 26, 3 (March): 263-275.

 Moynihan, Donald P. 2005. Goal-based learning and the future of performance management. Public Administration Review 65, 2 (March/April): 203-216.

Moynihan, Donald P. and S.K. Pandey. 2010 The big question for performance management:

Why do managers use performance information? Journal of Public Administration

Research & Theory 20, 4: 849–866.

Moynihan, Donald P. and Stéphane Lavertu. 2012.  Does involvement in performance management routines encourage performance information use? Evaluating GPRA and PART. Public Administration Review 62, 4: 592–602. 

Newcomer, Kathryn and Sharon Caudle. 2011.  Public performance management systems: Embedding practices for improved success. Public Performance & Management Review 35. 1 (September): 108-132.

Teodoro, Manuel. 2011. Bureaucratic ambition: Careers, motives, and the innovative administrator. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.