Acceptance or Disapproval: Performance Information in the Eyes of Public Frontline Employees

Public frontline employees are increasingly exposed to performance information, and their acceptance of this information as a valid, legitimate, and useful foundation for decision-making is central to the success of performance management systems. However, despite this we know very little about what affects frontline employees’ acceptance or disapproval of performance information as well as their willingness to take causal responsibility for the information. We contribute to filling this gap by developing hypotheses claiming that frontline employees are more likely to accept and take causal responsibility for performance information when their organization is doing well on the performance indicators. Using a survey experiment including 1988 public high school teachers from 121 organizations, we offer evidence to support our hypotheses. The implication of our argument and results is an ironic problem: Performance information has the least credibility as a management tool, among frontline employees, in poorly performing organizations.