The (Non-)Adoption of Outcome-Based Performance Management: Evidence from Swedish Central Government

This chapter extends prior research into what prevents governments from adopting outcome-based performance management as a dominant mode of governance through an analysis of reforms unfolding in Swedish central government over the last three decades. In doing so, I conceive of different performance management practices as an integral part of broader governance logics that buttress particular ways of defining performance. The relatively limited use of outcome-based performance management in Swedish central government is explained with reference to a series of incomplete shifts between such governance logics, which have moderated the impetus behind reforms and created hybrid governance practices.