Public service organizations periodically collect and disseminate performance information that enables frontline employees to act based on two aspects of performance: current performance (how is the client performing right now?) and performance progression (is the client performing better, similarly, or worse than previously?). Yet knowledge of how frontline employees use performance information about their clients’ performance progression remains limited. Building on cognitive psychology and street-level bureaucracy research, this article theorizes and tests how information on changes in client performance over time affects frontline employees’ performance information use. We develop a theoretical framework that comprises three competing hypotheses on how performance progression information (on performance improvement, performance stability, and performance deterioration) shapes purposeful performance information use at the frontlines of public services delivery. Each hypothesis relates to a distinct cognitive bias: needed-deservingness bias, negativity bias, and change-react bias. Using a pre-registered survey experiment among Danish public school teachers (n = 925), we find support for the change-react bias. Teachers are more inclined to take behavioral action when presented with performance progression information showing change (either improvement or deterioration) relative to no change (stability) in student performance. These results expand our understanding of performance information use at the frontlines by suggesting that frontline employees process performance information showing change different from performance information showing stability.

中文翻译：

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行动还是不行动？客户进度如何影响前线有目的的绩效信息使用

公共服务组织定期收集和传播绩效信息，使一线员工能够根据绩效的两个方面采取行动：当前绩效（客户现在的表现如何？）和绩效进展（客户的表现比以前更好、相似还是更差？）。然而，关于一线员工如何使用有关其客户绩效进展的绩效信息的知识仍然有限。本文以认知心理学和街头官僚主义研究为基础，对客户绩效随时间变化的信息如何影响一线员工的绩效信息使用进行理论化和测试。我们开发了一个理论框架，该框架包含三个相互竞争的假设，关于性能进展信息（关于性能改进、性能稳定性、和绩效恶化）在公共服务交付的第一线塑造了有目的的绩效信息使用。每个假设都与一个独特的认知偏差有关：需要-应得偏差、消极偏差和改变反应偏差。在丹麦公立学校教师（n = 925）中使用预先登记的调查实验，我们发现对变化反应偏差的支持。教师在看到学生表现的变化（改善或恶化）相对于没有变化（稳定）的表现进步信息时更倾向于采取行为行动。这些结果通过建议一线员工处理表现出变化的表现信息与表现出稳定性的表现信息不同，扩展了我们对一线绩效信息使用的理解。