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This article explains the socio-psychological factors that influence public administrators' governance choices when dealing with not-for-profit (NFP) and for-profit (FP) providers. In particular, it highlights the use of stereotypes in public administrators' categorization of NFP and FP motives and expected behaviours, and whether they then prioritize the use of trust or control in the governance of the contractual arrangements. The main implication for public sector managers is that the tendency to social categorization and bias can be an issue in creating the proper mechanisms to ensure the delivery of effective services. In contracting out, the use of categorization by public administrators can reduce their propensity to trust those who are perceived as an outgroup, and hence result in them adopting more formal control mechanisms, while for those perceived as an ingroup their inclination to trust will result in the use of less formal control mechanisms. This article introduces socio-psychological factors that influence public administrators' stereotypes and governance choices when dealing with NFPs and FPs. The context of this research is the contracting of social services in Italy and the data was sourced from multiple case study sites. Results show that, in contracting out, categorization by one of the parties can increase or reduce trust. This early trust/suspicion can have a substantial effect on future relationships. Prejudices become a self-fulfilling prophecy where the initial categorization influences the subsequent interactions. The ex ante tendency to social categorization and bias can be an issue in creating the proper mechanisms to have both parties working optimally when social services are contracted out. As outsourcing relationships are organized through the definition and elaboration of collective self-categories and mental categories that are taken for granted, categorization affects judgments and actions in such a way that the relationship can be 'frozen' within stereotypes. Public administrators should be aware of their preconceived attitudes to the provider based on the provider type and ensure that these attitudes do not lead to sub-optimal contracting behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the limited empirical enquiries into the role of accounting in affecting medical professionals' financial accountability perceptions and related outcomes and performance. It examines the associations among formal and informal feedback processes, managers' financial accountability, work attitudes, and performance. Results of our survey to a sample of 115 senior medical managers in an Italian hospital reveal that the association between performance feedback sources and managerial performance depends on managers' felt accountability and commitment. Further, we find that commitment bridges the link between accountability and managerial performance. Our findings provide two useful insights for healthcare management. First, healthcare managers should improve the technical features of the formal performance feedback practices to update medical managers on their goals in a timely and useful manner. Second, healthcare managers should encourage unplanned, spontaneous, and voluntary social interactions to enhance the positive effects of informal feedback. To sum up, our research adds to the limited knowledge of the accountability and performance literature using data from the actual setting and subjects of concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of New Public Management (NPM)‐inspired reforms in the public sector in the 1990s saw a big leap in public–private outsourcing partnerships in public service delivery; however, many of these have failed, resulting in backsourcing. Although effective governance of the ongoing relationship between outsourcing partners is arguably key to a successful partnership, the findings as to the optimal type of relationship between two main governance mechanisms – contractual and relational – remain inconclusive. Adopting Huber et al.'s dynamic perspective of governance mechanism interplay as a research framework, this paper empirically investigates the interplay in two problematic outsourcing public–private partnerships, that is the delivery of services has been backsourced or considered to be backsourced. Our data confirm the existence of a dynamic interplay between contractual and relational governance. The findings, however, do not represent a perfect fit with Huber et al.'s conceptualizations, signalling the significance of our research as to a more diverse and complicated group of interactions. Our analysis also reveals the potential interference of additional contextual factors in the interplay. Further research that explores and tests these contextual factors is warranted. The optimal relationship between the two main governance mechanisms: contractual and relational, remains inconclusive. This research, adopting Huber et al.'s (2001) dynamic perspective of governance mechanism interplay, examines the pattern and nature of the interplay between contractual and relational governance in Australia healthcare public‐private partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explains the process ‘'how'' organizational accounting practices, such as budgetary participation, influence medical doctors' perceptions and beliefs associated with their hybrid role and what the consequences are on their performance. Building on social cognitive theory, we hypothesize a structural model in which managerial self-efficacy and role clarity mediate the effects of budgetary participation on performance. The data were collected by a survey conducted in an Italian hospital. The research hypotheses were tested employing a path model. The results suggest that role clarity and managerial self-efficacy fully mediate the link between budgetary participation and performance. From a managerial viewpoint results suggest that organizations that invest in budgetary participation will also affect individual beliefs about the perceived benefits of participation itself, since an information-rich internal environment allows employees to experience a clearer sense of direction through organizational goals. According to our results, organizations that seek self-directed employees should pay attention to the experience the medical managers acquire through budgetary participation. In fact, this event influences the employees' mental states—and specifically provides them with information needed to perform in the role and enhance their judgment of their own capabilities to organize and execute the required course of actions—which take on internal psychological motivation to reach performance levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]