Can the same key open different locks? Administrative values underlying performance measurement in China

How important are administrative values in designing policy instruments? In what ways are these values actually being accomplished in policy instruments? In his well-known theoretical framework of administrative values, Hood (1991) argues that management designs that prioritize certain administrative values will be less capable of accomplishing other values. An incompatibility problem exists if one seeks to integrate different sets of values into the same management design. This article applies, extends and enriches Hood’s framework and examines the dynamics between values and instruments in the context of a unified politics-administration. Based on a case study of performance measurement in Chinese local county governments, this article argues that different sets of values can be accomplished, though unevenly, by the same management design. Although incompatibility appears, its extent can be neutralized to a degree so that all sets of values are more or less accomplished, without some succeeding at the cost of others.