The influence of performance management elements on Nigerian public sector performance : performance audit as moderator

The study examines the influence of the performance management elements on the organizational performance of the government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in Nigeria, with the moderating effect of the performance audit. A questionnaire reflecting the study variables was designed for the conduct of the survey on the MDAs at the state governments’ level in Nigeria. A total number of 551 questionnaires were distributed among the targeted respondents. Hence, 322 usable responses were successfully retrieved to test 11 direct and indirect hypotheses formulated to address the highlighted research problems. The study is underpinned by institutional theory and supported by agency theory. Linear regression and hierarchical regression analysis were employed to analyze the data. The findings of the study revealed that, all the performance management elements exhibited a significant positive relationship with the organizational performance. However, the result of the hierarchical regression reveals that,
performance audit moderates the relationship between performance reporting and organizational performance. In addition, no moderation evidence was found on other performance management elements. Specifically, the study’s major implication is that, the moderating strength of the performance audit has been tested on the relationship between performance management elements and organizational performance which is not common practice in the current literature. In addition, the study recommended that, in order to ensure efficient management of public resources, then, performance management system must be strengthened across government MDAs. Thus, the 3Es (efficiency, effectiveness and economy) would be firmly secured. Finally, the major limitation of the study is that, the data for the study were collected from the state governments MDAs only, thus, caution must be exercised in generalizing the findings on other tiers of governments in Nigeria. Hence, future studies should consider organizations at other levels.