The relevance of sub-cultures in performance management of a technology driven organization

This study has analyzed how public managers and elected politicians, both representing different sub-cultures, react to technology driven performance information during organisational decision making and actions that follow. Drawing on a theoretical framework of creating a performance culture, a case study was conducted in FÖLI, that is, a not-for-profit charity tasked with organizing an inter-municipality passenger transport network in the region of Turku-Finland, from 2018-2021. Positive findings show the relevance of using technology driven performance management systems to monitor the flow of cost and revenue drivers of the inter-municipality network. A pragmatic finding remained, however, in relation to strategic political decision making issues in which politicians could give priority to political motives over financial costs in one city but not in another city. Hence, the internal climate for change plays a crucial role in aligning sub-cultural aspects to an inter-organizational survival anxiety process to improve the financial and non-financial performance of the organization as a whole.