The Translation and Counter-Translation of Performance Funding Into Public Organizations’ Budgeting

Performance funding plays a pivotal role in the management of public organizations, but limited knowledge exists of its implementation process within public organizations, and particularly the role of budgets therein. This paper examines the introduction of a new performance funding scheme in Danish universities, offering a detailed empirical case study of its implementation within a single university. Drawing upon actor-network theory and the concepts of translation and counter-translation, the paper shows a multifaceted implementation process where different organizational levels inside the university each implement the funding system in their own way. The findings contribute to three key areas in the existing literature. First, I extend the understanding of performance funding by illustrating how public organizations shape and reshape performance funding schemes through their budget systems. Second, the paper shows how different parts of the organization create their own budget model through different combinations of their allocative and managerial functions. Lastly, I find that (counter)-translation processes concurrently generate multiple accounting technologies and stability.