THE DESIGN AND USE OF PERFORMANCE INFORMATION IN INDONESIAN LOCAL GOVERNMENTS UNDER DIVERGING STAKEHOLDER PRESSURES NI PUTU S. H. MIMBA 1 , G. JAN VAN HELDEN 2 * AND SANDRA TILLEMA 2 1 Udayana University, Indonesia 2 University of Groningen, the Netherlands SUMMARY Public sector managers in less developed countries are confronted with opposing forces. A lack of sufficient resources along with a tradition of corruption are obstacles for developing and using performance measurement systems. However, recent public sector reforms in less developed countries, including decentralisation and anti-corruption programmes, stimulate the development and use of such systems. On the basis of a framework, which distinguishes different types of stakeholders, each with particular performance interests, we analyse how public sector managers are coping with the two opposing forces, given the relative power positions and the interests of their stakeholders. On the basis of four cases studies of local government agencies in Bali (Indonesia), we found that with respect to the annual performance reports, managers in these agencies focus more on fulfilling the formal requirements regarding the format of these reports and on their timely submission than on their contents, which are all symptoms of a symbolic rather than functional use of performance information. However, the reports include information on inputs that is linked to similar information in short-term reports, which the managers use in a functional manner. These managers show a kind of juggling behaviour, in the sense that they partially try to serve conflicting performance interests. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. key words—performance measurement; public sector; Indonesian local governments; less developed countries INTRODUCTION Traditionally, the design and use of performance measurement systems in government organisations in less developed countries (LDCs) were problematic, not only owing to a lack of resources but also because of, for instance, widespread corruption practices (Dean, 1988, p. 152; Mimba et al., 2007; cf. Hopper et al., 2003, pp. 16–17). However, recent reforms in these countries — including decentralisation and marketisation programmes — are expected to lead to major changes. The reforms tend to increase the demand for performance information because government organisations are held accountable for their performance and often also because they have to improve their performance (Mimba et al., 2007; see also Leeuw et al., 1998; Smoke, 2001, p. 27). How the managers of these organisations react to this increased demand for performance information, for example, by developing and using particular performance measurement systems, is an intriguing research theme. However, although public sector performance measurement — and more generally, public sector management accounting — has become an important research domain (van Helden, 2005; Broadbent and Guthrie, 2008), a large majority of the articles in this domain published in academic journals are mainly focused on developed countries. Therefore, Hopper et al. (2009) argue that more research on management accounting systems in LDCs is needed. Our article is an attempt to fill this gap. Our objective is to increase our understanding of the role of performance information in Indonesian local government organisations. More precisely, we will investigate the use of performance *Correspondence to: G. Jan van Helden, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Groningen, PO Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, the Netherlands. E-mail: g.j.van.helden@rug.nl public administration and development Public Admin. Dev. 33, 15–28 (2013) Published online 26 March 2012 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pad.1612 Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.