Public value is in the eye of the beholder: stakeholder theory and ingroup bias

IMPACT

This research evidence that ‘public value is in the eye of the beholder’, i.e. ingroup bias and the relationship of the individual as a normative stakeholder can both affect the public value perception of an institution. This finding is useful for practitioners and policy-makers seeking to carry out performance management of public, religious, or nonprofit organizations from a public value perspective. Ingroup bias may be a particularly important issue for public management in settings where political polarization is escalating.

ABSTRACT

This research identifies the influence of the role of the individual as a normative stakeholder or ingroup bias in the perception of public value creation. The Catholic church in Brazil was chosen as the empirical setting. Religious people tend to attribute greater public value to the religious organization to which they are affiliated, and individuals with more stakeholder relationships tend to attribute greater public value than individuals with less or no stakeholder relationships. This evidence suggests that ingroup bias and positioning as stakeholder are relevant factors to be considered in public value theory and in research on public value measurement.

KEYWORDS:

• Brazil
• Catholic church
• ingroup bias
• intra-group favouritism
• performance management
• public value
• religious organizations
• stakeholder theory

Acknowledgements

We thank Public Money & Management’s (PMM) anonymous reviewers for their valuable contributions that allowed important improvements in our article. We thank the theme’s co-editor Victoria Cluley for her support in the review process. We also thank Cícero Aparecido Bezerra, Flaviano Costa, Kátia Regina Hopfer, Marcos Wagner da Fonseca, Pedro José Steiner Neto, Ricardo Adriano Antonelli, and Sayuri Unoki de Azevedo for their suggestions and contributions during the development of this research.