How The Experience Of Being Assessed Affects Policy Alienation Of Grassroots Officials

Since the new public management movement swept most countries in the world in the late 1980 s,public sector performance evaluation has become an institutionalized practice in various countries.However,a large number of scholars’ studies show that performance evaluation has its dark side,while improving the performance of the public sector,it also produces some unexpected consequences,for example,fraud and gaming behaviors of officials in performance evaluation.Focus on the dark side of performance evaluation,starting from the performance accountability experience of officials,this paper explores the impact of performance accountability experience of grass-roots cadres on their policy alienation in the Chinese context.At the same time,due to different factors will have different effects in different political systems,cultural contexts and specific groups,this paper also explores the moderating role of conflicting accountability requirements,"guanxi" and public service motivation(PSM).In terms of research methods,this paper adopts mixed research methods,and explores the research problems by using quantitative methods and qualitative methods respectively.In the quantitative research stage,this paper uses the experimental research method to explore the research problems,but the analysis of the experimental results shows that the research hypothesis of this paper has not been verified.In order to explain the reason why the research hypothesis has not been verified by the experiment,this paper further adopts the interview method,hoping to use the interview research results to explain the mechanism behind the experimental results.Based on the interview results,this paper analyzes in detail the relationship between performance accountability experience and policy alienation,the boundary conditions under which the sense of policy alienation plays a role,the regulatory role of conflicting accountability requirements and "guanxi".Based on the results of quantitative and qualitative research,this paper holds that the experience of officials being assessed has a certain impact on their sense of policy alienation,and "guanxi" has a moderating effect on the relationship between the above two variables.Finally,according to the research conclusion,this paper puts forward four suggestions to reduce the grass-roots officials’ policy alienation,including appropriate decentralization and enhancing the grass-roots autonomy space;Improve information communication channels and smooth information communication between superiors and subordinates;Put an end to the "one size fits all" assessment model,implement classified assessment and reform and improve the design of relevant systems,and effectively reduce the pressure on grass-roots work.In terms of the research contribution of this study,On the one hand,the results of this paper enrich the empirical research on the antecedent variables of policy alienation,and expand the relevant research methods of policy alienation;on the other hand,this study profoundly reveals the boundary conditions under performance accountability experience of grassroots officials in Chinese contexts that affect their policy alienation,and expands the research context of policy alienation research.