Local governments are adopting performance measurement and management (PMM), but often in a manner more ceremonial than instrumental. This article conceptualizes PMM as organizational rules and routines that may be institutionalized and uses the dimensions of structuration theory to understand the process of institutionalization. It shows that PMM benefits from incremental rather than radical changes, as the latter may provoke resistance and lead to abandonment of PMM. The promotion of a new language, with concepts such as performance measurement and objectives, and the establishment of planning and reporting routines are the initial steps. Changes with a greater effect on power relations and resource distribution are the last to appear but generate purposeful use of PMM.
