Evaluating Economic Development Officers Through the Lens of Managerial Flow

Economic development officers (EDOs) are public sector employees that fulfil the role of street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) in the implementation of regional economic development policies. As the importance of regionally embedded organizations for economic output has become more pronounced over the last two decades the managerial pressures placed on EDOs has increased (Markusen, 1996; Porter, 1990). However, the ability of EDOs to provide meaningful outputs for regional business clients has been seriously challenged (Kelly, 2005). This is because there is an extant mismatch between the evaluative framework applied to public-sector employees (such as EDOs), and that of the market in which the business clients operate.