Administrative burdens are widespread and likely to generate unequal opportunities in access to government programs and other important entitlements. Whereas a large body of research has examined ...administrative burdens in citizen‐state encounters, little is known either theoretically or empirically about burdens in business–government interactions. In this article, we argue that private businesses, just like individual citizens, experience administrative burdens in encounters with the government, and that these burdens are the result of bureaucratic procedures as well as the administrative capital resources in the businesses themselves. We present empirical evidence from an original study of Danish businesses' learning and compliance costs in government purchasing contracts. The findings suggest that businesses' learning and compliance costs are shaped more by bureaucratic procedures and requirements than by the administrative capital resources businesses can mobilize in response. We propose steps governments can take to reduce administrative burdens and harness public values in business‐government interactions.
Drawing on the literature on sector imprinting, we examine whether private sector experience is related to organizational commitment among senior public managers. We also explore the role that ...position and organizational tenure play in shaping that commitment, since tenure length is often associated with greater commitment, and assumed to be an important mediator of employee and organizational outcomes. Multi-level analyses of a large multinational survey of senior managers from the central governments of 16 European countries indicate that a greater proportion of private relative to public sector work experience is associated with weaker organizational commitment among senior public managers. In addition, position and organizational tenure are both positively related to commitment. Mediation analysis suggests that the mechanism through which the negative effect of private sector experience on senior managers' organizational commitment operates is individuals' shorter tenure in the same organization. All of these results hold when we analyze the affective, continuance, and normative dimensions of commitment separately.
Strategy research has recently highlighted the need for 'opening up' strategy processes to enhance transparency and inclusiveness. Ideas of openness have long been embedded in public management, ...especially since the governance revolution. However, public management research on strategy processes has mostly neglected how strategy processes are 'opened up', rather examining the impact of strategy content and process characteristics on outcomes. By reviewing open strategy studies, this article discusses how organizations can open up their strategy processes. An activity-based theoretical framework centred on purpose, subject, community, object and practices of open strategy is applied and further developed to guide future research.
This article discusses the utility of two different strategic management theories in different types of public organizations including contemporary New Public Management-based public organizations, ...namely Porter's strategic positioning model and the resource-based view of strategy. We argue that possibilities for applying these theories vary depending on the type of public organizations involved, and are less appropriate in traditional settings but more relevant in autonomized and market-like service-delivery organizations. We further propose that their increased applicability depends on three specific conditions: the degree of administrative autonomy, performance-based budgeting and market-like competition. We give empirical examples drawn from public services in the UK and Denmark. We call for more exploration of these (and other) strategic management approaches within contemporary public services organisations but also more exploration of the limitations of these frameworks.
Individuals' personal values have a significant influence on their attitudes and behaviors within organizations, yet we have limited knowledge about whether and how personal values differ across ...sectors. This study investigates sector differences in personal values, applying Schwartz's well-established constructs of basic human values. We hypothesize that public employees are more likely to have stronger self-transcendence and conformity values and weaker openness to change values than private employees. Using multi-year data from 20 countries, we find that public employees have stronger self-transcendence and conformity values, consistent across countries, with a few differences across industries. No systematic sector difference in openness to change was found.
Innovation is argued to be of key importance in the public sector. Little is known about possible sector differences in innovative behaviour. The stereotype in literature is that public employees are ...less innovative. We analyse whether sector is associated with innovative behaviour and the influence of job/organizational characteristics. We test this by using a three-country representative survey in Scandinavia with 8,310 respondents. We control for subsectors/industries and job functions. We do not find that public employees are less innovative. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the importance of understanding the major differences in innovative behaviour between different subsectors/industries and job types.
Comparing public and private managers is a major subject in the public management literature, but there have been only a few empirical studies of the differences in their respective leadership ...styles. Traditionally, leadership style is explained by the characteristics of the manager, the employees, and their job. This study explains leadership by the manager's job context: the degree of job complexity, role clarity, and job autonomy. We argue that differences in job context explain the use of different leadership styles in the public and private sector. To clearly specify the importance of sector, the study investigates direct, mediating, and moderating effects. Based on a survey of Danish public and private managers with 949 respondents, this article shows that job context variables vary significantly between public and private sector managers. The article provides some explanations for why public managers use more participative leadership, while private ones use more directive leadership.
We suggest that both making and buying the same product or service has several effects on supplier performance. A model is developed and tested by use of answers gathered from the Danish ...municipalities. The results support the three hypotheses that (1) the negative effects of technological uncertainty on supplier performance decrease when buyers combine internal production and external sourcing, (2) the negative effects of performance uncertainty on supplier performance decrease when buyers combine internal production and external sourcing, and (3) the negative effects of asset specificity on supplier performance decrease when buyers combine internal production and external sourcing. However, the moderating effects depend on how the plurality is measured. The results indicate that internal production may facilitate effective governance of the relationships with external suppliers. Implications for research on make-or-buy decisions and for practice are also discussed.
► How internal production affects supplier performance. ► Model tested with data gathered from the Danish municipalities. ► Internal production may facilitate effective governance of supplier relationships. ► Effects depend on how the combination of internal production and external sourcing is measured.
Sector switching is interesting in relation to understanding how to get and keep people working in the public sector as well as to understand public and private differences. This paper focuses on why ...public employees leave public organizations to work in the private sector. We use a design studying higher educated Danish employees who recently worked in the state, comparing those who shift job to another public organization with those who switch to the private sector. We focus on different motives for job shifts which may influence sector switching such as salary, job security, organizational characteristics and public service motivation.
Public service motivation (PSM) has a documented, positive effect on job satisfaction—especially in the public sector. However, organizational characteristics such as red tape, hierarchical ...authority, and the absence of organizational goal specificity, which are often more present in public sector organizations, may have negative influences on the PSM–job satisfaction relationship. This study explores the impact of these organizational characteristics on sector differences in the PSM–job satisfaction relationship in a “hard case” setting. Using survey data with low-level, white-collar employees, we confirm a positive PSM–job satisfaction association in the public sector compared with the private sector, where we see a negative association. Furthermore, perceived red tape and the absence of organizational goal specificity have negative influences on job satisfaction; nevertheless, sector differences remain in the PSM–job satisfaction relationship when controlled for these organizational characteristics. This suggests that public or private sector status is more important for the PSM–job satisfaction relationship than other organizational characteristics.
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